Facts about Poverty in the World• At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.
• Water problems affect half of humanity: some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion lack basic sanitation.
• 1.6 billion people — a quarter of humanity — live without electricity
• For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.
• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
• According to UNICEF, 24,000 children die each day due to poverty.
• Based on enrolment data, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005; 57 per cent of them were girls.
• Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
• Of the 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world).
• 640 million children live without adequate shelter
• 400 million children have no access to safe water
• 270 million children have no access to health services
• The number of children out of education worldwide reaches 121 million
• The European Union is one of the richest areas in the world, but still 17% of EU citizens have such limited resources that they cannot afford the basics. More than 165 million people in Europe live below the poverty line.
Resources:
State of the World’s Children, UNICEF
World Development Indicators 2008, World Bank, August 2008
Millennium Development Goals Report 2009, United Nations
