Starvation & Poverty Statistics

Every 3.6 seconds someone starves to death and 3/4 are children under the age of 5.

More than 2.8 billion people, close to half the world's population, live on less than the equivalent of $2/day.

More than 1.2 billion people, or about 20 per cent of the world population, live on less than the equivalent of $1/day.

South Asia has the largest number of poor people (522 million of whom live on less than the equivalent of $1/day). Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of people who are poor, with poverty affecting 46.3 per cent or close to half of the regions' population.

Nearly 1 billion people are illiterate; more than 1 billion people do not have access to safe water; some 840 million people go hungry or face food insecurity; about one-third of all children under five suffer from malnutrition.

The estimated cost of providing universal access to basic social services and transfers to alleviate income poverty is between $50 to 80 billion, which is less than 0.5 per cent of global income.

The top fifth (20 per cent) of the world's people who live in the highest income countries have access to 86 per cent of world gross domestic product (GDP). The bottom fifth, in the poorest countries, has about one per cent.

The assets of the world's three richest men exceed the combined Gross Domestic Products of the world's 48 poorest countries.