Meditations: “The world in a village”

Victor Perez Centeno, UNCTAD

This statistic, which buzzes around the Internet, has be published in numerous places across the world: If it were possible to reduce the population of the entire world to 100 inhabitants, maintaining the proportions of people which currently exist in the world, it would be made up as follows:

57 Asians 21 Europeans 14 Americans (North, Central and South) 8 Africans
52 would be women
48 men
70 non-white
30 white
89 would be heterosexual 11 homosexual
6 people would possess 59 % of the world’s wealth 80 would dwell in inhabitable housing
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would have a computer
1 (yes, just one) would have a university degree

And consider this: if you are more healthy than sick, you are luckier than a million people who will not see next week. If you never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of prison, the agony of torture, the pain of hunger, you are luckier than 500 million of the world’s inhabitants.

If you have food in the fridge, clothes in your closet, a roof over your head, a place to sleep, then consider yourself richer than 75% of the world’s inhabitants.

If you have money in the bank, a wallet or some loose change lying around somewhere, consider yourself among those with the best quality of life in the world.

Email. victor. perez-centeno@unctad.org