A Summary of the World

This information has something I found on the Internet in the very early 1990s; I'm not sure of the original source. Since then it has turned into a spam email unfortunately. I'm also aware that the numbers are not strictly based in fact: some more obecjtive and detailed comments can be found in the Urban Legends Reference page on this topic. Nonetheless, most of the "statistics" have some basis in fact and I still find this a useful summary to reflect upon.

The world in 100 people

If we could, at this time, shrink the Earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look like this:

There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 from the Western Hemisphere (North and South) and 8 Africans.
70 of the 100 would be nonwhite; 30 white.
70 of the 100 would be non-Christian; 30 Christian.
50% of the entire world's wealth would be in the hands of only 6 people. All 6 would be citizens of the United States.
70 of the 100 would be unable to read.
50 would suffer from malnutrition.
80 would live in substandard housing.
Only 1 would have a college education.

When one considers our world from such an incredibly compressed perspective, the need for both tolerance and understanding becomes glaringly apparent.

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