Some Hunger Facts

More than 1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and more than 2 billion lack sanitation. 1
The wealthiest fifth of the world’s people consumes 86% of all goods and services, while the poorest fifth consumes 1%. 2
Each day in the developing world, some 27,000 children die from mostly preventable and treatable causes such as diarrhea, acute respiratory infection or malaria. 3
There are more than 13 million AIDS orphans in sub-Saharan Africa. 4
Fourteen million children under the age of 15 have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Four out of five of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. 5
Nearly 2.5 billion of the world’s 6.3 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. One billion people lack access to safe drinking water. Contaminated water kills 2.2 million people per year. 6
Out of 100 children born in 2000, 30 will most likely suffer from malnutrition in the first five years of life, 26 will not be immunized against the basic childhood diseases, 19 will lack access to safe drinking water and 40 to adequate sanitation, and 17 will never go to school. 7
In developing countries, every fourth child lives in abject poverty, in families with an income of less than $1 per day. 8
More than 800 million people in the world go hungry. 9
Virtually every country in the world has the potential of growing sufficient food on a sustainable basis. 10
More than 2 million children each year have severe visual problems due to lack of vitamin A. 11
Preschool and school-age children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger. 12
In the last 50 years, almost 400 million people worldwide have died from hunger and poor sanitation – that’s three times the number of people killed in all wars fought in the 20th century. 13

Sources:
1 - www.hungernomore.org
2, 6 - www.undp.org
3,5,7,8 - www.unicef.org
4,11,13 - www.bread.org
9,10 - www.fao.org
12 - www.pediatrics.org

CWS FACTS HAVE FACES: Hunger in a World of Plenty outlines the dimensions and causes of hunger around the world. HTML or PDF (708 kb)