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What is global poverty?

Extreme or Absolute Poverty

  • living on less than $1.25 a day
  • extreme poverty kills 8 million people every year
  • leaves families completely unable to meet basic needs

Moderate Poverty

  • living on $1-$2 a day
  • keeps families struggling to survive
  • any sudden changes (sickness, environmental, loss of job) can plunge them into extreme poverty

Relative Poverty

  • a household with income below the national average

Facts & Figures

  • nearly half the world lives on less than $2.50 a day
  • every second child in the world lives in poverty
  • the poorest 40% of the world's population has only 5% of the global income
  • 25,000 children die from poverty every day
  • about 27%-28% of children in developing countries are underweight or stunted
  • 1.6 billion people live without electricity
  • 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation needs
  • for every $1 given in aid to a developing country, $25 is spent on debt repayment

* www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Facts.asp#srcl

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