We continue the series that we started in the previous issue (see Natl Med J India 2006:19:234–5)
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   Figure 1 shows the distribution of children (defined as those <15 years of age) among various countries or territories of the world, based on data drawn from the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) Human development report 2004.1 The number of children worldwide was 1826 million, forming 29.3% of the entire population. Africa has the highest percentage of children; for instance, in Uganda and Niger half the population is <15 years old. In Italy, Spain and Japan, only 14% of the population are children. India had 349 million children among its 1050 million inhabitants, forming nearly 33% of the entire population.


   Figure 2 shows the worldwide distribution of elderly people (>65 years old).2 The data used to draw this figure come from the UNDP’s Human development report 2004, Table 5, and relate to year 2002.2 In the year 2002, there were 444 million elderly people worldwide, forming nearly 7% of the world population. This proportion varied between countries, from only 1% in the United Arab Emirates to 7% in China, 11% in Northern America and Eastern Europe, and 17% in Western Europe. Africa was home to only 6% of the world’s elderly. India had 54 million elderly people, forming nearly 5.1% of the total population of 1050 million.
Source: http://www.worldmapper.org