The world as 100 people

Just for an update

Marcus Roberts | Sep 14 2016 | comment

Hello everyone, today is just a brief post from the Business Insider, which has made a nice colourful GIF which details the breakdown of the world's population if it were only 100 people. Thus, there are 22 people in this “world” of 100 people who do not have access to electricity. The population is split exactly down the middle between males and females, and 66 are in the working age cohort of those aged 15-64 years old. 8 are aged 65 and over, while 26 are aged 14 or below. 83 people in this world are able to read and write and 87 have access to clean drinking water.

The more interesting and colourful diagrams are the ones that depict the religious breakdown of the world and the geographic distribution of the population. The preponderance of Asia is still immediately apparent, 60 people are from there and the next largest continent, Africa, has only 15 people. 11 live in Europe and 14 come from the Americas. Oceania is nice and empty with no one in this world of 100 people living there! This distribution will change over the next few decades with Africa's share of the world's population increasing as its population continues to increase. The religious affiliation of the world is more diverse than its geograhic distribution: there is no single religion which commands the affiliation of more than 33 people. Christianity is the largest religion at 33 people, with 22 Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists, 12 “other” and 12 “nones”. Of course, these broad labels cover a large number of internal divisions in the religions themselves, but as faith “families” it is interesting to see the division of the world. So go and enjoy these colourful diagrams, they give you a quick visual guide to the state of the world's people in 2016.

Although there are 65 million refugees scattered across the globe, I have only met a couple of them, both from Sudan. According to the migration expert from the University of Virginia interviewed below, my experience must be pretty typical. I live a comfortable life in a stable, wealthy country and have no idea of the suffering endured by refugees in countries like Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo or Pakistan.

Most news stories about refugees focus on violent conflict, such as the situation in Syria. But when there is no grand geopolitical clash, millions of people are ignored by Western media. My two friends both had the same experience of dreary year upon dreary year in a dusty camp in northern Kenya, where nothing ever happened. Is there a solution? Christine Mahoney believes there is. Read her recommendations below.