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 IN FACT
The Haves & the Have-nots?
- In 1960, the income gap between the wealthiest fifth was 30 to 1. By 1999, it was 74 to 1. In 1995, average per capita GDP in the richest 20 countries was 37 times the average in the poorest 20- a gap that has double in the past 40 years.
- In 2000, 59 developing countries paid an average 4.4 percent of their GDP on debt service, compared to aid disbursement-received equivalent to 2.1 percent of GDP.
- As many as 4 billion people - two third of the world's population - live largely outside formal legal systems, mainly in developing and transition countries where poverty is most severe.
- Looking at global trends over the 1990s, a decline in poverty in China and some other East Asian countries significantly reduced both the proportion of the total numbers living on very low incomes.
- Life expectancy at birth in least developed countries in under 50 years compared to 77 in developed countries. A total of 799 million people in developing countries and 41 million in developed and transition countries are undernourished. The risk of a women dying as a result of pregnancy is 50 to 100 times higher in the least developed world than in industrialized countries. Preventable diseases take the lives of 30,000 children per day in developing countries of the 115-million school-
age children not in school, 94 percent live in developing countries.
- About 20 percent of the world's population -862 million people- is illiterate. Most live in low-income countries.
- Over 115 million school-age children, mainly in low-income countries, were not in school in 1999; 56 percent of them were girls.
- About 100 million young people enter the global workforce every year. With more than 1 billion of the world's population today between 15 and 25 years of age, this trend is set to continue through to 2015 and beyond.
- The ILO estimates that around 74 million young women and men are unemployed persons throughout the world, accounting for 41 percent of all the 180 million unemployment persons globally.
- An estimated 59 million young people between 15 and 17 years of age.
- About 40 percent of people aged over 64 in Africa and about 25 percent in Asia are still in the labour force, mostly in the agricultural sector.
- The world's labour force is increasing by about 50 million people each year, as the number of new entrants exceeds those who stop working; 97 percent of this increases is in developing, countries. 180 million people are unemployed worldwide, and almost half of them are young people aged under 24.
- Average per capita GDP of the 49 least developed countries (LDCs), using current exchange rates, for that year was US$288, or about 79 cents per day.
- During the second half of the 1990s developed countries received an average of 2.3 million migrants each year from less developed regions.
- Over 25 million workers are infected with HIV/AIDS, and million more affected by the pandemic.
Source: World Bank Poverty Report, 2003
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