I remember reading somewhere that if you are one in a million in China, then there are a million more people out there just like you. I don't know if that's completely true or not, but I found this marvelously interesting graphic yesterday that puts the population of China in perspective...it shows all the cities in China with a population over one million (click to enlarge):
According to this chart, there are 60 cities in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) with a population exceeding 1 million souls. That's a lot of people, and a lot of big cities. And I've never heard of most of them. The fifth largest city in China is Dongguan, with a population of 10,000,000...yes, I said ten million. Ever heard of it? I hadn't. Only Paris, Los Angeles, and New York in the West are larger...and the figures for the Chinese cities are from 2007 - so this chart is already three years out of date!
Wow. That's a lot of people to feed, house, and supply with fresh water and electricity.
The source of the information used in this graphic is Demographia.com, a fascinating website for urban planners and policy researchers that has more demographic information about more places than you could ever want to know.
No particular message for today...just a really neat graphic that even Edward Tufte could appreciate.
Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.
Bilbo
P.S. - boy, that's a lot of Chinese, isn't it?
B.
4 comments:
I was going to say something about birth control...but I'll keep it to myself.
According to World Development Indicators, the 2008 estimated population of China was 1,324,655,000. That makes 1,324 just like you if you're 1 in a million in China. Still pretty staggering.
wv: dectusew--a sewing circle consisting of ten ladies
I'm surprised prople know how many there are in China. It's so vast.
I was getting ready to comment when 'Poof!', everythings dead. That was three hours ago. Oh, well, it's post material for tomorrow.
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