This Is What A Typical Person Looks Like: Are You Typical?

I’ve often wondered what keeps a company like National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Magazine) going decade after decade.  That yellow-framed magazine was popular back when I was a kid, and it is still just as recognizable today. However, today, it is no longer just a magazine. National Geographic has spawned into an entire media entity that people all over the globe look to for information about our society and environment.

I’m sure much of their mind blowing success is a result of the quality content they regularly produce. Everything they present from beginning to end is top notch. This video below is no exception. It posted on YouTube three days ago, and at the time of publishing, it had 1,014,865 views.

As of this moment, according to the world population clock, there are 6,904,056,956 people on our planet. Since at some point in 2011 the population will reach 7 billion people, National Geographic put together a composite of what the world’s most typical person is like. I found it very interesting to learn that more people in the world have cell phones than bank accounts. I also found it gut wrenching that the typical American household uses 100 gallons of water per day (How can that be? Does showering and flushing the toilet use that much water? How sad.) On the flip side, in parts of Ethiopia, people use 2.5 gallons per day. Some women there spend 8 hours each day just collecting it. As this video explains, “typical” is a relative term. After watching this, are you typical?

Header/Faces Image Credit: [Mattias Gustavsson]