Facts on Global Hunger 2003

• Despite the fact that there is enough food in the world today to sufficiently feed every person on earth, hunger affects one out of every seven people.
• According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the minimum caloric intake per person per day is 2,350. Worldwide, there is enough food for every person to have 2,805 calories per day. Fifty-four countries fall below the minimum caloric requirement.
• More than 840 million people are malnourished.
• 799 million of them are from developing countries.
• More than 153 million of them are under the age of 5.
• Every 3.6 seconds someone dies of hunger.
• Approximately half of the world’s hungry people live on the Indian subcontinent while Africa and the rest of Asia contain approximately 40% of the world’s hungry people.
• There are 6.2 billion people in the world today. 1.2 billion of these people live on less than $1 per day.
• The amount of money earned by the richest 1% of the world’s people each year is equal to the amount earned by the poorest 57%.
• In terms of quantity, wealthy people eat four times the amount of food consumed by poor people.
• Worldwide, women are the sole breadwinners in one of three households; however, seven out of every ten people who are hungry are women or children.
• Six million children under the age of five die every year as a result of hunger.
• In developing countries, 91 children out of 1000 die before their 5^th birthday.
• In the United States, 8 children out of 1000 under the age of five will die.
• The price of one missile would feed a school of hungry children a daily lunch for five years.
• In 1997 alone, the lives of at least 300,000 children were saved by vitamin A supplementation programs.
• Research shows that nutritional deprivation in young children leads to impaired physical growth, brain development and cognitive functioning resulting in long-term mental and physical problems.
• A child who is hungry has a greater risk of not fulfilling his or her future potential than other children.
• Eight out of 10 people engaged in farming in Africa are women and six out of 10 in Asia.

Bread for the World: www.bread.org