Who is the average person in the world, and what is their age, location, physical appearance etc.?
Hillary Shaw
Advertisement
Newport, Shropshire, UK
The 鈥渁verage鈥� person in the world today is male, Chinese, around 40, living near the Myanmar border, working in the service sector on $30,000 a year, with two children, living in a large city like Kunming.
However, by the mid-21st century, this person would have had to emigrate to India, maybe take a small pay cut and change sex to remain 鈥渁verage鈥�. The hard bit would be ageing just five years by 2050.
Jeff Dickens
Banchory, Aberdeenshire, UK
Even if we were to identify Joe Average, studies indicate that they would almost certainly not realise their averageness and may forcefully deny it.
鈥淭he better-than-average effect means that we all tend to rate our abilities and performance as above average鈥�
When people are asked to rate their own abilities and performance on a whole range of topics and factors, they tend to rate themselves as above average (assuming that is the better place to be perceived to be).
This is so commonly observed by psychologists that it has been named the better-than-average effect. So, good luck with your attempts to wheel Joe out into the spotlight!
Albert Lewis
Toronto, Canada
I can鈥檛 help much with age and location, but I have some insight on physical appearance: we are looking for someone with one breast and one testicle.
Frank Leyland
Hereford, UK
Averages can only be applied to numeric values, not anything as ill-defined as a person. The 鈥渁verage location鈥� for all the world鈥檚 people would be somewhere deep in Earth鈥檚 core.
Pat French
Telford, Shropshire, UK
I would stay away from averages where humans are concerned. Remember that human beings have an average of less than two legs.
David Pitcher
Auckland, New Zealand
If anyone starts looking for an average person, they won鈥檛 find them. This was tried in the 1940s, when US newspaper Plain Dealer ran a front-page story with the headline: 鈥淎re you Norma, typical woman?鈥�
Norma was a statue on display at the Cleveland Health Museum, supposedly depicting the physique of the average woman. Her dimensions had been devised by gynaecologist Robert Dickison based on measurements of 15,000 young adult women. The newspaper was offering a prize to the real-life woman whose dimensions most closely matched those of Norma. The winner was a woman named Martha Skidmore.
But it turns out that average doesn鈥檛 really exist. Not only did Skidmore鈥檚 dimensions fail to match nearly half of Norma鈥檚 measurements, but almost none of the contestants shared any resemblance with Norma鈥檚 physique.
In the 1950s, the realisation that few people match the average dimensions led the for its aircraft. Cockpits designed for the average-sized pilot were the cause of many disasters.
@jeremymarchant
via Twitter
This put me in mind of a remark by stand-up comedian George Carlin: 鈥淭hink about how stupid the average person is, and then realise that half of them are stupider than that.鈥�
听
To answer this question 鈥� or ask a new one 鈥� email lastword@newscientist.com.
Questions should be scientific enquiries about everyday phenomena, and both questions and answers should be concise. We reserve the right to edit items for clarity and style. Please include a postal address, daytime telephone number and email address.
杏吧原创 retains total editorial control over the published content and reserves all rights to reuse question and answer material that has been submitted by readers in any medium or in any format.