green infographics

Last year, the world’s population reached 7 billion people. Because of our continually accelerating population growth, we keep hearing that more and more people will end up living in cities (and mega cities).

But what’s that really look like? How will the world change?

Unicef, with the help of design studio Periscopic, released “An Urban World” to answer these questions. It’s an interactive, HTML5 visualization of the world from the years 1950-2050. But rather than showing our geographic boundaries, every country* is depicted only by their population living in urban environments...

The U.N. says today symbolically marks the moment when the world's population reaches 7 billion. A little more than two centuries ago, the global population was 1 billion. How did it grow so big so fast?

The debate on aquifers continues as new technologies designed by oil companies are able to tap historic water reserves deep in the Earth's crust.  The geopolitical significance of water rises as population growth within dry climates continue to rise.   As more countries (and people) compete for limited resources, outbreaks of armed conflict becomes more likely.   The more pertinent question might not be 'if' but 'when.'

Earlier this year, we wrote about the symbolism of October 31 in marking the day the world population reached 7 billion people. A design firm based in Boston, Mass., Fathom Information Design, created “Dencity,” a map of global population density as the world reaches this important milestone. The map uses different size and color circles to represent the distribution of population and density around the world. Larger and darker circles show areas with fewer people. Smaller and brighter circles represent more crowded areas.