We are told that we have crossed the 7 Billion people mark this year, I even put an App on my computer from National Geographic that fills your screen with people, little people starting with one until no space is left and then asks the question ‘How will your world Change?’ hard to imagine really.   Most of us withstand change however it is happening all around us and so we had better catch on, the world is changing with us or without us.    I wonder what will change for us locally or in your family or globally, the changes in terms of politics, needs, supplies – water politics, basic food production, the list continues

Compiled below are facts and figures to give us a snap shot of our changing world, facts to deal with in a world of change.    The people of God, the body of Christ the ‘ecclesia’ of God is here to bring about change, and not just be the victims of change.   We are here to change the atmosphere, to be the instigators of change; through the Kingdom of God we are to bring the “fullness of Christ” to creation NOW THAT IS CHANGE, if nothing else.

One strategy we must take seriously, is to find like minded people, empowered people connected to bring change according to the will of God.   Joining our hands with them, this should be the church of God, so who around you is bringing change? and who around you has the passion for transformation? proclaiming the Kingdom of God has come and is coming?

I recently read, for you who live in the UK, “Imagine the global population in terms of 75,445 Wembley’s, or, indeed, 2,341 Wales’? The numbers are so big.

The report went on to say, “It’s a question that has piqued the curiosity of several would-be demographers, including, most famously, the late US environmentalist Donella Meadows. In 1990, she published The State of the Village Report, which was released as a poster at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. At around the same time, a Canadian retired geography teacher called David Smith started work on If the World Were a Village, which was eventually published in 2002. Both works conveyed a vivid sense of global perspective. Smith’s research, for example, revealed that a world village of 100 people would be home to 61 Asians, as well as 16 severely undernourished people – and 189 chickens”

Of course, little Britain barely gets a look-in in that reduction: we are equivalent to just about a single person. So what would happen if we gave our country (with a population of 61 million, give or take a Rutland or a West Somerset) the same treatment? If England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were condensed to a single community of 100 people, what would that community look like?

This question was asked by The Independent (Laurent Taubin www.unsitesurinternet.fr) put pencil to paper, ear to phone and finger to calculator, and trawled acres of spreadsheets and data-sets published by government and other statistical authorities to produce a snapshot of Britain in the 21st century, this is the last list ‘if Britain was a village of 100 people”.

Below are various demographic reports for your thoughts of how we as the church across the world will impact humanity, these figures are way beyond grasp but knowing TOGETHER the church across the world are commissioned to make disciples and being empowered by the Holy Spirit for “works of service” to transform and restore society and creation OUR WORLD.

Village Earth

If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of 100 people, with the relative size of human groups remaining the same:- 

•       57 Asians, 27 Europeans, 14 Americans, 8 Africans

•       70% would be non whites, 30% whites

•       70% non Christian, 30% Christian

•       52 would be female 48 male

•       59% worlds wealth in 6 hands, All 6 would be American

•       70% unable to read, 50% suffer malnutrition

•       80% live in substandard housing

•       1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

•       1 would have a college education, 1 would have a computer

•       If you woke up this morning in health you are better than a million who will not survive the week

•       If you have never experienced battle, imprisonment, torture or starvation you are ahead of 500 million people.

•       If we can gather as the church without harassment, arrest, torture or death you are better off than 3 million people.

•       If you have food in the fridge, clothes on your back, roof over head you are better of than 75% of people

•       If you have money in the bank, wallet or spare dish someplace you are among the tope 8% of the world’s wealth. 

Updated August 19, 2011.     If the world were a village of 100 people…

• 61 villagers would be Asian (of that, 20 would be Chinese and 17 would be Indian), 14 would be African, 11 would be European, 9 would be Latin or South American, 5 would be North American, and none of the villagers would be from Australia, Oceania, or Antarctica.
• At least 18 villagers would be unable to read or write but 33 would have cellular phones and 16 would be online on the Internet.
• 27 villagers would be under 15 years of age and 7 would be over 64 years old.
• There would be an equal number of males and females.
• There would be 18 cars in the village.
• 63 villagers would have inadequate sanitation.
• 33 villagers would be Christians, 20 would be Muslims, 13 would be Hindus, 6 would be Buddhists, 2 would be atheists, 12 would be non-religious, and the remaining 14 would be members of other religions.
• 30 villagers would be unemployed or underemployed while of those 70 who would work, 28 would work in agriculture (primary sector), 14 would work in industry (secondary sector), and the remaining 28 would work in the service sector (tertiary sector). 53 villagers would live on less than two U.S. dollars a day.
• One villager would have AIDS, 26 villagers would smoke, and 14 villagers would be obese.
• By the end of a year, one villager would die and two new villagers would be born so thus the population would climb to 101.

UK as a Village of 100

If Britain were a village of 100 people…

17 of the 100 villagers would be under the age of 15, while another 16 would be 65 or over (three of them 80 or over).

There would be 80 adults (aged 16 or over), of whom 40 would be married and 11 would live alone.

