India's Blackout in Comparison

Map of the blackout affected area.  Image from Defense Pakistan

Three of India's power grids (Northern, Eastern, and Northeastern) have failed leaving an approximate 670 million people in the dark.  Granted, while not everyone in this zone has electricity, the disruption of society affects everyone from the house wife who watches her soap operas to the street beggar who relies on alms from the stock brokers.

670,000,000 people is hard to imagine.  Here are some geographic comparisons

• 314,000,000 - Roughly the amount of people in the United States of America, the third most populous country in the world (47% of the blackout population)
• 570,000,000 - The entire population of South America (85%)
• 503,000,000 - The population of the European Union (75%)
• 180,000,000 - The population of Pakistan (27%)