Act Against Injustice

  • Increase font size
  • Default font size
  • Decrease font size
Home Fighting Poverty

Poverty Amongst Children

  • 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)

 

  • 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.

  • Approximately half the world’s population now live in cities and towns. In 2005, one out of three urban dwellers (approximately 1 billion people) was living in slum conditions.

  • In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuel wood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China.

  • Indoor air pollution resulting from the use of solid fuels [by poorer segments of society] is a major killer. It claims the lives of 1.5 million people each year, more than half of them below the age of five: that is 4000 deaths a day. To put this number in context, it exceeds total deaths from malaria and rivals the number of deaths from tuberculosis.

 

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

 
English French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish