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Twenty-five Facts about Hunger and Poverty

Around the World...

1. More than 963 million people in the world are malnourished—907 million of which are from developing countries. More than 153 million of them are under the age of five.
2. Every day, almost 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes—one child every five seconds.
3. Virtually every country in the world has the potential to grow sufficient food on a sustainable basis. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has set the minimum requirement for caloric intake per person per day at 2,350. Worldwide, there are 2,805 calories available per person per day.
4. Fifty-four countries fall below the minimum requirement for calories, failing to produce enough food to feed their populations. Nor can they afford to import the necessary commodities to bridge the gap. Most of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa.
5. More than 2 million children each year have severe visual problems due to lack of vitamin A.
6. Of the 6.2 billion people in today’s world, 1.2 billion live on less than $1 per day.
7. The amount of money that the richest one percent of the world’s people make each year equals what the poorest 57 percent make.
8. Each day in the developing world, more than 30,000 children die from mostly preventable and treatable causes such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections, measles or malaria. These diseases are far more deadly to children who, as a result of malnourishment, are stunted or underweight.
9. By the end of 2000, some 22 million people had died from AIDS, which has caused 13 million children to lose either their mother or both parents.
10. 40 million people are living with AIDS—90 percent of them in developing countries and 75 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa. 2.9 million are under the age of 14.
11. Malnutrition can severely affect a child’s intellectual development. Children who have stunted growth due to malnutrition score significantly lower on math and language achievement tests than do well-nourished children.
12. In developing countries, 91 children out of 1,000 die before their fifth birthday. By comparison, in the United States that number is eight out of 1,000.
13. Due to poor nourishment and poor maternal and neonatal health, 1,500 women die every year while giving birth. That’s half a million mothers every year. A woman in Niger has a one in seven chance of dying during from complications during pregnancy or delivery. In America, that chance is one in 4,800.
14. 12 million people, including 3 million children, die each year from waterborne disease. 1.1 billion lack access to clean water; 2.4 billion live without decent sanitation; and 4 billion without wastewater disposal.
15. One of the leading causes of food security crises is displacement. Three out of every four refugees and internally displaced persons worldwide are women and children.
    

    And in your own backyard...

16. 33.6 million people—including almost 13 million children—live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents approximately one in ten households in the United States (10.7 percent).
17. 3.3 percent of US households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day. This affects 9 million people, including 3 million children.
18. 7.4 percent of US households are at risk of hunger. Members of these households have lower quality diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. 24.6 million people, including 9.7 million children, live in these homes.
19. Preschool and school-aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and behavior problems than do children with no hunger, according to a recent study.
20. Between 2006 and 2007, poverty rose to 37.7 million people, up from 36.5 million.
21. The poverty rate increased for children under 18 years old (18.0 percent in 2007, up from 17.4 percent in 2006).
22. The 2001 median household income in the US was $42,228, representing a 2.2 percent decline in real income from its 2000 level of $43,162.
23. In 2007, 11.1 percent (13.0 million) of American households were food-insecure,  hungry or at risk of hunger (this number is essentially unchanged from 10.9 percent in 2006). 36.2 million people lived in food-insecure households, including 12.4 million children.
24. Overall, households with children had nearly twice the rate of food insecurity (15.8 percent) as those without children (8.7 percent) in 2007.
25. Average unemployment rates in the past few years have risen. At 4.6 percent in 2006, the rate jumped to 5.8 percent by 2008.

“Facts about Hunger & Poverty” was compiled by Lauren Elder, published in Sacred Seasons: Hunger Emphasis 2009, Seeds of Hope Publishers

The sources used to compile these statistics came from publications by the following organizations: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme, UNICEF, The World Bank, Church World Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Pediatrics, Vol. 110 No. 4, October 2002, US Census Bureau, United States Department of Agriculture, Household Food Security in the United States, US Bureau of Labor Statistics