Maybe you’ve seen this before. Maybe you haven’t. But, if we were to shrink the population of the world to 100 people while still maintaining the ratios of today, this is what our little village would look like:
61 Asians
12 Europeans
5 US Americans and Canadians
8 Latin Americans
14 Africans
51 would be male, 49 would be female
82 would be non-white; 18 white
67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian
80 would live in substandard housing
67 would be unable to read
24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
7 people would have access to the Internet
1 would have a college education
1 would have HIV
2 would be near birth; 1 near death
Of course, these numbers are dependent upon the data you use, but regardless, you’ll come out with something similar—exact numbers aren’t really point here. The important thing to take notice of is that this 100 person community might not be anywhere close to the type community where you live now. But, the world is much bigger than individual communities.
Most of us have heard the phrase “be mindful of your surroundings.” Well, unless you’ve seen this data before, it probably surprises you—as much as it did me—to find out you weren’t quite as mindful as you thought. The goal of Lee & Low Books is to promote diversity. It’s statistics like these that motivate Lee & Low to continue educating people. And, education starts as early as possible with children. Of course, presenting a 3-year-old with a list full of numbers isn’t going to have the same impact it does on an adult which is why we proudly publish children’s books that express these numbers through vivid illustrations and compelling stories.
