World Hunger

More than 842 million people in the world are chronically malnourished. (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN)

Virtually every country in the world has the potential of growing 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 2,720 calories available per person per day. (Bread for the World)

43% of the world’s poor (those who live on less than $1 a day) live in South Asia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (522 million people) (Bread for the World)

At the beginning of 2002, there were roughly 19.8 million refugees in the world—one out of every 300 persons on earth. (UNHCR)

Health

In developing countries, 91 children out of 1,000 die before their fifth birthday. (Bread for the World)
In the past 20 years, infant mortality rates worldwide have been reduced by 33 %. (The World Bank)

Africa has more than 12 million AIDS orphans and 70% of those living with AIDS live in Africa (Bread for the World)

The risk of African women dying from complications related to pregnancy or childbirth is 1 in 16. The ratio is 1 in 3700 for North American women. (United Nations Population Fund)

Water

1 in 5 people on our planet lacks access to clean water—95% in developing nations. (Church World Service)

The U.N. Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Decade (1981-1990) resulted in 1.3 billion people having access to safe drinking water sources and 750 people receiving sanitation for the first time. (United Nations)

80% of all diseases in the developing world are caused by unsafe water and sanitation problems. (Church World Service)

Twelve million people die each year from lack of safe drinking water, including more than 3 million who die from waterborne diseases. (World Bank)

Education

250 million of the world’s 2 billion children work (12.5%) (Church World Service)

More than 100 million children in the developing nations are without access to basic education—60 million are girls. (UNICEF)

In the developing world, 850 million people are illiterate; nearly 2/3 of these are women. (UN Development Program)