Definition of 3rd millennium

The third millennium is the period of time which began on January 1, 2001 and will end on December 31, 3000 of the Gregorian calendar, thus being the third period of one thousand years in that calendar's Common Era. As the millennium is currently in progress, only its first decade, the 2000s, can be the subject of the historian's attention, the remaining part of the 21st century (such as the projected stabilisation of world population at some 9 billion in the 2050s) and longer-term trends being the province of futures studies.