What if the world could shrink, proportionally, to just 100 people? How would the population’s ages, nationalities, basic needs and possessions divide?

Dartmouth professor Donella Meadows was the first to answer these questions in 1990 when she wrote “State of the Village Report,” a newspaper article that examined what the world’s social, physical and economic makeup would look like if it were shrunk to 1,000 people. Two years later, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison, Wis., revised Meadows’ look at the world, shrinking the global village to 100 people.

Since then, updates have brought the village into modern times, with the most recent changes involving global statistics from 2011. So again, a question: If the world were a village of only 100 people, 50 men and 50 women, who would they be, and what challenges would they face?

Let’s meet them.

Contact Emily Inverso at [email protected].

Graphic by Karen Holcomb