World
Statistics
The Global Humanitarian Crisis
Here follow some facts from United Nations Development
Report/UNICEF 1997 and WHO 1998 selected by Manufacturing
Dissent.
$40 BILLION A YEAR
$ 40 billion a year is estimated to be the additional
cost of achieving and maintaining universal access to basic
education for all, basic health carefor all, reproductive
health care for all women, adequate food for all, and clean
water and safe sewers for all is roughly $40 billion a
year--or less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225
richest people in the world.
SOME STATISTICS
-1.3 billion people in the world today (1,300 million, or
1,300,000,000people) struggle to survive on $1/day.
-3 billion people in the world today struggle to survive on
$2/day.
-2 billion have no access to power (electrical).
-The net worth of 10 billionaires, ten human beings, is
greater than the combined national income of the forty-eight
poorest countries combined.
-Globally, one in five people do not expect to live beyond
the age of 40.
-Three out of four in the poorest countries will not live to
50th birthday
-About 300 million people live in 16 countries where life
expectancy actually decreased between 1975 and 1995.
1997 DEATHS
Out of of a global total of 52.2 million deaths, 17.3
million were due to infectious and parasitic diseases; 15.3
million were due to circulatory diseases; 6.2 million were
due to cancer; 2.9 million were due to respiratory diseases
and 3.6 million were due to perinatal conditions. The
leading causes of deaths from infectious diseases were acute
lower respiratory infections (3.7 million), tuberculosis
(2.9 million), HIV/AIDS (2.3 million) and malaria (1.5-2.7
million).
THE CAPITALIST HOLOCAUST
-More than 15 million adults aged 20 to 64 are dying
every year. WHO: "Most of these deaths are premature and
preventable."
-The gap between the poorest fifth of the world's people and
the richest fifth has increased from 30:1 in 1906 to 78:1 in
1994.
-The world's 225 richest individuals, of whom 60 are
Americans with total assets of $311 billion, have a combined
wealth of over $1 trillion--equal to the annual income of
the poorest 47% of the entire world's population.
-Debt relief for the 20 largest 3rd world "debtor nations"
would cost $5.5 to 7.7 billion, the cost of a couple of
stealth bombers.
-The three richest people in the world have assets that
exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least
developed countries.
-Microsoft Corporation makes $34 million (20 million) profit
a day. This is what sub-Saharan Africa pays each day in debt
service (interest and capital repayments).
-The cost of meeting basic goals in Africa for health,
nutrition, education and family planning would be about $9
billion a year.
-In 1996, sub-Saharan Africa paid the developed world $13.4
billion, including $9.5 billion in new loans and $2.6
billion of its aid (23% of all grants). So nearly a quarter
of aid to Africa simply goes to repay debts.
-Developing countries paid $270 billion in debt service last
year - $60 per person. This has risen from $160 billion in
1990.
-The assets controlled by the 200 wealthiest individuals are
greater than the Gross Domestic Product of the entire
continent of Africa, home to 600 million people.
-Americans spend $8 billion a year on cosmetics--$2 billion
more than the estimated annual total needed to provide basic
education for everyone in the world.
-Europeans spend $11 billion a year on ice cream--$2 billion
more than the estimated annual total needed to provide clean
water and safe sewers for the world's population.
-Sweden and the United States have 681 and 626 telephone
lines per 1,000 people, respectively. Afghanistan, Cambodia,
Chad, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo have one line
per 1,000 people.
-40 percent of the Russian population now lives in
poverty.
-Mr. Knight, the CEO of Nike corporation has $5.2 billion
net worth. To reach that amount of money, a young Chinese
woman in their factory would have to work for 9 hours per
day, for six days a week, for one-hundred centuries.
-The 16 billion Britain is spending on 232 new Eurofighters
would cancel the entire debt of south Asia and sub-Saharan
Africa.
-Nike paid Michael Jordan $20,000,000 per year to promote
Nike sneakers, which is greater than the annual income of
30,000 asian women together who sew Nike sneakers.
USA STATISTICS
-Between 20 and 30 million Americans suffer from hunger
(Congressional Hunger Center, 1995).
-The U.S. has the highest infant mortality, AIDS, road
accident, pesticide consumption, homicide, reported rapes,
imprisonment and hazardous waste production rates among
Switzerland, Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Germany,
Austria, France, Finland and Canada (The World Bank, World
Development Report, 1994 and UN, Human Development Report,
1994).
-The United States is the richest country on the planet yet
it has the greatest income disparity.... Sixty percent of
all U.S. jobs created since 1979 pay less than $7,000 a
year" (Fian Fact Sheet, Welfare by Corporations is Corporate
Welfare). http://www.foodfirst.org
-The US, with just 5 times the population of Italy, has 150
times more children in detention" (UNICEF)
SHARE of global income going to richest 20% and poorest
20% of world'spopulation:
|
Year
|
Richest 20% share
|
Poorest 20% share
|
Rich to poor ratio
|
|
1960
|
70.2%
|
2.3%
|
30:1
|
|
1970
|
73.9%
|
2.3%
|
32:1
|
|
1980
|
76.3%
|
1.7%
|
45:1
|
|
1989
|
82.7%
|
1.4%
|
59:1
|
During the period 1979 through the present, the growth in
income has disproportionately flowed to the top. The bottom
60% of the population actually saw their real income
decrease in 1990 dollars. The next 20% saw modest gains. The
top twenty percent saw their income increase 18%. The
wealthiest one percent saw their incomes explode over
80%
UK STATISTICS
Since 1979 the income of the richest 10 percent has
continuously risen while that of the poorest 10 percent has
steadily fallen. In 1992-93, 25 percent of Britons -- some
14.1 million people -- were living in poverty, a majority of
them women.
According to the London-based Child Poverty Action Group
approximately 59 percent of people living in poverty are
women. Women make up to 70 percent of the lowest earners and
four out of five women employees work part-time.
Source
Manufacturing
Dissent
© Manufacturing Dissent 1999
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