who is most typical?

The world's most typical person

Is right handed

Makes less than $12,000 a year

Has a cell phone

But not a bank account.

Less than 25% of us do

So what does he look like?

The world's most typical person is male

Males outnumber females

but just barely

The median age of the world's population is 28

The largest ethnic group is Han Chinese

Based on these traits

the world's most typical person is

a 28-year-old Han Chinese man

There are over 9,000,000 of them

Researchers averaged 190,00

of their photos

to create a composite image

This is the world's most typical person

But he won't be typical for long

By 2030 that person will come from India

And typical is always relative

The typical man in Holland is 5' 11"

The typical man in Peru is 5' 4 1/2"

In Japan, the typical woman lives nearly 86 years

In Afghanistan, she lives 45 years

The typical American uses 100 gallons of water

at home per day

In parts of Ethiopia, it's 2.5 gallons

And some women spend 8 hours/day collecting it

Typical people have choices to make

But they're not the same for everyone

And our choices make a big difference

When multiplied by 7 billion

7 billion - The surprising face of the most typical human

A year-long series on global population in National Geographic Magazine