There are approximately six billion people in the world today. Nearly 2/3 of them are Asians living on less than 1/3 of the land. Only about 5% of the world's people live in North America. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau 1997) Asia 55.9 red Africa 12.8 orange Europe 8.7 yellow Latin America and Caribbean 8.5 green North America (U.S. and Canada) 5.1 blue Near East 2.7 navy Oceania (Pacific Islands) 0.5 violet