Facts and Figures about Poverty

A quarter of the worlds population, 1.3 billion people, live in severe poverty...

• Nearly 800 million people do not eat enough food, and about 500 million people are chronically malnourished.  More than a third of children are malnourished.

• In industrial countries more than 100 million people live below the poverty line, more than 5 million people are homeless and 37 million are jobless.

• Of the world's 23 million people living with HIV/AIDS more than 93% live in developing countries.

• More than 840 million adults are illiterate-538 million of them are women.

• Around 2 million children die as a result of armed conflict in the last decade.

• In developing countries 160 million pre-school children are underweight.

• 1.2 billion people live without access to safe drinking water.

• 110 million landmines lie undetonated in 68 countries.

 Today's society has the resources to eradicate poverty...

• The net wealth of the 10 richest billionaires is $133 billion, more than 1.5 times the total national income of the least developed countries.

• The cost of eradicating poverty is 1% of global income.

• Effective debt relief to the 20 poorest country would cost $5.5 billion -equivalent to the cost of building Euro Disney.

• Providing universal access to basic social services and transfers to alleviate income poverty would cost $80 billion, less than the net worth of the seven richest men in the world.

• Six countries can spend $700 million in nine days on dog and cat food.

• Today's world spend $92 billion on junk food, $66 billion on cosmetics and nearly $800 billion in 1995 for defense expenditures.

Extreme poverty can be banished from the globe by early next century...

• The proportion of human kind living in poverty has fallen faster in the past 50 years than in the previous 500 years.

• Since 1960 child death rates in developing countries have more than halved, malnutrition dates have declined by almost a third, the proportion of children out of primary school has fallen from more than half to less than a quarter.

• over past three decades the population in developing countries with access to safe water almost doubled - from 36% to nearly 70%.

• The extension of basic immunization over the past two decades has saved the lives of three million children.

• In 1960-93 average life expectancy increase by more than a third in developing countries.

Poverty is no longer inevitable and thus should no longer be tolerated.

Copyright © 1999 by the United Nations Development Program.

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IN THE PHILIPPINES

Did you know that the cost of a CD could feed a family of 6? It was estimated that the daily survival cost of a family of 6 in Metro Manila is about Ps. 450.00 and Ps. 445.83 outside Metro Manila. The daily minimum wage is only Ps. 198.00 and that only fulfills only 44% of their daily needs. The cost of a CD is Ps. 450.00.

Did you know that in the last quarter of 1998 (October), the employment by major industry groups were concentrated in agriculture, fishery and forestry with 11,272 workers out of 28,262?

(1998) Of the total families in the Philippines, only 2.4 percent received any educational/scholarship assistance for tertiary education programs. Of these families, 0.5 percent are poor.

Did you know that the Philippines is the biggest exporter of labor in the world? In 1997 alone, there were 747,696 overseas Filipino workers deployed.

Did you know that 53% of the hours of all work in underdeveloped countries are done by women? And in this figure 2/3 are unpaid labor.

Did you know that out of 11, 407,262 households in 1990, 6, 280, 370 already have electricity? That is more than 50% of the total households in the country. A large percentage still depends on Kerosene, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, Oil and other means for their lighting.

(1998) Of the total families in the Philippines, only 2.4 percent received any educational/scholarship assistance for tertiary education programs. Of these families, 0.5 percent are poor.