If the World Were a Village A 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 Village In 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

Nationalities 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

Ages 10 people are under age 5 10 people are between 5 and 9 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 Chinese dialect – 22 people English – 9 people 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 goats 23 cows, bulls, oxen 15 pigs 3 camels 2 horses 189 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