The facts about the sheer magnitude and impact of poverty in America and around the globe are staggering. Many statistics are almost unreal.
Did you know that:
In the time it takes you to read this sentence, someone will die of hunger. Every 3.6 seconds another person dies from starvation. http://www.unmillenniumproject.org
In 2004 12% of the American population lived below the established poverty line. That means that around 35.9 million (1.3 million more than in 2002) people were found to be living without the necessary means for basic food, clothing and shelter on a day-to-day basis. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html#People http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty03/pov03hi.html
For children under 18 years old, both the poverty rate and the number of people in poverty rose between 2002 and 2003 from 16.7 percent to 17.6 percent and from 12.1 million to 12.9 million, respectively. The poverty rate of children under 18 remained higher than that of 18-to-64 year olds and that of seniors aged 65 and over (10.8 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively, both unchanged from 2002). http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty03/pov03hi.html
The poverty rate in 2003 (12.5 percent) is 9.9 percentage points lower than in 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates are available. From the most recent trough in 2000, both the number and rate have risen for four consecutive years, from 31.6 million and 11.3 percent in 2000, to 35.9 million and 12.7 percent in 2004. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/poverty03/pov03hi.html
38% of children under age 18 in America live in a low-income household. In 62% of these low-income households, neither parent is educated past the high school level. http://www.nccp.org
In 2005 the city of Boston had over 6200 homeless people. That is nearly equivalent to the entire Harvard undergraduate population being homeless. http://www.brm.org/index.aspx?sec_id=10&page_id=155&page_url=
In Sub-Saharan Africa over 46% of the population lives below the poverty line, in comparison to America's 12% and Eastern Europe's 3 1/2%. http://iresearch.worldbank.org/PovcalNet/jsp/index.jsp
One in every two children is born into poverty. There are over 1 billion children in poverty in the world today. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp
According to UNICEF 100% of Americans have access to improved drinking water, while only 60% of Nigerians have a healthy water source. http://www.unicef.org
In Haiti only one out of every 100 citizens has access to the internet and knows how to use it. http://www.unicef.org
Life expectancy in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2003 was 42 years. In the same year life expectancy in the U.S. reached 77 years. http://www.unicef.org
In the Congo, only 2% of the rural population uses a sanitary toilet facility. http://www.unicef.org
Due to inadequate facilities and lack of medical professionals, 1 in every 30 women to give birth in the Sudan will die during the process. Compare this to 1 in every 3800 in the United Kingdom and 1 in every 8700 in Canada. http://www.unicef.org
8 million people every year die as a result of absolute poverty, defined as the inability to provide even basic requirements of food and water for themselves. That number is roughly equivalent to the entire population of New Jersey. http://www.netaid.org
Sub-Saharan Africa is the only place in the world that has not seen a decrease in poverty in the past 5 years. By percent, it is the poorest region in the world. http://www.netaid.org http://www.unicef.org
More than half of all Africans will be affected by preventable water-borne diseases. http://www.unmillenniumproject.org
1 in 3 people in Asia and the Pacific lives below the poverty line. http://www.adb.org/documents/reports/global_poverty/2000/G8_2000.pdf
35.2% of American households headed by black women are in poverty, compared to the average rate of 26.4% of all female-headed households in poverty. http://www.jcpr.org
In 1997 20% of the people in the people in the world's richest countries had more than 74 times as much wealth as the income of 20% of people in the world's poorest nations. http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp
Of the top 20 richest industrialized nations, the U.S. has the lowest rate of mobility out of poverty at 14.5%. This means that of the 20 most well developed nations in the world, Americans are the ones with the most difficulty moving above the established poverty line. http://www.epinet.org/books/swa2004/news/swafacts_international.pdf
Due to a recent 16% increase in emergency food requests, 1 out of every 5 requests for food cannot be met. http://www.secondharvest.org/site_content.asp?s=59
Since October the Greater Boston Food Bank has served over 170% of its usual weekly distributions because of an increased demand for food. http://www.secondharvest.org/site_content.asp?s=59
Studies show that senior citizens suffering from malnourishment suffer from more health problems unrelated to the aging process, and many medications prescribed are rendered ineffective because of the lack of essential vitamins and minerals. http://www.secondharvest.org/site_content.asp?s=59
According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau in September 2003, children continued to be the poorest age group in the country. In 2002:
The number of families in poverty increased from 6.8 million in 2001 (or 9.2 percent of all families) to 7.2 million (or 9.6 percent) in 2002. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2003/cb03-153.html
More than 33 million people in the United States are hungry or live on the edge of hunger. http://www.frac.org/html/news/022003stateofstates.htm