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Perspective on the World Cultural Regions
Anglo AmericaLatin America
Europe (to the Urals)Asia
Middle East & North AfricaSub-Saharan Africa
Oceania
Anglo America
Latin America
Europe Asia
Middle East
AfricaOceania
Anglo America
Latin America
Europe
AsiaMiddleEast
AfricaOceania
Anglo America
Latin America
Europe Asia
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Africa
Oceania
If the World Were a VillageA Book About the World’s People
Written by
David J. Smith
Illustrated by
Shelagh Armstrong
Kids Can Press, 2002
Earth is a crowded place.
In 2002, there were 6,200,000,000 people on the earth.
Numbers this big are hard to understand…but if we imagine the world as a village of 100 people, each person in the
village would represent 62,000,000 people.
Let’s meet these 100 people.
Growth of the VillageIn 1000 B.C.E., 1 person lived in the village.
In 500 B.C.E., 2 people lived in the village.
In 1C.E., 3 people lived in the village.
In 1000, 5 people lived in the village.
In 1500, 8 people lived in the village.
In 1650, 10 people lived in the village.
In 1800, 17 people lived in the village.
In 1900, 32 people lived in the village.
In 2002, 100 people lived in the village.
Growth of the Village
At the current growth grate of about 1.6%
per year, the village will be home to 250
people by 2100.
Many experts believe that this is the
maximum number of people the village
can sustain.
Nationalities
Of the 100 people in the global village: 61 are from Asia 8 are from Latin America
13 are from Africa 5 are from Anglo America
12 are from Europe 1 is from Oceania
More than ½ of the people in the village come from the 10 most populous countries:
21 are from China
17 are from India
5 are from the United States
4 are from Indonesia
3 are from Brazil
3 are from Pakistan
2 are from Russia
2 are from Bangladesh
2 are from Japan
2 are from Nigeria
Nationalities
Ages10 people are under age 510 people are between 5 and 919 people are between 10 and 1916 people are between 20 and 2015 people are between 30 and 3911 people are between 40 and 49 9 people are between 50 and 59 6 people are between 60 and 69 3 people are between 70 and 79 1 person is over 79
• 1/5 of the village is under age 9
• 1 person dies and 3 babies are born every year
• Life expectancy is 63 years
Languages
More than ½ of the people speak these languages:
Chinese dialect – 22 people English – 9 people
Hindu – 8 people Spanish – 7 people
Arabic – 4 people Bengali – 4 people
Portuguese – 3 people Russian – 3 people
Religions
Of the 100 people in the village…– 32 are Christians– 19 are Muslims– 13 are Hindus– 12 practice folk religions (shamanism, animism)
– 6 are Buddhists– 2 practice Baha’i faith, Confucianism,
Shintoism, Sikhism or Jainism– 1 is Jewish– 15 are non-religious
Air and Water
Fresh Air and Drinkable Water are Necessities…
75 have access to safe water in their homes or within a short walk; 25 do not and must spend a large part of each day collecting water
60 have access to adequate sanitation; 40 do not
68 breathe clean air, while 32 breathe air that is unhealthy because of pollution
Food
There is plenty of food in the village:
31 sheep and goats23 cows, bulls, oxen15 pigs3 camels2 horses189 chickens
There is no shortage of food in the village. If all the food were divided equally, everyone would have enough food.
Food
However….
50 people do not have a reliable source of food and are hungry some or all of the time.
20 people are severely undernourished
30 people would have enough to eat
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