“About 210,000 children under five years of age die each week, or just under 11 million children each year, due to poverty. This is the equivalent of a weekly ‘silent Tsunami’ that passes virtually without recognition by the rest of the global community.”
-- Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and former UN Commissioner for Human Rights
The world’s population is estimated to be 6.6 billion people. Of these, approximately 5.1 billion people (77% of the world’s population) live in the developing world, a group of about 125 low and middle-income countries in which people generally have a lower standard of living with access to fewer goods and services than people in high-income countries. (United National Development Programme)
Approximately 1 billion people live below the international poverty line – earning less than $1 per day. Almost half of the entire population lives on less than $2 per day. (The World Bank)
Approximately 30,000 children die each day due to poverty. (UNICEF)
Of the 1.9 billion children in the developing world, 640 million are without adequate shelter (1 in 3); 400 million have no access to safe water (1 in 5); and 270 million have no access to health services (1 in 7). (UNICEF)
20% of the population in the “developed or industrialized” nations – just 5% of the total global population – consume 86% of the world’s goods. (United National Development Programme)