100 PEOPLE

The following information is courtesy of the website 100 People ~ A World Portrait.  The premise is this ~ if the world's 7 billion human population were represented by 100 people, how would that break down by gender, age, religion, language, etc.?  A visual summary appears in the circular chart above (click to enlarge).

Many of the proportions are surprising, and some are humbling.  It is important to bear in mind that this is a world portrait, not a U.S. portrait.  Consider the categories below ~

Gender

• 50 would be female
• 50 would be male

Age

• 26 would be 0-14
• 66 would be 15-64
• 8 would be 65 or older

Geography

• 60 would be from Asia
• 15 would be from Africa
• 11 would be from Europe
• 9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean
• 5 would be from North America

Religion

• 33 would be Christian
• 22 would be Muslim
• 14 would be Hindu
• 7 would be Buddhist
• 12 would believe in other religions
• 12 would not be religious or identify with a particular faith

First Language

• 12 would speak Chinese
• 5 would speak Spanish
• 5 would speak English
• 3 would speak Arabic
• 3 would speak Hindi
• 3 would speak Bengali
• 3 would speak Portuguese
• 2 would speak Russian
• 2 would speak Japanese
• 62 would speak other languages

Overall literacy

• 83 would be able to read and write
• 17 would not

Literacy by Gender

• 88 males would be able to read and write
• 12 males would not
• 79 females would be able to read and write
• 21 females would not

Education

• 76 eligible males would have a primary school education
• 72 eligible females would have a primary school education
• 66 eligible males would have a secondary school education
• 63 eligible females would have a secondary school education
• 7 would have a college degree

Urban/Rural

• 51 would be urban dwellers
• 49 would be rural dwellers

Drinking Water

• 87 would have access to safe drinking water
• 13 would use unimproved water

Food

• 15 would be undernourished

Infectious Disease

• less than 1 would have HIV/AIDS
• less than 1 would have tuberculosis

Poverty

• 48 would live on less that 52 USD per day
• 1 out of 2 children would live in poverty

Electricity

• 78 would have electricity
• 22 would not

Technology

• 75 would be cell phone users
• 30 would be active internet users
• 22 would own or share a computer

Sanitation

• 65 would have improved sanitation
• 16 would have no toilets
• 19 would have unimproved toilets

Please refer to the website for source references for the statistics quoted.

So what do you think?  Were any of your assumptions challenged?  Do you detect any oddities or seeming discrepancies?  For instance, is it contradictory that nearly half the world's people are poor, yet 75 percent are cell phone users?  Perhaps not.  Perhaps it is a matter of priorities, and communication is one key to escaping poverty.

Certainly any level of poverty, or poor sanitation, or malnutrition, or lack of access to education, is unacceptable.  Economic and social inequality underlie most wars, most prejudice, most individual or cultural oppression.  We owe it to our world community and to our children to leave the world a better place than we found it.

I'm interested in the thoughts of all readers ~ please use the "comments" prompt below.