Economies	1998 (millions)	2015 (millions)
Low-income economies	3536	4436
Middle-income economies	1474	1748
High-income economies	886	928
Total world population	5897	7113

1. Calculate the percentage of the world population that lived in low-, middle-, and high-income countries in 1998.
2. Describe the general distribution of the world’s population among low-, middle-, and high-income countries.
3. Calculate the percentage of the world’s population that is projected to live in low-, middle-, and high-income countries in 2015.
4. Compare the percentages for each country income group and describe the change between 1998 and 2015.

 

Country	1998 population (millions)	Region (millions)	Income group

1. Which two countries had the largest populations?
2. To which income group did these two countries belong?
3. Which region had the most countries in the top five most populous nations?

4. Use the Social Data Table to fill in the population information for China and India in the following table. Next, calculate the percentage of the world’s population that is represented by China and India for 1998 and 2015 and add that information to the table. (Divide each country’s population by the world’s population and multiply the figure by 100.) Then answer the questions that follow.

	Population 1998	% of world population 1998	Average annual population growth rate 1998–2015	Population 2015	% of world population 2015
China			.7
India			1.3
World	5,897,000,000	----	1.1	7,113,000,000	---

1. Compare the population size of these two countries in 1998. How many times larger was China’s population than India’s? (Divide China’s population by India’s population.)
2. Compare the population size of these two countries in 2015. How many times larger is China’s population expected to be than India’s?
3. India has a smaller population base than China, yet the gap in their populations is expected to decrease significantly in the next few years. How can you account for this?
4. Add the projected 2015 populations of the two countries. What percentage of the world’s population will they represent?
5. Given the population size projections of these two countries, in what ways might they play important roles in the world economy? In your answer consider China and India’s potential as producers and consumers, and to what extent this potential depends on the development of their human capital and the use of their natural resources.

5. In 1998, four out of every five people in the world lived in low- and middle-income countries. As this percentage increases, what might be some of the impacts on the global economy? On the environment? On peace and security issues?