OK, I'm fascinated by statistics, so I've compiled some off various sites to see if it can spark any trivial sort of responses from the data gathered. Try to steer away from anything political.
Just to start off with some population data
World 6.4531903 billion
China 1.34 billion
India 1.09 billion
United States of America 294.54 million
Indonesia 221.78 million
Brazil 183.2 million
Pakistan 157 million
Russia 146.74 million
Japan 127.94 million
Germany 82.63 million
France 59.5 million
United Kingdom 59.16 million
Italy 56 million
South Africa 47.56 million
Spain 41.9 million
Poland 38 million
Argentina 37 million
Canada 32 million
Australia 20.23 million
Netherlands 16.36 million
Greece 11.2 million
Portugal 10.4 million
Belgium 10.37 million
Sweden 9 million
Bulgaria 7.9 million
Switzerland 7.43 million
Israel 6.7 million
Denmark 5.41 million
Finland 5.22 million
Norway 4.58 million
Ireland 4.02 million
New Zealand 3.81 million
This population data was gathered from http://www.world-gazetteer.com/home.htm which is fairly up to date (2004)
Largest countries by size
Russia 17,075,400 sq km, (6,592,846 sq miles)
Canada 9,330,970 sq km, (3,602,707 sq miles)
China 9,326,410 sq km, (3,600,947 sq miles)
United States 9.166,600 sq km, (3,539,242 sq miles)
Brazil 8,456,510 sq km, (3,265,075 sq miles)
Australia 7,617,930 sq km, (2,941,283 sq miles)
India 2,973,190 sq km, (1,147,949 sq miles)
Argentina 2,736,690 sq km, (1,056,636 sq miles)
Kazakhstan 2,717,300 sq km, (1,049,150 sq miles)
Sudan 2,376,000 sq km, (917,374 sq miles)
Most people think that Australia is just some little country down under somewhere, population wise they are right, but as far as size goes you'd be surprised.
here are some comparisons that I found:
Australia trying to fit in Asia, well it could fit quite easily.
Europe and Australia are fairly similar in size
The main 48 states of the USA is fairly similar aswell
The USA would actually fit into Africa over 3 times (the pic is not really to scale) and the Asian continent is larger than Africa
This picture is a good indicator of where mass populations of people live, although I think the richer countries have more electricity
for a larger version: http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/wrldnightlightslrg.jpg
Notice that most of the population of Australia live in 3 cities on the lower half of the east coast, most of the continent is desert or deserted. (and also a lot is owned by Aboriginal people, how nice of us to give them this land for free) [sarcasm]
The population of the city of Sydney is 4.3 million which is slightly more than L.A. 3.9 million which would make it the second largest city in the USA behind New York City 8.13 million [note this doesn't include surrounding areas]
There are different ways used to calculate the largest cities in the world, eg. adding the populations of cities with other surrounding areas and cities.
EG. I found that sometimes Seoul Korea was the largest city (I think by not including surrounding area)
Sometimes Tokyo Japan was (I think that included surrounding areas) and in that same way New York was 2nd with about 30 million [this includes the New York-Philadelphia area]
Also Mumbai (Bombay), India, was listed as the most populated city (I think this was the most up to date site, In this list Karâchi, Pakistan came in 4th, Tokyo 16th, New York 17th, London 20th, Beijing 24th, Toronto 30th & Sydney 36th
Hong Kong is the most densely populated city in the world.
Stats can be silly things sometimes cause you can just work out a way to get the stats you want. You can also get the world record for any obscure thing you can think of that noone else would even think about, eg. a lot of the things in the Guinness Book of Records.
I'm probably just boring everyone, your lucky I'm not talking about Cricket, in which Australia just won a best of 3 finals series against India 2-0. Last night they beat them by 208 runs which is one of the largest wins in history and probably against the 2nd best team (it was sad really cause most of the other games were really close) that's One Day cricket, the 4 test 5day match series was tied 1 all.
