John F. Floyd Commentary: Numbers tell interesting story about the world
Numbers and statistics have always fascinated me, especially since I am not mathematically inclined. I have often said, “If the world depended on me for math skills, we would still be riding horses.” But I found an interesting report that was full of information based on world statistics.
China, at 18.5% of the population of the world, was the country with the most inhabitants, followed closely by India with 17.9%. Making out the top 10 in size of population are the United States, 4.3%; Indonesia, 3.5%; Brazil, 2.8%; Pakistan, 2.6%; Nigeria, 2.6%; Bangladesh, 2.2%; Russia, 1.9%; Mexico, 1.7%; and Japan, 1.6%.
What does the population of the world, roughly 7 billion, do for a living? More than 400 million are entrepreneurs, 1.7 billion are employed in services, 1.4 billion are in agriculture, 800 million work in industrial jobs, 577 million are older than 64, 430 million are unemployed and 1.9 billion are too young to work.
I had no idea Indonesia was the fourth largest country by population. (Sources for these statistics are cia.gov, census.gov and gem consortium.org.)
The world economy is approximately $80 trillion. The United States has, by far, the strongest economy in the world. It makes up 24.4%, or $19.39 trillion, followed by China at 15.4% and $12.24 trillion. Japan is third at 6.13% or $4.87 trillion, followed by Germany, India, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. Russia is at 1.99% and $1.58 trillion.
The number of individuals worth more than $500 million is once again dominated by the U.S. at 1,830. Surprisingly, the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong have 810 individuals worth more than $500 million. That big number for a communist country seems extraordinary. Russia has 220, Germany 430, Japan 390, France 230, Switzerland 250 and Italy 160. (Sources for these statistics are howmuch.net/articles/the-ultra-wealthy-by-country.)
The percentage of world debt by country is interesting and not surprising. The No. 1 debtor in the world is the U.S. at a global share of 31.8%. This is a number that doesn’t interest many people, because very few Americans understand and are concerned about world debt, especially the man on the street. Japan is the next huge debtor, but more than 90% of its debt is held domestically. Here again China, being a communist country, has a surprisingly high debt obligation at 18.8%. It is followed by the usual countries: Germany, France and the United Kingdom.
This report also listed the world’s largest public companies in year 2018. The largest by market value was Apple followed by Alibaba, a China company, Samsung, South Korea, Shell Oil Company, Netherlands, Nestle, Switzerland, tsmc, Taiwan, and Toyota. Brand value in billions of dollars and in descending order are, Apple at $182 billion, Google at $132 billion, Amazon at $70.9 billion, Facebook at $94.8 billion, Samsung at $47.6 billion, and Toyota at $44.7 billion.
And finally, I end this statistic marathon with “The World as 100 People.” The report breaks the numbers down to a small statistic, a statistic that simplifies the report's findings.
For instance, the category of gender says there are 50% female and 50% males in the world. Under the category of age, 26% are 0-14, 66% are 15-64 and 8% are 65 or older. Under the category of religion, 33% are Christians, 22% are Muslims, 14% are Hindus and 7% are Buddhists.
The category of phones is surprising: 75% have them and 25% do not. Under the category of poverty, 48% live on less than $2 a day. In the category of languages, English doesn’t even show up in the top 10. Under literacy, 83% are able to read and write and 17% cannot read. As far as nutrition is concerned, 1 out of 100 is starving, 15 are undernourished, 63 are adequate, 21 are overweight.
These statistics are hard to follow and don’t make for easy reading. But sometimes they tell an interesting story. They tell me how lucky I am to be an American.
John F. Floyd is a Gadsden native who graduated from Gadsden High School in 1954. He formerly was director of United Kingdom manufacturing, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., vice president of manufacturing and international operations, General Tire & Rubber Co., and director of manufacturing, Chrysler Corp. He can be reached at johnfloyd538@gmail.com. The opinions reflected are his own.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: John F. Floyd breaks down the world's demographics
