io9: Demographics

What was the world's population when you were born?

Robert T. Gonzalez — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 13:20:00 PDT

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The Guardian is currently featuring a great interactive applet that pumps out population metrics (including the total number of Earth's human residents) for the year you were born. More »

U.S. Life Expectancy Lags Behind Most Industrialized Nations

Tim Barribeau — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 07:40:00 PDT

Making fun of America's healthcare system is low-hanging fruit for many international commentators, what with the lack of universal coverage, incredibly high per capita costs, and frequent bankruptcies. Now a new study has been released showing that life expectancies for most US counties falls behind other industrialized nations. More »

Why didn't more young people go see Thor?

Charlie Jane Anders — Tue, 10 May 2011 12:55:32 PDT

Thor did pretty decent box office numbers in its opening weekend — not Iron Man good, but decent. But one thing stuck out about the Thunder God's results — the audience was 72 percent people 25 years old and older. More »

Can humanity survive a population of over 10 billion people?

Alasdair Wilkins — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 13:20:05 PST

By the end of this year, the human population is expected to reach seven billion people, just twelve years after we hit the six billion milestone. But how much more crowded is our planet going to get? Will we keep on expanding indefinitely, or are we approaching the upper limit? The current consensus is that we'll reach our maximum population by around 2050 and then start to slowly decline...but that might be based on two critically flawed assumptions. More »

When does your income determine the way you vote?

Alasdair Wilkins — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:47:54 PDT

It's election day in the U.S., and Republicans appear set to make major gains in Congress. So why do Americans vote the way they do? The answer is all about income...to a point. More »

We cure cancer — and dystopia is the result, in Albert Brooks' first novel

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:30:00 PDT

Writer/director Albert Brooks may have predicted reality TV with his 1979 movie Real Life, and now he's got an even more dire prediction. In his first novel, coming next May, he has some nasty visions for the year 2030. More »

With 32.7 Million "Excess Males," What Will Become of China?

Annalee Newitz — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:00:00 PDT

For every 100 girls born in China during 2005, 120 boys were born. A new demographic study shows that the biggest population control experiment in history has turned China's youth into the "male generation." More »

Young Adult Books Will Save Science Fiction

Charlie Jane Anders — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:00:00 PDT

The biggest growth in science fiction publishing these days, hands down, is happening in the young adult market, and that's great news. While the "real" science fiction publishers are chasing a shrinking - and graying - readership, tweens and teens are discovering SF for themselves, thanks to books from a diverse range of writers. Best of all, YA science fiction isn't aimed at a subculture, but at everybody of a particular age. More »

Let the Machine Overlords Hear Your Cry in Our Demographic Survey

Annalee Newitz — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 08:40:51 PST

It's been nearly a month since io9 lowered its shields and initiated signal transmission. Now we want to know more about you, our readers. We've posted a brief demographic survey to harvest your innermost thoughts — but we don't want to know anything privacy-invading like your address or phone number. If you fill it out, you will be entered to win some credits with Amazon. So what will we do with the information on this survey, other than feed it to our machine overlords? More »