Trivia

There are a lot of ditties we know in part but not the whole. “Some like it hot, some like it cold,” is one of them. “I love coffee, she loves tea” is another. We are lovers of bits and pieces, odds and ends, and even “One man's junk is another man's treasure” sums it up well.

World population death rates, income stats, number of phones and personal computers, levels of education and personal income intrigue some but bore others. National Geographic came out with an insert in one of its monthly magazines with a huge disclosure of The World of Seven Billion. People, that is.

It is loaded with trivia (for some) and invaluable data (for others). How many of these charts hang on walls of homes is anyone's guess. Mine adorned my desk until I needed a topic for Senior Moments. Aha, I thought, here's some invaluable data (or some unearthly trivia that ought to be shared with those who missed this issue.

One item may be of interest: a decent standard of living is higher than it has ever been. That's good to know because we so often are reminded of earthly poverty. It also indicated that the world can handle 9 billion inhabitants easily but it is unlikely that it will exceed that for a long time because the last two hundred years of explosive population growth will probably peak by the year 2050.

Why? Many reasons. In spite of more children growing into adulthood and people living longer than ever, and fewer die because of better health and prevention of disease. So, why the decline? Smaller families, delays in giving birth, accelerating abortion rates and possible increase of destructive acts of nature and so on.

Moving on we discover that the low income level ($995 a year or less) involves one billion people, the same number as upper middle ($3,946- $12,195) and high income people ($12,196 or more). The lower middle class earns $996-$3,945 with 4 billion. And you guessed it, the gap between the rich and the poor is separated by a middle-income class that barely existed fifty years ago.

Another fact: the net migration rate (per 1,000 people) is -0.58% for the poorest people vs. 2.57% for the wealthiest. Some 200 million people live outside of the country in which they were born. Finally, carbon dioxide emissions per capita in metric tons is 1 for the poor and 435.1 for the richest.

A senior moment bit of trivia? Probably not.