Poverty

Ten percent of the world’s population lives on less than $1.90 a day — 735.9 million people.¹ In a global survey in 2005, the United Nations estimated the number of homeless individuals worldwide to be over 100 million. Surveys struggle to account for homeless populations living in slums, camps or other transitional forms of shelter — the “hidden homeless.”² In 2015, Habitat for Humanity estimated that 1.6 billion people lacked sufficient shelter or housing.³ In 2017, it is estimated that 821 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide,⁴ 124 million were suffering from acute hunger.⁵ Additionally, a third of women worldwide are anaemic, affecting the lives of both them and their children.⁶ Seven and a half percent of all children around the world under the age of five are classified as wasting — a low weight to height ratio. Approximately 875,000 deaths were attributed to wasting in 2013.⁷ Natural disasters and humanitarian crises can impoverish whole communities in a matter of days. In 2017 alone, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) reported 318 natural disasters worldwide.⁸ The World Bank estimates that natural disasters result in $520 billion in annual consumption, and impoverishes 26 million people each year.⁹