World Bank Successes

Top 5 Alarming World Poverty Statistics:

5. More than 800 million people suffer from malnutrition.

4. The United States spends 0.16% of its budget on aid to poor countries, the second lowest percentage among all developed countries.

3. A worker in Bangladesh making garments for Disney would have to work 210 years in order to earn what Disney’s CEO gets paid in one hour.

2. 35,000 children a day die from diseases related to malnutrition, or 1 every 2 seconds.

1. Over three billion people (roughly half the world’s population) live on less than two dollars a day.

Top 5 Alarming United States Poverty Statistics:

5. In 1968, the minimum wage was 86% of the living wage. By 1998, that figure had fallen to 64%.

4. On any given night, 750,000 Americans do not have shelter, or 1 in 400.

3. 40 million Americans do not have medical insurance, 0r 1 in 8.

2. 10 million Americans go hungry each day, 40% of them children.

1. In 1996, one in four Americans under 18 was living in poverty.

Top 10 Alarming United States Wealth Statistics:

10. Since 1950, Americans have used up more resources than everyone who ever lived on earth before 1950.

9. In 2000, CEO’s earned 475 times what their average workers made.

8. 57% of those listed on the 1997 Forbes 400 started life as millionaires.

7. Americans spend more on trash bags than 90 other countries spend on everything.

6. 27% of people earning over $100,000 agree that “I cannot afford to buy everything I really need.”

5. Only 15% of Americans report that they would be satisfied with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

4. The Unites States comprises 5% of the world’s population, yet accounts for 40% of its gasoline consumption.

3. The average size of a new home today is double what it was in the 1950’s.

2. The average American consumes 5 times more than a Mexican, 10 times more than a Chinese person, and 30 times more than someone from India.

1. If everyone in the world consumed at the same rate as Americans do, we would need six planet earths to meet the demand for resources.

Source - The Seminal