Band 5+: The pie charts below give information about world population in 1900 and 2000. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.

The pie charts illustrate the proportion of the global population distributed in different regions between 1990 and 2000.

Overall, there was massive growth in the world population over a century, with Asia consistently having by far the highest number of people living there. It is noticeable that people arrived in a new region called the Middle East and North Africa in 2000.

During the 100-year period, the proportion of people living in Asia recorded a minor decrease, from 60% to 54%, but it still took the leading position in the total global population by region. Similarly, that of Europe (including Russia) dropped more than 10%, coming in second.

In contrast, both Africa and Latin America saw an upward trend in terms of population, increasing slightly by the same amount of 5%, from 5% to 10% and 3% to 8%, respectively. In addition, while the percentage of North America’s population remained stable at 5% until 2000, there were more people in the Middle East and North Africa, with 6% recorded at the same time.