Markets

The Majority of the World’s Population Lives in This Circle

Published

6 years ago

September 9, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

Chart: The Majority of the World's Population Lives in This Circle

Sphere of Influence

More than half of the people on Earth live within this circle

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Back in 2013, a meme circulated quickly off of a Reddit post that showed the incredible population density of the southeast corner of Asia.

You may have seen it: the satellite map showed, quite simply, that “more people live inside this circle, than outside of it”.

The Population Epicenter

We are in the business of explaining the world through compelling and intuitive visuals – and we thought that this powerful “meme” could use a refresh with some additional graphical context.

To start, we’ve used 2016 information on population. There are now at least 3.8 billion people living inside the highlighted circle, and that’s not even including the tally from countries that are partially in the circle like Pakistan or Russia.

The circle holds 22 of the world’s 37 megacities – massive cities that hold at least 10 million inhabitants. It also includes the five most populous cities on the planet: Tokyo, Jakarta, Seoul, Karachi, and Shanghai, which alone combine to hold 144.5 million people.

This geographical region also holds many of the emerging markets of the future, countries that the World Economic Forum expects will lead global growth in years to come. Vietnam, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia, and Bangladesh are in the area highlighted, and Pakistan is partially there as well.

Points of Interest

As a website called BrilliantMaps explains, there are some other subtleties to the circle that are worth detailing:

The circle contains a lot of people, but it also has:

The highest mountain (Everest)
The deepest ocean trench (Mariana)
More Muslims than outside of it.
More Hindus than outside of it.
More Buddhists than outside of it.
More communists than outside of it.
The most sparsely populated country on earth (Mongolia)

What a fascinating world we live in.

Related Topics:china india cities maps population asia megacities

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Agriculture

Charted: U.S. Egg Prices More Than Double in 2022

This chart shows the increase in the national average price of a dozen Grade A eggs in the U.S. in 2022.

Creator Program

Published

22 mins ago

January 31, 2023

Pallavi Rao

This chart shows the increase in the national average price of a dozen grade-A eggs in the U.S. in 2022.

Charted: U.S. Egg Prices Double in 2022

Eggs are a staple food for many countries around the world, and the U.S. is no exception. Americans eat between 250‒280 eggs a year on average.

Eggs are also easy to cook, protein-dense and supply many daily vitamins needed for healthy living, making them a popular meal or ingredient. So when egg prices rise, people notice.

MetalytIQ charted the rapid rise of egg prices in the U.S. during 2022, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS).

Eggs-asperating Prices

Over the course of 12 months, the national average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs more than doubled, to $4.25 in December from $1.93 in January.

Egg Prices Per Month (2022)	Price per dozen
January	$1.30
February	$2.10
March	$2.50
April	$2.52
May	$2.86
June	$2.71
July	$2.94
August	$3.12
September	$2.90
October	$3.42
November	$3.59
December	$4.25

The biggest culprit has been an avian flu outbreak that resulted in 43 million chickens culled to prevent the spread of the disease.

This led to a severe shortfall in egg supply. Egg inventories in December had fallen by one-third compared to January. Combined with increasing demand during the holiday season, prices skyrocketed and empty shelves became apparent in some states.

This is not the first time avian flu has disrupted the industry.. In 2015, a similar outbreak pushed egg prices up 40% in nine months, reaching a high of $2.97 per dozen eggs in September 2015.

Will Egg Prices Drop in 2023?

Avian flu isn’t the only storm the egg industry has been facing in 2022.

The prices of soybean and corn—the main components of bird feed—account for half of the cost of eggs. They’ve been heavily affected by the war in Ukraine, which has driven grain prices higher.

In the near-term, egg prices are expected to remain high. Containing the avian flu outbreak will remain the biggest factor in determining the prices, but as suppliers increase production, prices may cool off a little in 2023.

Eggs and dairy make up nearly 10% of the average person’s daily calorie intake. Check out the rest of our dietary make-up in Visualizing a Rapidly Changing Global Diet.