"Almost half the world's population lives on less than two dollars a day — yet even this statistic fails to capture the humiliation, powerlessness and brutal hardship that is the daily lot of the world's poor."
                                                      - Kofi Anan, UN Secretary General

On TV, on the Internet, in magazines and newspapers, we see pictures of third-world poverty. We see images of people, families, living under horrible conditions. Dirt, sewage, disease, starvation — absolutely unimaginable to most of us. Could you imagine living on $2 per day? How long would you survive?

Real statistics are readily available, and they are staggering. There are 6.3 billion people on our planet, and according to the World Bank:

• 790 million are chronically undernourished;
  
• 880 million have no access to basic medical care;
  
• More than one billion lack access to safe drinking water;
  
• One billion lack adequate shelter;
  
• Two billion have no electricity;
  
• Three billion lack basic sanitation.
  

One-third of all human deaths — that is, 18 million per year, or 50,000 daily — are due to poverty-related causes. In the half-hour you might spend browsing this site, more than 1,000 people will die of starvation, pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, or malaria — conditions which could be prevented or cured cheaply through food, safe drinking water, vaccinations, or medicines.

As awful as these numbers are, they look even worse when you start making comparisons between countries, regions, and groups. There is an enormous gap between the world's rich and the world's poor, and that gap is growing.

As an example, let's look at the half of the world's population surviving on $2 per day or less. Their average yearly income is about $131 per person. (The dollars spoken of here reflect purchasing power, not actual foreign currency; with their annual income they could buy $131 worth of goods in the US.)

Compare that with the average annual income in the world's "high-income economies" (considered to comprise 33 countries plus Hong Kong): about $26,000 per person.

Here are some more sobering statistics to ponder:

• The 20 per cent of the world's population at the top of the income ladder receives 83% of global income
  
  
• The 20 per cent of the world's population at the bottom of the income ladder receives 1.5% of global income
  
  
• The ratio (or gap) between the average income of the world's top 5% and world's bottom 5% has steadily increased — from 78 to 1 in 1988, to 114 to 1 in 1993
  
  
• The richest 1% of people in the world receive as much as the bottom 57%; or, in other words, fewer than 50 million rich people receive as much as 2.7 billion poor
  
  
• 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
  
  
• In 1960, the 20% of the world's people in the richest countries had 30 times the income of the poorest 20% — in 1997, 74 times as much
  
  
• A report from the Surgeon General of the United States stated that a total of 89% of the world's population lives in developing countries that bear 93% of the world's disease burden; however, they account for only 11% of the world's health spending
  

There are enough resources on the planet right now to feed, clothe, and house every single person... but 86% of those resources are consumed by 20% of the population.

(Sources: World Bank; globalissues.org; World Vision)

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