If the World Were a If the World Were a VillageVillage

What if the world’s population was represented in a village of just one hundred people?

Why this book?Why this book?This book serves as a snapshot of

the world we live in.It informs us about many of the

topics central to our study in global geography – diversity, education, wealth, health and access.

What the village would look What the village would look like...like...Of the 100 people...

◦61 are from Asia◦14 are from Africa◦11 are from Europe◦8 are from South America, Central

America (including Mexico) and the Caribbean

◦5 are from Canada and the United States

◦1 is from Oceania

LanguageLanguageThere are almost 6000 language

in the world. In this village more than half of the people speak in just 8 languages.

21 speak a Chinese dialect, 16 of them speak Mandarin

9 speak English9 speak Hindi7 speak Spanish

AgesAgesOne-fifth of the villagers would

be under 9 years old. More than half the village would

be under the age of 30. Why?On average 1 person would die

every year, while 3 would be born.

ReligionsReligions32 are Christians20 are Muslims14 are Hindus9 practice a folk religion6 are Buddhists2 belong to a global religion1 is Jewish

FoodFood70 people do not have consistent

access to food.50 of them are hungry some or all

of the time.20 are severely undernourished.30 people always have enough to

eatYet, the village has nearly 330

animals – 250 of which are chickens.

SanitationSanitation83 have access to a source safe

of water17 do not and must spend a

significant portion of time in order to collect safe water

57 have access to public or household sewage disposal

32 breathe air that is unhealthy because of pollution

LiteracyLiteracyOf the 38 school aged villagers

only 31 attend school. Of the 88 people old enough to

read only 71 have some degree of literacy. 17 cannot read at all. More males are taught to read than females.

WealthWealthIf all the money were divided equally,

each village would have about $11,500 Canadian dollars per year.

However, in this village the richest 10 people have over half the money.

The poorest ten each make about $1 a day

75 of the people average about $4 a day

The average cost of living in this village is $5000 a year

The Village of the futureThe Village of the futureMost experts believe that the village

can’t support more than 150 people (a world population of about 10 billion)

Could see the privatization of resources that we currently take for granted (such as water)

Some believe that the majority of our water systems would become highly polluted – even in the developed world.

What if Our Classroom was the Village?None of us would be CanadianOnly 9 of us would be well

nourished3 of us would make about a

dollar a dayApproximately 18 of us would be

from Asia9 of us would use 75% of the

energy

What about the Money?The richest 2 people would make

about 65% of the incomeThe richest 6 would make just over

80% of all the income. They would all be from the United States

The other 24 would make approximately 28% of all the income

The poorest 6 would make just under 1.5% of all the income

What about Xenophobia, conflict and prejudice6 of you live in the fear of death

by armed conflict, landmines, kidnapping or assault

Nearly half of you cannot speak or act freely according to your faith or conscience. Doing so could result in harassment, imprisonment, torture or death