Poverty Facts

The end is closer than you think

Think ending extreme poverty is impossible? Think again. Consider the following facts:

• Over the past eight years, the number of kids dying from measles has declined by 78 percent.
• Twenty-two countries have cut their malaria rate in half in only six years.
• In the 1990′s the number of children dying from preventable causes dropped from 40,000 to 33,000 per day. In 2008, that number decreased to 24,000. Today, it is 21,000. In one generation, we’ve cut the number of children dying from preventable diseases almost in half!
• The number of children dying before their fifth birthday has also decreased even while the number of overall births is increasing.
• In less than ten years, a third of children who couldn’t afford to go to school now can. And literacy rates are rising worldwide.
• The spread of HIV has been curbed. New HIV infections have been cut 16 percent globally.
• Two hundred years ago, the average life expectancy was about 30 years. Today, many of us have a life expectancy of 75 to 80 years.
• In the same 200 years, we’ve gone from over 90 percent of the world’s population living in extreme poverty to about 1.4 billion people there as of 2005 (the latest census numbers). That’s still way too many people. But here’s the good news: In 1981 52 percent of the world’s population lived in extreme poverty. By 2005, that number was cut in half down to 26 percent: All in one generation!

We still have a long way to go. But there is hope and the very real possibility we can end extreme poverty in our lifetime. Learn more or sign up now.