Our world today is one of glaring disparities; disparities in freedom, disparities in wealth, and disparities in quality of life and safety. These disparities extend across all sectors of population, but their impact is perhaps felt most harshly among children, especially those living in unindustrialized nations.
Understanding the world wealth gap...
Worldwide, only about 13% of children live in industrialized nations, even though these nations capture and control virtually all of the world's wealth. In fact, a 1998 UN report indicates that the personal wealth of the 225 most wealthy people in the world is equal to the combined income of 47 percent of the entire world's population. That is, the wealth controlled by just 225 people living in industrialized countries is greater than the combined wealth of 2.5 billion people living in unindustrialized countries. Put another, more personal way, the median U.S. family income of $46,326 per family is equivalent to the median income of 126 families in rural India, 172 families in Uganda, 211 families in Rwanda, and an astounding 421 families in Ethiopia. Wondering where you stand in comparison? Use our wealth calculator for some eye opening stats.
Barely subsisting while others thrive...
For the 87% of children that live in unindustrialized or rapidly industrializing nations, conditions are often poor. For them the every day facts of life bear little resemblance to those we simply take for granted. 53% of these children live their daily lives in grinding poverty; for them, what we consider to be basic subsistence is often an unattainable dream. As bad as this may seem, many children are even worse off. For 34% of these children (an astounding 640 million children worldwide) poverty is not the biggest concern; these children lack even adequate shelter, and live in shacks without running water, electricity, and proper sanitation, or have no homes at all and live on the streets, under bridges, and in abandoned buildings. For these children the lack of adequate nutrition, medical care, clean water, and proper sanitation are ever-pressing concerns that rob their lives of meaning and hope, and sometimes rob them of their lives altogether.
Failing to subsist...
This year millions of children will die preventable, meaningless deaths because they lacked even the simplest necessities. 1.4 million children will die this year simply because they lack clean drinking water, and another 700,000 will die from sanitation associated diseases. Even more sobering, almost 7 million children will die because of malnutrition and starvation. Astoundingly, that's 13 children every minute.
Only 13 percent of children worldwide experience the standard of living Americans enjoy. The rest of the world's children live in poverty and scarcity.
53 percent of children in undeveloped countries live in grinding poverty.
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