The word “typical,” when expressed about a person or population, often comes out as a nasty stereotype — which is why we won’t offer examples.
The environmentally minded folks at National Geographic, however, stuck to hard numbers for this video. It describes a typical person, built with hard demographics.
The video says the world’s most typical person is right-handed, makes less than $12,000 a year (ouch!) and has a cell phone, but not a bank account. Go figure. As for typical-ness based on sex and ethnicity, that person is a 28-year-old male Han Chinese.
Mr. Typical is male because guys outnumber gals worldwide — but just barely. In Australia, it’s the other way around — just barely. And the median age here is 36.8 years.
The video is a promotional piece for National Geographic’s year-long series on global population. And, not surprisingly, it ends with a pointed message: “Typical people have choices to make, but they’re not the same for everyone. And our choices make a big difference when multiplied by 7 billion.”
Are you typical?
Image by Mike Beltzner