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 one 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
- One would die within the year
- Two would give birth within the year
- Educational levels of the villagers
- Two would have a college education
- Access to technology and transportation
- 75 would have access to an electronic device
- 18 would have a vehicle 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 our village, 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.
Reflection Questions
- How does the demographic distribution of this "global village" challenge current approaches to world evangelism, particularly in regions where the majority are non-Christian or face economic and educational hardships?
- What strategies might churches and mission organizations need to adopt to reach and effectively evangelize the 80% of the global population that is non-white and the 67% that identify as non-Christian?
- How can church planting efforts address the stark economic disparities illustrated in this village, where 20 people control almost 90% of the wealth? How do we foster the creation of sustainable and equitable communities of Christ-followers in this context?
- Only two out of 100 villagers have a college education, and only a few have access to a computer. What adjustments should be made to traditional evangelism and discipleship methods in light of the educational and technological realities of the global population?
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