World of 100 Analysis

Below are three charts that represent what the world would look like in several categories if the entire population were only 100 people. The blue bars are my answers, the red bars are the average of all my classmates answers, and the yellow bar is the actual statistic.




Personally I was surprised by how off I was with this prediction, I suppose I'm a bit (maybe a lot) of a pessimist, but when I think of large third world countries, I imagine the vast majority of those people do not have clean water (perhaps partially in thanks to large campaign fundraisers to help put pumps into third world country villages) and that it is rarer than it actually is.

I was pleasantly surprised by how accurate I was with this prediction of mine. I expected that the majority of the population would be in the largest age bracket (15-64), and that there would be more children than seniors because as people grow old and die, obviously those numbers will decrease; morbid to say the least.


Again, I was surprised by how many have access to electricity, I had previously believed it was a rarer commodity than it actually is.

1. Which categories were you most accurate? inaccurate? Explain why you think that was the case.
   -I was most accurate when it came to the general age breakdown of the population. I believe this is because I have a pretty good grasp of how longevity breaks down and various generation booms. I was very inaccurate when it comes to access to various utilities (clean water and electricity). I think this is because I have the idea that America is the land of extravagance and luxury, and so I associate somethings we take for granted (clean water and electricity) as being rarer than they really are.
2. Which of the real/correct answers shocked you the most? Explain.
   -I was surprised at how many people have access to electricity. I can see clean drinking water being relatively common because there are many relatively simple methods of purifying water (boiling comes to mind), but I have a hard time understanding how accessible electricity is. I imagine that electricity takes a huge infrastructure to provide for a town, but maybe it's more efficient than I had previously thought.
3. If you were way off course in your predictions, explain why it is that you feel that happened. If you were spot on, explain why you think that happened.
   I was way off course for my predictions on access to clean water and electricity and I imagine I've developed a bit of a pessimistic view of the outside world. Not necessarily the idea that the U.S is the greatest country or anything like that, but really that clean water and electricity are more difficult to obtain. Also, when I hear about how many people live on less than $2 USD a day, I have a hard time imagining them paying for electricity on top of basic living expenses (food, clothing etc).