All the world in one village of 100 people
- Visualizing the world as a village of 100 people reveals a
snapshot of global demographics, including racial distribution, gender balance, religious
affiliation,
and economic inequality.
- In this village, Asia would be the largest contributor of
residents, while non-whites would make up the majority of the population.
- Economic disparities are stark, with a small portion of the
village (20 people) receiving almost all available income.
- Challenges such as inadequate housing, illiteracy, malnutrition, and limited access to
technology loom large in this simplified representation of the world.
How can I better visualize the world as it is today?
Picture of the world population today
Raw population statistics can overwhelm us. Here's one way of visualizing the world and its
economics, housing, health care, religious affiliation, and education: Shrink the earth's
population to one village of exactly 100 people who mirror the racial, economic, religious, and
other ratios of the entire globe.
Applying existing ratios, here's what that village would look like:
- Where the villagers would be from:
- 60 would be from Asia
- 12 would be European in
origin
- 15 would have come from the Western Hemisphere (9 Latin Americans, 5 North Americans,
and 1 from Oceania)
- 13 would be from Africa
- Sex / Gender:
- 50 would be female
- 50 would be male
- Skin coloring
- 80 would be non-white
- 20 would be white
- Villagers'
religion:
- 67 would be non-Christian
- 33 would label themselves as "Christian"
- Economics in the village
- 20 people would be receiving almost 90% of the village's total income
- Housing in the village:
- 25 would live in substandard housing
- Literacy in the village
- 17 would not be able to read at all
- Nutrition in the village
- Life and death
- 1 would die within the year
- 2 would give birth within the year
- Educational levels of the villagers
- 2 would have a college education
- Access to technology
- 4 would own a computer device of some kind
Data was compiled from documents published by Britannica Book of the
Year, Habitat for Humanity, International Herald Tribune, the U.S. Census Bureau,
the United Nations, UNESCO, and UNICEF. Research by Rekha Balu, Christine Engelken, and
Jennifer Grosso.
This list is not presented to cause guilt. It is simply a way of helping us grasp the
picture of reality.
-- Howard Culbertson,
More on Our Diverse Village
- Language: In ouir vilage, there would be 7 Mandarin Chinese speakers, 6 Spanish
speakers, 5 English speakers, 4 Hindi speakers, 4 Arabic speakers, and smaller numbers of
speakers of other languages including Bengali, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, and French.
- Religion: Approximately 31 people in the village would identify as Christians, 23 as
Muslims, 16 as non-religious, 15 as Hindus, 7 as Buddhists, 4 as Sikhs, 2 as Jews, and 2 as
adherents of other religions such as indigenous faiths, Taoism, or Shintoism.
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