The Global Village
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, there would be:
60 Asians
12 Europeans
15 from the Western Hemisphere (9 Latin Americans, 5 North Americans, and 1 Oceanian)
13 Africans
Source: UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division [World Population Prospects: The 2000 Revision]
50 would be female
50 would be male
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census International Data Base [Table 094: Midyear Population by Age and Sex 2001]
80 would be non-white
20 would be white
Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census International Data Base [Table 001: Total Midyear Population 2001] (assuming the populations of South America, Asia, and Africa are 'non-white' and those of North America, Europe, and Oceania are 'white.')
67 would be non-Christian 33 would be Christian
Source: Britannica Book of the Year 1999 - Religious Population of the World, 1998 (reprinted at infoplease.com, using numbers from the 'Christians' heading only for the Christian percentage)
20 people would earn 89% of the entire world's wealth
Source: The International Herald Tribune - February 5, 1999 (cited in the World Income Inequality table)
25 would live in substandard housing
Source: Habitat for Humanity International [Why Habitat is Needed]
17 would be unable to read
Source: UNICEF [The State of the World's Children 1999]
13 would suffer from malnutrition
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization report (cited at OBGYN.net)
1 would die within the year
2 would give birth within the year
Source: U.S. Census Bureau [World Vital Events Per Time Unit 2001]
2 would have a college education
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, World Education Indicators [Gross Enrollment Ratio by Sex]
4 would own a computer
Source: UN Human Development Indicators [Access to Information and Communications 1995]
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent
Balu, Engelken & Grosso
(original often wrongly attributed to Phillip Harter, Stanford)