Table 1

Poverty statistics among the world's population of 6 billion

• Almost 3 billion on less than $2 per day, and 1.2 billion people are estimated to still live on less than $1 per day [1]. In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), which has a total population of 561 million [2], 132 million live on less than $2 a day, and 57 million live on less than $1 per day [3]

• 2.4 billion people lack basic sanitation [1]

• 2 billion people are without electricity [4]

• 1 billion adults are illiterate [1]

• 1 billion people are without adequate shelter [4]

• 110 million school-age children are out of school, 60% of them girls [1]

• 1 billion people lack access to safe water [1]

• 880 million people lack access to basic health services [5]

• 790 million people lack adequate nutrition [1]

• 250 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 do wage work outside their household – often under harsh conditions [6]

• One third of human deaths, some 50,000 daily, are due to poverty-related causes and thus avoidable, insofar as poverty is avoidable [7, 8]

Holveck et al. BMC Public Health 2007 7:6   doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-6