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The world population has now reached 7.5 billion people. This milestone inspired us to conduct research to update our statistics in 2016, and the changes over the past 10 years are remarkable. In 2006, only 1 person out of 100 would have had a college education-- today that number has jumped to 7. The detailed research and source information can be found here and the statistics provided by Donella Meadows in 1990 that originally inspired our project can be viewed here.

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:
50 would be female
50 would be male

25 would be children
There would be 75 adults,
9 of whom would be 65 and older

There would be:
60 Asians
16 Africans
14 people from the Americas
10 Europeans

31 Christians
23 Muslims
16 people who would not be aligned with a religion
15 Hindus
7 Buddhists
8 people who practice other religions

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

86 would be able to read and write; 14 would not

7 would have a college degree
40 would have an Internet connection

78 people would have a place to shelter them
from the wind and the rain, but 22 would not

1 would be dying of starvation
11 would be undernourished
22 would be overweight

91 would have access to safe drinking water
9 people would have no clean, safe water to drink

Sources: 2016 - Fritz Erickson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ferris State University (Formerly Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay) and John A. Vonk, University of Northern Colorado, 2006; Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, 1992; Donella H. Meadows, The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990.