Poverty Quick Facts

• Children under age 18 make up nearly 48 percent of the population of the world's least developed countries, compared with 21 percent of the population of the world's industrialized nations.
• More than 1.6 billion people lack access to electricity and modern forms of energy.
• Over 1.4 billion people in the developing world live below the poverty line (U.S.$1.25 per day).
• Every day 1,500 women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth that could have been prevented. Each day 10,000 newborns die within a month of birth, and daily the same number of babies are also born dead.
• Annual world economy breaks down like this:    

         1. Low Income, $935 or less: 37%
         2. Lower Middle Income, $936 to $3,705: 38%
         3. Upper Middle Income, $3,706 to $11,455: 9%
         4. High Income, $11,456 or more: 16%

• In developing countries, approximately 130 million children and teens — age 17 or under — have lost one or both parents.
• More than 9 million children under age 5 die each year. Two-thirds of these deaths — more than 6 million every year — are preventable.
• Approximately one-third of the world's poor people live in India.

Sources: www.compassion.com, www.unicef.org, www.undp.org, www.worldbank.org, www.who.int,
www.freeworldacademy.com, www.un.org, www.timesofindia.com