Global Poverty Statistics

• Almost half the world — over three billion people — live on less than $2.50 a day.

  At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.Source 1

• Seventy percent of those living on less than $1 per day are women.
• The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.Source 2
• According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they “die quietly in some of the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the scrutiny and the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life makes these dying multitudes even more invisible in death.”Source 3
• Each year, more than 8 million people around the world die because they are too poor to stay alive.
• One third of deaths...are due to poverty-related causes.Source 4
• Around 27-28 percent of all children in developing countries are estimated to be underweight or stunted. The two regions that account for the bulk of the deficit are South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

  If current trends continue, the Millennium Development Goals target of halving the proportion of underweight children will be missed by 30 million children, largely because of slow progress in Southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.Source 5

• 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. And these are regarded as optimistic numbers.Source 6

• Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.Source 7

• 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.Source 8

• Infectious diseases continue to blight the lives of the poor across the world. An estimated 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, with 3 million deaths in 2004. Every year there are 350–500 million cases of malaria, with 1 million fatalities: Africa accounts for 90 percent of malarial deaths and African children account for over 80 percent of malaria victims worldwide.Source 9

• “Approximately 790 million people in the developing world are still chronically undernourished, almost two-thirds of whom reside in Asia and the Pacific.”Source 10

• 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.
  • Access to piped water into the household averages about 85% for the wealthiest 20% of the population, compared with 25% for the poorest 20%.
  • Some 1.8 million child deaths each year as a result of diarrhoea
  • To these human costs can be added the massive economic waste associated with the water and sanitation deficit.… The costs associated with health spending, productivity losses and labour diversions … are greatest in some of the poorest countries. Sub-Saharan Africa loses about 5% of GDP, or some $28.4 billion annually, a figure that exceeds total aid flows and debt relief to the region in 2003.Source 11

• A mere 12 percent of the world’s population uses 85 percent of its water, and these 12 percent do not live in the Third World.Source 12

• Number of children in the world

  2.2 billion

  Number in poverty

  1 billion (every second child)

  Shelter, safe water and health

  For the 1.9 billion children from the developing world, there are:

  • 640 million without adequate shelter (1 in 3)
  • 400 million with no access to safe water (1 in 5)
  • 270 million with no access to health services (1 in 7)

  Children out of education worldwide

  121 million

  Survival for children

  Worldwide,

  • 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (same as children population in France, Germany, Greece and Italy)
  • 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation

  Health of children

  Worldwide,

  • 2.2 million children die each year because they are not immunized
  • 15 million children orphaned due to HIV/AIDS (similar to the total children population in Germany or United Kingdom)

  Source 13

• There are over 100 million street children worldwide. Source 14

• An estimated 218 million children aged 5 to 17 are in child labor worldwide, excluding child domestic labor.Source 15
• Rural areas account for three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day and a similar share of the world population suffering from malnutrition. However, urbanization is not synonymous with human progress. Urban slum growth is outpacing urban growth by a wide margin.Source 16

• In 2005, the wealthiest 20% of the world accounted for 76.6% of total private consumption. The poorest fifth just 1.5%:

  The poorest 10% accounted for just 0.5% and the wealthiest 10% accounted for 59% of all the consumption:

  Source 17

• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the 41 Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (567 million people) is less than the wealth of the world’s 7 richest people combined.Source 18

• World gross domestic product (world population approximately 6.5 billion) in 2006 was $48.2 trillion in 2006.

  • The world’s wealthiest countries (approximately 1 billion people) accounted for $36.6 trillion dollars (76%).
  • The world’s billionaires — just 497 people (approximately 0.000008% of the world’s population) — were worth $3.5 trillion (over 7% of world GDP).
  • Low income countries (2.4 billion people) accounted for just $1.6 trillion of GDP (3.3%)
  • Middle income countries (3 billion people) made up the rest of GDP at just over $10 trillion (20.7%).Source 19

• The world’s low income countries (2.4 billion people) account for just 2.4% of world exportsSource 20

• The total wealth of the top 8.3 million people around the world “rose 8.2 percent to $30.8 trillion in 2004, giving them control of nearly a quarter of the world’s financial assets.”

  In other words, about 0.13% of the world’s population controlled 25% of the world’s financial assets in 2004.Source 21

• For every $1 in aid a developing country receives, over $25 is spent on debt repayment.Source 22

• 51 percent of the world’s 100 hundred wealthiest bodies are corporations.Source 23

• The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation.Source 24

• The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) reported in 1998 that the world's 225 richest people now have a combined wealth of $1 trillion. That's equal to the combined annual income of the world's 2.5 billion poorest people.

• In 1960, the 20% of the world’s people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much.Source 25

• An analysis of long-term trends shows the distance between the richest and poorest countries was about:

  • 3 to 1 in 1820
  • 11 to 1 in 1913
  • 35 to 1 in 1950
  • 44 to 1 in 1973
  • 72 to 1 in 1992Source 26

• For economic growth and almost all of the other indicators, the last 20 years [of the current form of globalization, from 1980 - 2000] have shown a very clear decline in progress as compared with the previous two decades [1960 - 1980]. For each indicator, countries were divided into five roughly equal groups, according to what level the countries had achieved by the start of the period (1960 or 1980). Among the findings:

  • Growth: The fall in economic growth rates was most pronounced and across the board for all groups or countries.
  • Life Expectancy: Progress in life expectancy was also reduced for 4 out of the 5 groups of countries, with the exception of the highest group (life expectancy 69-76 years).
  • Infant and Child Mortality: Progress in reducing infant mortality was also considerably slower during the period of globalization (1980-1998) than over the previous two decades.
  • Education and literacy: Progress in education also slowed during the period of globalization.Source 27

• Consider the global priorities in spending in 1998

  Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
  Cosmetics in the United States	8
  Ice cream in Europe	11
  Perfumes in Europe and the United States	12
  Pet foods in Europe and the United States	17
  Business entertainment in Japan	35
  Cigarettes in Europe	50
  Alcoholic drinks in Europe	105
  Narcotics drugs in the world	400
  Military spending in the world	780

  And compare that to what was estimated as additional costs to achieve universal access to basic social services in all developing countries:

  Global Priority	$U.S. Billions
  Basic education for all	6
  Water and sanitation for all	9
  Reproductive health for all women	12
  Basic health and nutrition	13

  Source 28

Statistics compiled from the following:

• Anup Shah, Poverty Facts and Stats
• Net Aid, Global Poverty
• Wikipedia, Poverty
• Jeff Gates, Statistics on Poverty and Inequality