Asia and the World Population

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2004/02/data/index.htm

Among the 6.4 billion people living in this world, the population from the "East Asia & Pacific" accounts for 35% of them, while "South & West Asia" accounts for another 24%. However, "Central Asia" accounts for only 1% of the World population. Together, about 60% of humanity is Asian.

Off-course, China's 1.3 billion people already account for 39% of East Asia & Pacific. India's 1.1 billion people also account for 71% of South & West Asia. In fact, almost 2/3 (63%) of this Asian population is either Chinese or Indian.

The Western population (North American & Western Europe) accounts for 12% of the World population. As much as 40% of these Westerners live in the USA.

There are 690 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa (11% of the World). 21% of them live in Nigeria.

Latin America & the Carraibean is also a significant part of the world in terms of population with 540 million people (8% of the World). More than half of them (52%) either live in Mexico or in Brazil.

The population in Eastern & Central Europe accounts for 6% of the world's population. More than 1/3 (35%) of these people are Russians.

The Arab States complete this world population with less than 280 million people (4.4%). 25% of Arabs are Egyptians.


For the past 10 years, most of the growth of the World population came from Asia (60%). The idea that Sub-saharan Africa and Arab States are fueling this growth is therefore partly a myth. If it is true that these populations are growing faster than the other ones, they still account for less than 20% of the World.

If we could get a picture of the world population, it would be something like that: There are 100 people watching a movie in a theatre:
34 persons from East Asia & Pacific
24 persons from South & West Asia
12 Westerners
11 Africans
8 persons from Latin America & the Carribean
6 persons from Central & Eastern Europe
4 Arabs
1 person from Central Asia

More specifically:
21 Chinese + 4 Indonesians + 2 Japanese + 1 Filipino + 1 Vietnamese + 1 Thai + 1 Burmese + 1 Korean (from South Korea) + 2 other persons from East Asia & Pacific
18 Indians + 2 Pakistanese + 2 Bengladeshis + 1 Iranian + 1 other person from South & West Asia
5 Americans + 1 German + 1 French + 1 British + 1 Italian + 1 Spanish + 2 other persons from North America or Western Europe
2 Nigerians + 1 Ethiopian + 1 Congolese + 1 South African + 1 Tanzanian + 5 other Africans
3 Brazilians + 2 Mexicans + 1 Columbian + 2 other persons from Latin America
2 Russians + 1 Turkish + 1 Ukranian + 2 other persons from Central or Eastern Europe
1 Egyptian + 1 Sudanese + 2 other Arabs
1 person from Central Asia