There would be 42 households in the village, of which 13 would be home to just one person. (Six of these would belong to lone pensioners, of whom five would be female.

Of the 19 villagers aged between 20 and 34, four would live with their parents.

The village would welcome one new baby this year. The baby would expect to live for 76 years and six months (if it was a boy), or 81 years and seven months (if it was a girl)

One person would die this year.

Ninety-two of the villagers would be white. Two would be black, two Indian, one Pakistani, one of mixed race and two would be of other races.

Ten people would have been born outside the village, three of whom would live in London.

Six people would be gay or lesbian (probably).

84 of them would live in England, eight in Scotland, five in Wales and three in Northern Ireland

Eight people would live in Greater London (one of them in Croydon).

There would be 51 women and girls, and 49 men and boys.

If Britain were a village of 100 people, and its land mass were scaled down by the same proportion as its population, the village would cover an area the size of 99 football pitches.

Fifty-three of these football pitches would be English, 32 Scottish, nine Welsh and five Northern Irish.

Agricultural land would occupy 20 football pitches, on which 54 sheep, 17 cows, eight pigs and 273 chickens would roam. There would be one farmer.

London would cover just over half a football pitch.

All built-up areas and gardens would occupy the equivalent of six football pitches

Seventy-two people would identify themselves as Christian (although only 10 people in the village would go to church regularly). Fifteen people would say that they were not religious, while there would be two Muslims, one Hindu and 10 people who practised other religions.

Each person would generate 495kg of waste every year. The village as a whole would generate 163kg of waste every day, of which just 47kg would be put out for recycling

If Britain were a village of 100 people, 17 of the villagers would smoke, of whom 11 would like to give up.

Nineteen adults and three children would be classified as obese (that is they would have a Body Mass Index of 30 or greater).

Sixteen men and eight women would usually exceed the Government’s daily sensible drinking benchmark (3-4 units per day for men; 2-3 units a day for women).

Eight men and four women would have taken an illicit drug in the past year

Eight people would have asthma.

Eight adults would be suffering from depression today (but as many as 20 would suffer from depression at some point in their lifetime).

One person would have dementia.

The villagers would have 118 mobile phones between them (66 of which would be pay-as-you-go). There would be 55 telephone landlines.

There would be 90 televisions (an average of more than two per household).

Twenty-one villagers would have watched Andy Murray beat Stanislas Wawrinka under floodlights at Wimbledon this year; 32 people would have watched Susan Boyle lose ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

Of the 42 households in the village, 32 would have satellite, digital or cable television

Twenty-seven households would have access to the internet (24 of those would have a broadband connection).

Thirty people would have a Facebook account.

Sixteen of the villagers would be at school – of whom one would be in private education.

One of the 16 pupils would leave school this year. Twelve of them would, when the time comes, go into higher education. Nine of them would achieve five or more GCSE or equivalent passes at grades A*-C.

One person in the village would be illiterate.

There would be one teacher.

Seven people would be in further education. (In 1990, there were only four.)

Of the 62 villagers of working age, 45 would have jobs; nine of them would be in the public sector.

They would earn an average of £388 a week (including part-time workers).

Of the 13 villagers of working age who weren’t working, four would be unemployed; three would be looking after family and/or home; three would be excluded from the workforce by sickness; two would be students; and one would have taken early retirement.

The 80 adults in the village would share a personal debt of £2.4m (£30,480 each, on average).

Six would be claiming housing benefit; five would own their homes but have negative equity.

The richest 10 people in the village would receive 30 per cent of the total income. Between them, they would earn more than the poorest 50 combined.

The poorest 10 people in the village would receive 2 per cent of total income.

Two adults would not have access to a bank account.

Fifty-six of the 100 villagers would claim to have given to charity within the past four weeks. Overall, the village would donate £17,393 to charity this year.

Twenty people would claim the state pension; 12 would be women.

Five villagers would be employed in the food industry.

Five men and four women would have had multiple sex partners in the previous year.

If Britain were a village of 100 people, there would be 74 voters.

Only 26 of those voters would have gone to the polls at this year’s European elections.

Of the 42 households in the village, 18 would have at least one pet. Between them, those households would have 38 pets (not including fish), including 13 dogs (comprising 10 pedigrees, one cross and two mongrels) and 13 cats (12 of which would be moggies, or non-pedigrees).

Three of the villagers would be vegetarians and a further five would be partly vegetarian.

Between them, the villagers would spend £2,955 a week on food and non-alcoholic drinks. They would spend £1,154 a week on food eaten outside the home, of which £355 would go towards alcohol.

Seventy-eight of the villagers would have a passport.

Fifty-five would have a driving licence.

There would be 56 motor vehicles in the village, including 44 cars and two motorbikes.

Of the 42 households in the village, 18 would have one car, 13 would have two or more cars and 10 would not have a car at all.

In the past year, the people of the village would have made 107 trips abroad, spending £60,055 between them.

I rest my case and invite you to think of our responsibility and accountability let’s transform our world in order that Christ might be seen.    Let us bring the order of the Kingdom of God to our world!