Hans Rosling: Do you know more about the world than a chimpanzee? 6 November 2013 Last updated at 19:43 The world may have many problems, from climate change to armed conflict, natural disasters, poverty and the oppression of women and minorities - but where does population growth fit into this catalogue of woes? With the population of the world at seven billion and rising, many fear a shortage of resources as well as a shortage of space. Swedish professor Hans Rosling, however, says it's time for a reality check. When pollsters got 1,000 British people to take Rosling's "ignorance survey" in May this year, the results suggested they knew "less about the world than chimpanzees," he says. Take a version of the test in this quiz, and compare your results. In 1950 there were fewer than one billion children (aged 0-14) in the world. By 2000 there were almost two billion. How many do UN experts think there will be in 2100? Two billion Three billion Nearly four billion Which map best shows how the world's seven billion people are spread between the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia? Each figure represents one billion. What is the average life expectancy at birth in the world today? 50 years 60 years 70 years What is the literacy rate for adults in the world as a whole today? Which curve shows the present income distribution of the world as a whole, measured in dollars earned per day? In the world as a whole, men now aged 25-34 years spent a total of eight years at school. How long did women in the same age group spend at school? Three years Five years In the last 20 years, how did the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty change? Almost halved Remained much the same Almost doubled About * of world energy comes from solar and wind power In 1965 women had five babies, on average worldwide. How many do they have on average today? It's two billion, much the same as in 2000. We have, in Hans Rosling's words, entered the age of Peak Child. When a similar question was put to just over 1,000 British respondents in May this year, nearly half guessed four billion, and most of the rest guessed three billion. Only 8% selected two billion or less. It's map B. The Americas, Africa and Europe each have a population of about one billion, while Asia's population is about four billion - in Hans Rosling's phrase, the Pin code of the world is 1114. Only 35% of British respondents (who were shown four maps rather than three) picked the right one. It's 70 years. There has been a 10-year rise in life expectancy over the past five decades, thanks to great advances in healthcare. A majority of British respondents thought the correct answer was 60 years or less. Some 80% of adults in the world today can read and write. Only 8% of British respondents got this right - and half thought the right answer was 40% or less. Respondents with university education were even more likely than others to get it wrong. It's B. In the past our world was fairly clearly divided into two distinct groups of rich and poor, corresponding to what we called "developed" and "developing" countries (similar to curve C). But today the picture is different. When it comes to income, we have a continuously distributed world where most people live in the middle. It's seven years. Huge progress has been made in improving girls' access to education. It's tragic when girls are prevented from going to school by cultural taboos, but the numbers affected are shrinking. When British respondents were asked a similar question, some 79% picked a figure lower than seven years. Extreme poverty has almost halved in the last 20 years. It's one of the great success stories of our age. One billion people still live in extreme poverty, but six billion do not (meaning that they earn more than $1.25 per day). This news had not sunk in for many British respondents - more than half thought extreme poverty had increased in the last two decades. About 1% (or between 1% and 2%) of the world's energy today comes from solar and wind power. Two-thirds of British respondents severely overestimated the role of renewable sources of energy. The fact is that about 80% of the world's energy still comes from fossil fuels, and most of the remainder comes from nuclear and hydroelectric power. It's 2.5 babies. One of the great changes in the world in the last 50 years is the fall in the average fertility rate from five to 2.5 - and it's still falling. The British survey did not include this question, but it did ask how many babies women in Bangladesh had on average. The answer is also 2.5 - but a majority of respondents thought it was 4.5 or more. 0 - 2: To err is human 3 - 5: Average, or "chimp" level 6 - 9: Great ape If for each question I wrote each of the possible alternatives on bananas, and asked chimpanzees in the zoo to pick the right answers, and by picking the right bananas, they'd just pick bananas at random. But the Brits did even worse," says Rosling. To be fair, so did the Swedes, the only other nation to have been polled so far. In a speech to TED downloaded almost six million times, he points out that he also put the questions to some fellow professors, and they were on a par with chimpanzees, too. The fact that humans do worse than chimps shows the problem is not a lack of knowledge, but the result of having preconceived ideas, Rosling says - ideas that are years, or sometimes decades out of date. "What is particularly striking is that those with a university education did not do better - if anything worse - than everyone else," he says. Rosling infers from this that most people are ignorant about ways the world is changing, "often for the better." Read his account here of five reasons the world is in better shape than we think. Some "ignorance survey" questions - and the British answers: Question: In the year 2000 the total number of children (age 0-14) in the world reached two billion. How many do UN experts estimate there will be by the year 2100? Options All respondents University graduates Source: United Nations a. 4 billion b. 3 billion c. 2 billion Correct answer d. 1 billion Question: What percentage of adults in the world today are literate - ie can read and write? Source: World Bank 20% of adults 40% of adults 60% of adults 80% of adults Question: What is the life expectancy in the world as a whole today? Source: World Health Organization 40 years e. 80 years Question: In the last 30 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has... a. increased b. remained more or less the same c. decreased Question: What percentage of total world energy generated comes from solar and wind power? Is it approximately... Source: International Energy Agency 2% of energy Correct (1-2%) 5% of energy 10% of energy 20% energy 40% of energy Don't Panic - The Truth About Population will be broadcast on BBC Two on Thursday 7 November at 21:00 GMT (23:20 GMT in Scotland)