[2023-02-09] 100 People

A short video recently popped up on my LinkedIn feed, breaking down global statistics into an easy-to-grasp number: 100 people. In other words, the video takes the world's 7.5 billion people (as of 2016, when these statistics were produced) and reduces them to 100 individuals representative of the whole.

The video is the work of 100people.org, the website of the 100 People Foundation, whose mission is to help students better understand the complex issues facing the planet and its resources. "By framing the global population as 100 people," the site says, "our media makes education more engaging and effective, and improves students' abilities to remember and relate to what they learn."

I found the data fascinating and the presentation memorable. Here are the facts from the video that stood out for me:
  • Location: If 100 people lived on Earth, 60 would be Asian, 15 African, 14 American (North and South America) and 11 European
  • Religion: 33 would identify as Christian, 21 Muslim, 14 Hindi, 6 Buddhist, 10 other religions and 16 with no religion
  • Languages: 12 would speak Chinese, 6 Spanish, 5 English, 4 Hindi, 3 Arabic and 70 one of a possible 6500 other languages
  • Literacy: 86 could read, 14 could not
  • Money: 1 would control half the money and the other 99 would split the other half (though not equitably)
  • Water: 87 would have access to clean water, 13 would not
  • Shelter: 77 would have somewhere to live, 23 would not
  • Education: 7 would have attended college, 93 would not
I hadn't realized how common Spanish was, nor did I know how many languages exist in the world. The stat on the site's World Portrait provides a slightly more detailed breakdown of language use. Of the 100 representative individuals:
  • 12 would speak Chinese
  • 6 would speak Spanish
  • 5 would speak English
  • 4 would speak Hindi
  • 3 would speak Arabic
  • 3 would speak Bengali
  • 3 would speak Portuguese
  • 2 would speak Russian
  • 2 would speak Japanese
  • 60 would speak other languages
I appreciated seeing Portuguese on the list, but was surprised that French was not among the top nine languages. To put these statistics into perspective, I imagined myself joining a gathering of these 100 people. I could communicate easily with the 5 guests who speak English, and somewhat with the 3 guests who speak Portuguese and possibly with 1 French person I might find among the 60 who speak another language. For the rest, I would have to hope that they spoke a second language (such as English) or that we were both very good at charades or had a cell phone (only 75 of the 100 would) with access to the Internet (only 44 of the 100 would) to look up words on translation apps.

More important than the interesting stats about how many of the 100 people would speak various languages are the data about shelter, water, education, technology and languages. They remind me that I am lucky to be among those with a roof over my head, a cell phone, access to clean water and the Internet, a university degree, the ability to speak one of the world's top three languages and the means to learn more. They also make me aware of inequities that persist in the world and encourage me to take action to reduce such inequities where I can.