A society full of teens, a doctor with a lengthy waitlist, and a massive need for pool floaties. Follow us down the rabbit hole as we theorize how the world would look if there were only 1,000 people left on Earth.
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00:00A society full of teens, a doctor with a lengthy wait list, and a massive need for pool floaties.
00:06Follow us down the rabbit hole as we theorize how the world would look if there were only
00:101,000 people left on Earth.
00:12To complete our thought experiment, let's imagine that the entire population of 1,000
00:16people was living together in one place.
00:18Even with everyone packed together, people would be rightly concerned about obtaining
00:21food.
00:22Data from the World Bank shows that the number of farmers worldwide has declined from 44
00:26percent of the world's population in 1991 to 27 percent in 2019.
00:31In its analysis of this problem, the BBC states that young people have spurned agriculture
00:35as a livelihood, citing hard work for little reward.
00:39The shortage of farmers contributes to food insecurity problems throughout the globe.
00:42This means that in our imagined post-apocalyptic world of 1,000 people, only about 270 are
00:48farmers.
00:49The American Farm Bureau Federation says that in the United States, only 2 percent of the
00:52population are farmers and ranchers who produce a food surplus.
00:55So if agricultural technology is maintained, it's likely that humanity won't starve.
01:00Yet maintaining current levels of technology with such a low population may be impossible,
01:04with research showing that the population size and rate of technology growth are positively
01:08linked.
01:09With so few people who know how to use farming equipment, or even the basics of growing food,
01:13productivity could easily collapse.
01:15This is what farmers do.
01:17Well, then, maybe I'm not a farmer.
01:20Demographically, a world with a random but representative assortment of 1,000 people
01:24around the world would skew young.
01:27World demographic data collected by the United Nations shows that the median age of humans
01:31worldwide is 30.
01:32The UN's data on percentages of people by age group also reveals what can be expected
01:36to translate in a world of 1,000.
01:38For example, 22.2 percent of the world's population were between the ages of 0 and 4 in 2021.
01:44This would translate to 222 of the post-apocalyptic world of 1,000.
01:48This young society becomes clearer, since 52.8 percent of the world's population is
01:52between the ages of 0 and 19, which translates to 528 people.
01:57Looking at the other end of the age spectrum, there would be relatively few elders.
02:02Those over 65 years of age comprise only 4.8 percent of the population, meaning that there
02:06would be 48 of these older cohorts in the world of 1,000 people.
02:11But the fact that society will be young might be a good thing.
02:13The UN tells us that countries with young populations have accelerated economic growth,
02:17though they also tend to be politically unstable.
02:20The few older people will hopefully come to be treated as respected elders based on
02:23their experience, and perhaps this would help stabilize the 1,000-person world.
02:28You're a strong young boy.
02:30Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag.
02:34Good idea!
02:37As for planet Earth itself, it would no doubt be thankful for a 1,000-person world.
02:41The fact is that with so few humans, all the environmental stresses caused by people would
02:45virtually vanish.
02:46Disruptor explored the question as to what would happen if all humans vanished in an
02:50interview with associate professor Mike Weston from Deakin University.
02:53He predicts that while wildlife would quickly repopulate the planet, domesticated animals
02:57might die out.
02:58In addition, populations of animals like rats, pigeons, and seagulls that are not domesticated
03:03but have thrived in symbiosis may suffer population shocks.
03:06Still, on the whole, Professor Weston imagines a healthier world.
03:10When considering how depopulated areas such as Chernobyl ecologically recovered with humans
03:14absent, it is easy to picture.
03:17With only 1,000 people around, there would hardly be a single person in this society
03:21equipped with the skills to hack out a living in the wilderness.
03:24In 2018, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science published an article that studied
03:28hunter-gatherer populations.
03:30They estimated that there are about 10 million people divided among 300 different hunter-gatherer
03:34societies.
03:35In a world with 8 billion people, this equates to roughly 0.125% of the world's population.
03:41When this percentage is applied to a population of 1,000, they would consider themselves lucky
03:45if there was even a single individual with a hunter-gatherer background.
03:48This lack of traditional skills might endanger the entire population.
03:52Of course, some people who are not hunter-gatherers learn survival skills such as those in Boy
03:56Scouts and Girl Scouts.
03:57However, the number of Scouts are even fewer than hunter-gatherers, so humanity may be
04:01doomed unless it can find a DVD of Bear Grylls shows.
04:05If you're one of the 1,000 people left on Earth, you would naturally be concerned about
04:09maintaining your health, so you'd hope there'd at least be a few among the population who
04:13were doctors.
04:14They're a doctor?
04:15We need a doctor!
04:16However, World Bank data tells us that there are about 1.6 physicians per 1,000 people.
04:21So while this means that there would be at least one doctor, that person would have 999
04:25patients.
04:26Then there's the problem of what kind of doctor it is.
04:29While there is no clear data worldwide, in the United States, the Association of American
04:33Medical Colleges shows that the largest specialty is internal medicine followed by general practice.
04:39This means that the odds are that the physician in the post-apocalyptic world would be a generalist,
04:43which is probably the most useful for minor issues.
04:46But in a world where the knowledge of modern medicine has essentially been wiped off the
04:49planet, even small issues would quickly become big problems, as life-saving basics like antibiotics
04:55run out.
04:57A world with 1,000 people would also have a large number of people with disabilities.
05:00The World Health Organization, or the WHO, claims there are 1.6 billion people in the
05:05world today with a disability.
05:06People with disabilities occur on a spectrum from moderate to severe, such as blindness
05:10or deafness, trouble conducting basic activities such as walking or eating, or facing restrictions
05:16from participating in human activities.