Just to start off with some population data
World 6.4531903 billion
China 1.34 billion
India 1.09 billion
United States of America 294.54 million
Indonesia 221.78 million
Brazil 183.2 million
Pakistan 157 million
Russia 146.74 million
Japan 127.94 million
Germany 82.63 million
France 59.5 million
United Kingdom 59.16 million
Italy 56 million
South Africa 47.56 million
Spain 41.9 million
Poland 38 million
Argentina 37 million
Canada 32 million
Australia 20.23 million
Netherlands 16.36 million
Greece 11.2 million
Portugal 10.4 million
Belgium 10.37 million
Sweden 9 million
Bulgaria 7.9 million
Switzerland 7.43 million
Israel 6.7 million
Denmark 5.41 million
Finland 5.22 million
Norway 4.58 million
Ireland 4.02 million
New Zealand 3.81 million
This population data was gathered from http://www.world-gazetteer.com/home.htm which is fairly up to date (2004)
Largest countries by size
Russia 17,075,400 sq km, (6,592,846 sq miles)
Canada 9,330,970 sq km, (3,602,707 sq miles)
China 9,326,410 sq km, (3,600,947 sq miles)
United States 9.166,600 sq km, (3,539,242 sq miles)
Brazil 8,456,510 sq km, (3,265,075 sq miles)
Australia 7,617,930 sq km, (2,941,283 sq miles)
India 2,973,190 sq km, (1,147,949 sq miles)
Argentina 2,736,690 sq km, (1,056,636 sq miles)
Kazakhstan 2,717,300 sq km, (1,049,150 sq miles)
Sudan 2,376,000 sq km, (917,374 sq miles)
Most people think that Australia is just some little country down under somewhere, population wise they are right, but as far as size goes you'd be surprised.
here are some comparisons that I found:
Australia trying to fit in Asia, well it could fit quite easily.
Europe and Australia are fairly similar in size
The main 48 states of the USA is fairly similar aswell
The USA would actually fit into Africa over 3 times (the pic is not really to scale) and the Asian continent is larger than Africa
This picture is a good indicator of where mass populations of people live, although I think the richer countries have more electricity
for a larger version: http://www.2dadventure.com/ags/wrldnightlightslrg.jpg
Notice that most of the population of Australia live in 3 cities on the lower half of the east coast, most of the continent is desert or deserted. (and also a lot is owned by Aboriginal people, how nice of us to give them this land for free) [sarcasm]
The population of the city of Sydney is 4.3 million which is slightly more than L.A. 3.9 million which would make it the second largest city in the USA behind New York City 8.13 million [note this doesn't include surrounding areas]
There are different ways used to calculate the largest cities in the world, eg. adding the populations of cities with other surrounding areas and cities.
EG. I found that sometimes Seoul Korea was the largest city (I think by not including surrounding area)
Sometimes Tokyo Japan was (I think that included surrounding areas) and in that same way New York was 2nd with about 30 million [this includes the New York-Philadelphia area]
Also Mumbai (Bombay), India, was listed as the most populated city (I think this was the most up to date site, In this list Karâchi, Pakistan came in 4th, Tokyo 16th, New York 17th, London 20th, Beijing 24th, Toronto 30th & Sydney 36th
Hong Kong is the most densely populated city in the world.
Stats can be silly things sometimes cause you can just work out a way to get the stats you want. You can also get the world record for any obscure thing you can think of that noone else would even think about, eg. a lot of the things in the Guinness Book of Records.
I'm probably just boring everyone, your lucky I'm not talking about Cricket, in which Australia just won a best of 3 finals series against India 2-0. Last night they beat them by 208 runs which is one of the largest wins in history and probably against the 2nd best team (it was sad really cause most of the other games were really close) that's One Day cricket, the 4 test 5day match series was tied 1 all.
It's all about having fun creating a game to fit the rules. And just remember, for 20 people that say they'll enter, there is usually 3 people that actually do. Don't be put off, just give it a go.