Extreme poverty 1270 218620028 2008-06-11T13:12:39Z 217.41.240.15 /* See also */ Add link [[Image:India.Mumbai.01.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Women washing clothes in ditch alongside main road in [[Mumbai]], [[India]].]] '''Extreme poverty''' is the most severe state of [[poverty]], where people cannot meet basic needs for survival, such as [[food]], [[water]], [[clothing]], shelter, [[sanitation]], [[education]] and [[health care]].<ref>Sachs, Jeffrey (2005). ''The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time'' Penguin Press Hc ISBN 1-59420-045-9</ref> To determine the number of extreme poor around the world, the [[World Bank Group|World Bank]] characterizes extreme poverty as living on US $1 or less per day, and estimates that 1.1 billion people currently live under these conditions. This [[$1 a day]] figure has been adjusted for [[purchasing power parity]],<ref>{{cite web| title = Glossary| publisher = The World Bank| url=http://www.worldbank.org/depweb/english/beyond/global/glossary.html#52}}</ref> which attempts to eliminate differences in costs of goods and services between countries to present a more meaningful comparison but has not been adjusted for inflation for over 15 years, leaving a useful measure in the early 1990s as almost worthless. Eradication of extreme poverty and [[hunger]] by 2015 is a [[Millennium Development Goals|Millennium Development Goal]]. Economists and activists consider epidemic diseases ([[AIDS]], [[malaria]], [[tuberculosis]]) as crucial factors in and consequences of extreme poverty. Extreme poverty is most common in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]], [[Southeast Asia]], and [[Central America]]. The proportion of people in extreme poverty fell from 59 to 19 percent during the 20th century and is now the lowest in history. {{Wikisourcepar2|wikisource:The Despouy Report on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty|The Despouy Report on Human Rights and Extreme Poverty}} ==Statistics== *More than 1.5 billion people around the world live on less than a $1 a day. *Every year six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday. *More than 50 percent of Africans suffer from water-related diseases such as cholera and infant diarrhea. *More than 800 million people go to bed hungry every day, 300 million are children. *Of these 300 million children, only eight percent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 percent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency. *Every 3.8 seconds someone dies of hunger in the world, 75 percent of those are children. *Four out of every ten people in the world don't have access even to a simple latrine. *Declining soil fertility, land degradation, and the [[AIDS]] epidemic have led to a 23 percent decrease in food production per capita in the last 25 years even though population has increased dramatically. *A woman living in sub-Saharan Africa has a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy. This compares with a 1 in 3,700 risk for a woman from North America.<ref>{{cite web| title = Fast Facts: The Faces of Poverty| publisher = UN Millennium Project| url=http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/press/press2.htm}}</ref> ==See also== *[[Millennium Villages Project]] *[[List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty]] *[[Income inequality metrics]] *[[Least Developed Countries]] *[[Make Poverty History]] *[[Millennium Promise]] *[[Poverty line]] *[[Poverty reduction]] *[[The End of Poverty]] *[[Absolute poverty]] ==References== <references/> *Jones, Gareth Stedman (2004) ''An End to Poverty?'' Profile Books LTD ISBN 1-86197-729-8 ==External links== *[http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/povmeas/papers/elastap4.html Is There Such a Thing as an Absolute Poverty Line Over Time?] * [http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/papers/relabs.htm New Light on the Behavior of Poverty Lines Over Time] *[http://www.whiteband.org/ WhiteBand.org - Global Call to Action Against Poverty] * [http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E4C4C-F093-1304-ABA283414B7F0000 Scientific American Magazine (September 2005 Issue) Can Extreme Poverty Be Eliminated?] * [http://www.lilmdgs.org/ Lil' MDGs - Fighting World Hunger and Poverty] [[Category:Poverty]] {{econ-stub}} [[zh:赤貧]]