All Annotations of Poverty Facts and Stats - Global Issues[Preview]

saved by15 people, first byKrystal Robbins on 2006-11-26, last bysriks6711 on 2008-07-08

• 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

• Number of children in the world

  2.2 billion

  Number in poverty

  1 billion (every second child)
• 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.
• three in every four people living on less than US$1 a day
• 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.
• 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)
• More than 660 million people without sanitation live on less than $2 a day, and more than 385 million on less than $1 a day.
• Poverty Facts and Stats
• The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
• 
• 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
• The wealthiest nation on Earth has the widest gap between rich and poor of any industrialized nation
• 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world’s goods.
• 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 1992
• The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants
• 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.
• 1.8 billion people who have access to a water source within 1 kilometre, but not in their house or yard, consume around 20 litres per day. In the United Kingdom the average person uses more than 50 litres of water a day flushing toilets (where average daily water usage is about 150 liters a day. The highest average water use in the world is in the US, at 600 liters day.)
• Millions of women spending several hours a day collecting water.
• 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.
• The richest 50 million people in Europe and North America have the same income as 2.7 billion poor people. “The slice of the cake taken by 1% is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57%.”
• The world’s 497 billionaires in 2001 registered a combined wealth of $1.54 trillion, well over the combined gross national products of all the nations of sub-Saharan Africa ($929.3 billion) or those of the oil-rich regions of the Middle East and North Africa ($1.34 trillion). It is also greater than the combined incomes of the poorest half of humanity.

• 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 assets in 2004

• on 2006-11-26 Krystalreneerob
  Interesting site that provides facts like the ones Wesch read in class. These facts and stats are about poverty and are shocking to those of us who live in such a rich nation. The cool thing is that this site updates with new facts every few days.
• on 2006-12-06 Crevisto
  This site gives many intersting and stunning facts about poverty around the world. This site also updates its facts often.
• on 2006-12-06 Lucky13
  After reading this article I was in total amazement about the Facts & Stats on Poverty that I had found out. Sometimes you take a lot of things for granted just because conditions are not unbarable where you are at. We need to look at the big picture instead of just bits and pieces of it. A lot of these problems that are taking place need to be worked out before we are at the point of no return. Some the the facts that I found astounding were 1/2 of the world lives on less that $2 a day and 20% of the population in the developed nations, consume 86% of the world's goods. These stats just blew my mind.
• on 2007-05-27 Elligant35
  This article basically describes poverty as a result of third world debt, free trade, corporations, consumption and consumerism, and a complex list of other facts that places almost three billion people living on less than two dollars a day.  The article goes on to state how much money is being spent to try to help solve the poverty issue.