if the world were a village of a hundred people what would it look like?

If the World Were a Village of a Hundred People

What would it look like?

How many people are in our global village?

6 billion, 670 million

If the world were a village

of only 100 people…

How many people would each cube represent?

Where do the villagers live?

Place 100 cubes on the map in the countries where you think

they live.

If the World Were a Village . . .

• 61 would be Asian• 14 would be African• 11 would European• 8 would be South American,

Central America and the Caribbean

• 5 would be from the USA and Canada

• 1 would be from Oceana (which includes Australia, New Zealand and islands of the South, West and Central Pacific)


• 20 would live in the country of China• 17 would live in the country of India• 5 would live in the US• 4 would live in Indonesia• 3 would live in Brazil• 3 would live in Pakistan


How does population compare with the area the countries inhabit?

In other words, what is the population density of the six most

populated countries?


• What kind of graph would best represent your data?

• Based on the village in the past, predict what the village would look like in 2100.


• 51 would be male

• 49 would be female

How many more males than females

are there in the world?


• 24 would not have any electricity

• 7 would have access to the Internet

• 1 would have a college education


• 80 would be living in substandard housing

• 67 would be unable to read

• 50 would be malnourished

• 33 would not have access to safe water


• 5 would control 59 percent of the world’s wealth

• All 5 of these people would be live in the United

States


Out of our 100 villagers:• 30 would be children

• 70 would be adults

• 33 would have cell phones

• 18 would have cars

• 21 speak a Chinese dialect (16 of them Mandarin Chinese)

• 9 speak English• 9 speak Hindi• 7 speak Spanish• 4 speak Arabic• 4 speak Bengali• 3 speak Portuguese• 3 speak Russian


If you could speak Mandarin Chinese, English and Spanish,

with approximately what fraction of the world’s people

would you be able to converse?


The Village in the past. . .

• Over 3000 years ago, the population of the village double five times: from 1 person to 2 people, to 4, to 8 to 16 to 32.

• In 1900, 32 people lived in the village

• In 2008, 100 people live in the village

• Today, the village is growing at a rate of 1.2 people per year.

• Assuming this rate continues, graph village population vs time for the years 2008, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030.

Many experts think that 250 is the maximum number of people that the village can sustain. Fortunately, many are working to make sure that the village of the future will be a good home for all who live in it.

If the population continues to grow at a rate of 1.2 persons per year, in what year will the village population reach 250?

What if the everyone lived like you?

• Would there be enough land?

• Would there be enough food?

• Would there be enough money?

What if the United States were a Village of a Hundred People?

• What questions would you want to ask?

• What would be different about the World Village and the US Village?

• What would be the same about the World Village and the US Village?

More to Know

• Written by: David J. Smith and illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong

• There are more extensions in the back of the book

• Look for the newest edition coming soon: “If America Were a Village”

if the world were a village of a hundred people what would it look like?

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