World Portrait

100 People ~ A World Portrait

The world population has now reached 07 billion people.

This milestone inspired us to conduct research to update our statistics, and the changes over the past 05 years are remarkable.

In 2006, only 01 person out of 100 would have had a college education-- today that number has jumped to 07 thanks in part to advances in higher education in Asia.

The detailed research and source information can be found here and the statistics provided by Donella Meadows in 1990 that originally inspired our project can be viewed here.

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:

50 would be female
50 would be male

26 would be children
There would be:

74 adults,
08 of whom would be 65 and older

There would be:
60 Asians
15 Africans
14 people from the Americas
11 Europeans

33 Christians
22 Muslims
14 Hindus
07 Buddhists
12 people who practice other religions
12 people who would not be aligned with a religion

12 would speak Chinese
05 would speak Spanish
05 would speak English
03 would speak Arabic
03 would speak Hindi
03 would speak Bengali
03 would speak Portuguese
02 would speak Russian
02 would speak Japanese
62 would speak other languages

83 would be able to read and write;

17 would not.

07 would have a college degree.
22 would own or share a computer.

77 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but

23 would not.

01 would be dying of starvation
15 would be undernourished
21 would be overweight

87 would have access to safe drinking water
13 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Sources: 2012 - Fritz Erickson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ferris State University (Formerly Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay) and John A. Vonk, University of Northern Colorado, 2006; Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, 1992; Donella H. Meadows,The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990.