Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

If the world was a global village of 100 people:

61      would be from Asia
13      would be from Africa
12      would be from Europe
8        would be from South America, Central America (including Mexico) and the Caribbean
5        would be from Canada and the United States
1        would be from Oceania (an area that includes Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the south, west and central Pacific)

In this global village there are almost 6000 languages, but more than half of the people speak these 8 languages:

22 speak a Chinese dialect – of these people 18 speak the Mandarin dialect
9 speak English
8 speak Hindi
7 speak Spanish
4 speak Arabic
4 speak Bengali
3 speak Portugese
3 speak Russian

In the global village there are people of all ages:
10 are children under the age of 5
10 are children between 5 and 9
19 are between the age of 10 and 19
16 are between 20 and 29
15 are between 30 and 39
11 are between 40 and 49
9 are between 50 and 59
6 are between 60 and 69
3 are between 70 and 79
1 is aged over 79

On average in the village, one person dies and three babies are born every year. A baby born in the village today could expect to live until the age of 63.

In the village of 100 people:
32 are Christians
19 are Muslims
13 are Hindus
12 practice Shamanism, Animism and other folk religions
6 are Buddhists
2 belong to other global religions, such as the Baha’i faith, Confucianism, Shintoism, Sikhism or Jainism
1 is Jewish
15 are non-religious

There is no shortage of food in the global village. If all the food were divided equally, everyone would have enough to eat. But the food isn’t divided equally. So although there is enough food to feed the villagers not everyone is well fed:

50 people do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time.
20 other people are severely under-nourished.
Only 30 people always have enough to eat!

75 have access to a source of safe water even in their homes or within a short distance.
The other 25 do not and must spend a large part of each day simply getting safe water.

Most of the work of collecting water is done by women and girls.
60 have access to adequate sanitation – they have public or household sewage disposal – while 40 do not.

68 breathe clean air, while 32 breathe air that is unhealthy because of pollution.

There are 38 school aged villagers (ages 5 – 24), but only 31 of them attend school.

There is 1 teacher for these students.

Not everybody in the global village is encouraged to learn to read, write and think. Of the 88 people old enough to read, 17 cannot read at all.

If all the money in the village were divided equally each person would have £3900 per year. But in the global village money isn’t divided equally.

The richest 20 people each have more than £5600 a year.
The poorest 20 people each have less than 65p a day!
The other 60 people have something in between.

76 poeple have electricity
24 do not.

Today, the village of 100 is growing at a rate of slightly less than 2 people a year. By the year 2100 or sooner, there will be 250 people in the global village. This is an important number, because many experts think that 250 is the maximum number of people the village can sustain.

*adapted from the book ‘If the world was a village’ by David J Smith and Shelagh Armstrong 2004 (A & C Black Publishers Ltd)