Poverty Stats

 The world’s population was about 7.8 billion people in 2020. 

About 2.2 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water.

 4 billion do not have safe sanitation. 

About 800 million suffer from chronic undernourishment. 

A fifth of all children under 5 suffers from stunted growth.

 Each year approximately 6 million children and many millions of adults die of easily preventable diseases.

9 million people die of hunger.

There are at least 40 million slaves in the world.

There are still 150 million children involved in child labour.

The definition of extreme poverty refers to people earning under $1.90 per day. This figure is so absurdly low that it is meaningless. Many people earning more than this are unable to meet their basic needs, such as eating enough food. One of the leading researchers on the subject, Jason Hickel, has suggested that a figure of $7.40 per day is a better benchmark for measuring poverty, and other researchers have come up with a similar figure. His data shows that more than 4 billion people – that is over half the world’s population – are below this line, and therefore unable to meet their basic needs. 

Over half of the population of India still earn below $3 per day.