The following statistics were first published in 1992 by the Retired Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin in a curriculum entitled "Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures From the Developing World". Shortly thereafter the statistics appeared as an email that continues to be circulated and viewed by millions of people around the world.
If the World were 100 PEOPLE:
50 would be female
50 would be male
There would be:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
14 people from the Western Hemisphere
13 Africans
30 would be children
There would be 70 adults,
7 of whom would be aged
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
33 would be Christian
18 would be Muslim
16 would be Hindu
6 would be Buddhist
1 would be Jewish
11 would believe in other religions
15 would be non-religious
1 would have a college education
1 would own a computer
80 people would live in substandard housing
14 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
20 would be undernourished
1 would be dying of starvation
15 would be overweight
75 people would have some supply of food and a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 25 would not.
17 people would have no clean, safe water to drink
Sources: The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990, Donella H. Meadows, Hebei University 2001, Zero Population Growth Seattle, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, 1992