05:18Since the WHO lumps so many people with different levels of disabilities together, the 1.6 billion
05:23translates to about 20% of the world's population, or 200 persons in a world of 1,000.
05:28On one hand, their outcome may be grim, as some societies like ancient Sparta rid themselves
05:33of children perceived to be less than perfect by leaving them to die through exposure.
05:37On the other hand, in the 1,000-person world, such a visibility might make disabilities
05:41normalized and society could work harder to accommodate them.
05:44In a world with 1,000 people, one of the chief difficulties would be language barriers.
05:49There are over 7,100 languages spoken in the world today, but the language website Ethnologue
05:54points out that the vast majority of people are speakers of only a handful of them.
05:59This means that the 1,000-person world will possibly face a breakdown in communication
06:02unless everyone agrees on one common language.
06:05There are 1.5 billion English speakers in the world, which is almost 19% of the world's
06:10population, while Mandarin Chinese comes in at 1.1 billion, which is almost 14%.
06:15Thus, in a world of 1,000 people, 190 individuals would speak English and 140 would speak Chinese.
06:21The third most spoken language is Hindi, which comprises 7.5% of the world's population.
06:27Therefore, in a world of 1,000, there would be 75 Hindi speakers.
06:30From there, other languages would be spoken by fewer and fewer people, isolating those
06:34speakers from many other survivors.
06:36Since the beginning of time, humans have waged war upon each other for a multitude of reasons.
06:41With that said, one might expect that in a 1,000-person world, a fair number of people
06:45who come from a random sampling of humans today would be of military ilk.
06:49The truth is rather surprising.
06:51World Bank shows that in 2019, 27.6 million people were service members of the armed forces
06:57around the world.
06:58This equates to 0.35% of the world's population.
07:00Thus, in a world of 1,000 people, there may or may not be one person who is active in
07:05the military.
07:06However, there would likely be a veteran or two.
07:08Does this mean a world without war?
07:09There's always hope.
07:10A Rutgers University Newark study published in Scientific American agrees that while humans
07:15certainly kill on an individual basis, war is not an innate trait.
07:19The author writes,
07:20"...war is fostered by culturally specific systems of knowledge and values that generate
07:24powerful meanings of us versus them."
07:26And in a 1,000-person world, is there really much of a them to speak of?
07:31One key skill for those who want to survive is swimming.
07:34Regrettably, in a world of 1,000 people, most would be unable to swim.
07:38Gallup analyzed a Lloyd's Register Foundation World Risk Poll and found that 55% of humans
07:43aged 15 and older could not effectively swim.
07:45If we assume those younger than 15 are even less likely to have learned how to swim, that
07:49means only a few hundred people know how to swim in a 1,000-person world.
07:53"-Help me!
07:54I can't swim!
07:55I'm drowning!
07:56Oh, God, I'm drowning!
07:57What the fuck?"
08:01Interestingly, and what demonstrates a small example of the inequality between different
08:06countries of the world today, the swimmers in this world would mainly come from countries
08:10that were wealthy before the apocalypse.
08:12The data shows that 76% of people from high-income countries know how to swim, as compared to
08:1727% from poor countries.
08:19Even in wealthy countries, research shows there's a big difference between whites and
08:22minorities, as the latter are less likely to have learned how to swim.
08:26What is more, there would be a sex divide among swimmers.
08:29Around the world, 57% of men can swim, compared to only 32% of women.
08:33All of this data shows that in a world of 1,000 people, humanity would be far better
08:37off setting up inland rather than the ruins of something like a former seaside resort.
08:42If there were 1,000 people in the world, most people would follow a religion.
08:46But there would likely be only three to choose from.
08:49The Pew Research Center conducted a study concerning the breakdown of religions by size
08:53as a portion of the world's population.
08:55They found that of the different religions, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism were the
08:59most dominant, being practiced by 31.5%, 23.2%, and 15% of the population, respectively.
09:06If these percentages are applied to a population of 1,000 people, this means that a little
09:10over 310 people would be Christian, a bit over 230 Muslim, and 150 individuals Hindu.
09:16Other religions would be much smaller.
09:19For example, by applying the Pew percentages, there would be just over 70 Buddhists and
09:2220 Jewish people in a world of 1,000 persons.
09:25People who practice various folk religions, which may include native traditions throughout
09:29the world, would account for about 59 people.
09:32With statistics like these, society would be religiously pluralistic.
09:35But the long-term notion of peaceful toleration may be remote, since multiple religions in
09:40one place is usually cause for trouble.
09:42For example, in the 20th century, Lebanon ran a republic represented by blocks of Christians
09:46and Muslims.
09:47In 1975, differences between the groups proved to be insurmountable, resulting in a civil
09:52war that lasted for over a decade, killing over 100,000 people.
09:56When looking at a world of 1,000 people, one may wonder what the ethnic makeup of such
10:00a society would be.
10:01But ethnic makeup is not always easily measured, so what might be a little more accurate is
10:06measuring from where people originated.
10:08Statista provides a breakdown by continent to the world's population.
10:12In its analysis, it places 59% of the world's population in Asia, with nearly 18% from Africa,
10:17In the hypothetical 1,000-person world, this would mean that 590 come from Asia and 180
10:23from Africa.
10:24Representation from the other continents would be quite small.
10:27For example, there would be only 47 people from North America and 93 people from Europe.
10:32The 1,000-person world would be genetically diverse at first.
10:35This would be helpful in the long run, since a 1,000-person population would result in
10:39a genetic bottleneck.
10:40Over time, these initial survivors will have children, and eventually there will be interbreeding.
10:45Genetic diversity will start to diminish, and the population would become susceptible
10:48to disease and find it harder to adapt.
10:50In the long run, humanity may be doomed to some future disease to which it cannot adapt.