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Started with 650,000 people
The settlement near modern-day Sydney began with around 1,300 people. In that same year, Asia already had more than 650 million people, Europe nearly 150 million, Africa 85 million, and the Americas around 20 million.
Australia started its era of industrialization from a far lower population base than any other inhabited continent, and since population growth tends to be exponential, it has lagged behind the rest for centuries.
In 1788, the freshly independent United States had around 4 million people. Australia did not surpass that figure until the year 1906, by which time America's population was already pushing 90 million.
Why did Britain send convicts to Australia?
Before 1776, Britain sent thousands of convicts to its American colonies. Independence closed that outlet, and British jails and the prison hulks moored on the Thames filled up. Captain James Cook had charted the east coast of Australia in 1770, and Botany Bay was chosen as the site for a new penal colony. The First Fleet, a convoy of eleven ships, reached the area in January 1788.
Why did Asia already hold so many people?
Wet-rice farming yields more calories per hectare than most grain growing, and it let farming societies in river valleys feed dense populations for thousands of years. Irrigated paddies in China and India supported large cities long before 1788. Rice remains a staple for more than half of the world's people, according to the International Rice Research Institute.
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