Today’s column was going to be about the photo above and this nation’s emergent Cognitive Immune System. Instead, it’s going to be about people who are active participants in the real world.

My sister Caroline turned me onto this goldmine of FactSlaps. So this edition is dedicated to her and the singularity of the universe. It comes from 100people.org, and sourced to several  serious fact-finders, including the UN, UNICEF and, of all things, the CIA’s “World Fact Book.”

The following is a detailed version of our 100 People statistics, updated in 2016 to reflect the world population having reached almost 7.5 billion people. Source information for each of the categories is available at the bottom of the page.

If the World were 100 PEOPLE:

Gender	50 would be female 50 would be male
Age	25 would be 0-14 66 would be 15-64 9 would be 65 and older
Geography	60 would be from Asia 16 would be from Africa 10 would be from Europe 9 would be from Latin America & the Caribbean 5 would be from North America
Religion	31 would be Christian 23 would be Muslim 16 would not be religious or identify themselves as being aligned with a particular faith 15 would be Hindu 7 would be Buddhist 8 would believe in other religions
First Language	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
Overall Literacy	86 would be able to read and write 14 would not
Literacy by Gender	90% of males would be able to read and write 10% of males would not be able to read and write 82% of females would be able to read and write 18% of females would not be able to read and write
Education	78% of eligible males would have a primary school education 76% of eligible females would have a primary school education66% of eligible males would have a secondary school education 63% of eligible females would have a secondary school education 7 would have a college degree
Shelter	78 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 22 would not
Urban/Rural	54 would be urban dwellers 46 would be rural dwellers
Drinking Water	91 would have access to safe drinking water 9 would use unimproved water
Food	11 would be undernourished
Infectious Disease	1 would have HIV/AIDS 1 would have tuberculosis
Poverty	11 would live on less than $1.90 USD per day
Electricity	82 would have electricity 18 would not
Technology	65 would be cell phone users 47 would be active internet users 95 live in an area with a mobile- cellular network
Sanitation	68 would have improved sanitation 14 would have no toilets 18 would have unimproved toilets