Maybe you haven't heard yet, but the world's population is set to hit 7 billion people on Monday. At least that's what the United Nations Population Fund says.
Most news outlets are already covering the story or have plans to (Morning Edition has a four-part series scheduled for next week).
Two reports this week caught our attention.
CBS News, building on work by National Geographic, tracked down "Earth's most typical person." He's 28-year-old Mu Li, who is "working in New York City as a reporter for People's Daily, China's state newspaper."
He fits the profile National Geographic came up with based on a set of data points that concluded there are 9 million Han Chinese men — the largest pool National Geographic could find — who also:
-- Are 28 years old (the global median age).
-- Right-handed.
-- Christian.
-- Speak Mandarin.
-- Own a cell phone.
-- Don't have a car or bank account.
-- Make less than $12,000 a year.
"I have a common face, a common background. Suddenly you realize, you say, 'Wow, you are the most typical person in the world,' " Li told CBS.
The other report that caught our eye is from the BBC, which has an interactive tool that allows you to find "your number" in the world. Plug in your date of birth and it tells you how many people were alive when you were born and where you come in historically.
This blogger, according to that tool, was the "2,946,269,125th person alive on Earth [and the] 76,515,646,207th person to have lived since history began.
Curiously, a similar tool from Population Action International says I was No. 2,960,379,618 when I was born. Close, but not quite the same.
Plug yourself in to see where you fit.
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