1. Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview
TEST QUESTION 1
Future Number of Children
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview

2. Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview
TEST QUESTION: FUTURE NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Q1.1
How many children will there be in 2100? ?
In 1950 there were fewer than one billion children (aged 0-14) in the world. By 2000 there were almost two billion. How many do UN experts think there will be in 2100?
Billion Children
1950
2000
2050
2100 4 2 3 1 A A
4 billion B B
3 billion C
2 billion
Source:
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview

3. Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview
TEST QUESTION: FUTURE NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Q1.1
How many children will there be in 2100?
The UN experts expect two billion children in year 2100, much the same as in The total number of children in the world is no longer increasing. We have reached ”Peak Child”. Gapminder’s public knowledge surveys show that very few people are aware of this. It is extremely important to know this in order to understand why the world population is expected to stop growing.
CORRECT
ANSWER
Billion Children
1950
2000
2050
2100 4 2 3 1 A A
4 billion B B
3 billion C
2 billion
Source:
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview

4. Massive Ignorance A A 4 billion B B 3 billion C 2 billion
TEST QUESTION: FUTURE NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Q1.1
Massive Ignorance
Remember: Chimpanzees pick the correct answer 33% of the time, just by random!
Results from our public knowledge surveys
We found massive ignorance about the fact that the number of children in not expected to increase in the future. Gapminder asked this question in public knowledge surveys to representative samples of the adult population in the following countries. US
Sweden UK
Norway A
4 billion A
61%
43%
48%
56%
33% B B
3 billion
32%
47%
44%
37%
33% C
2 billion 7%
11% 8% 6%
33%
The public scored way below random!
Sources for survey results: SWE & NOR: US: UK:
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview

5. Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview
TEST QUESTION: FUTURE NUMBER OF CHILDREN
Q1.1
WHY IGNORANCE?
Here’s a rough summary of what we believe may explain why the adult public score so bad on this basic question.
Wrong assumptions
Many people know the world population keeps growing but they wrongly assume this also means that the number of children must keep growing.
Wrong proportions
Most people know correctly that some parents have many children. But many seem to get the proportions wrong and believe these large families make up a large proportion of all births. In reality, 80% of people live in countries where women on average have less than 3 children.
Outdated facts
Many grown-ups know that the number of children has been increasing during the last hundred years. This kind of slow evolving macro trends are rarely reported in news media.
Exaggeration from fear
Many people are afraid of overpopulation. Most things we are afraid of get exaggerated in our minds.
Chimpanzees have none of the problems above. They simply guess. That’s why they beat humans on knowledge questions. They just pick random answers without distortion of preconceived ideas and intuition. To learn more about our Global Ignorance Project and what we do to fight ignorance, visit: or watch this TED talk:
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview

6. LICENSE
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Required attribution: ”Free test questions from
The Gapminder Foundation is a Swedish not-for-profit organization, independent from all political, commercial and religious affiliations. Gapminder’s mission is to fight devastating ignorance with a fact-based worldview that everyone can understand. Gapminder’s chairman Hans Rosling is a professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. For more information visit:
Version: 14
Free teaching material for a fact-based worldview