Global Resource Statistics

June 7, 2011

World population, 2010: 7 billion
World population, 2050: 9 billion

Food

Number of people who go to bed hungry, daily, 2010: 925 million (FAO)
(1 in 7, or more than the combined population of the US, Canada and the European Union)
Number of children in developing countries who are underweight: 146 million (1 in 4)
Increase in food demand, projected, 2010-2050: 70%
Center of hunger: Asia, home to over 2/3rds of the world’s hungry people
% of hungry people who are women: 60% (ECOSOC)
65% of the world’s hungry live in 7 countries: India, China, DR Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan, Ethiopia
Number of under-5 deaths yearly caused in part by undernutrition: 5 million (UNICEF)
“Hunger kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.” (World Food Program)
“Today’s food issues are not fundamentally about demand, but about how food gets from fields to forks.”
“Iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of malnutrition worldwide; eradicating it can improve national productivity by as much as 20%” (WHO)
“Iodine deficiency, the greatest single cause of mental retardation and brain damage, affects 1.9 billion worldwide and can be prevented by adding iodine to salt.” (UN)

Water

Freshwater volume, globally: 35 million km3
Fresh, safe water needed daily per person: 20 to 50 liters = 5 to 13 gallons
Global needed water consumption, daily: 140 to 350 billion liters = 37 to 92 billion gallons
% of water, worldwide, used for irrigation: 70%
% of water, worldwide, used for industry: 22%
% of water, worldwide, used for domestic purposes: 8%
% of total freshwater supplies in use: 54%
Number of countries with territory in a transboundary basin: 145
Number of people worldwide with no access to safe water: 884 million (1 in 8) (UN)
Number of people worldwide with no access to adequate sanitation: 2.6 billion (2 in 5) (WHO)
Number of children who die each year from diarrhea caused by dirty water/poor sanitation: 1.4 million (WHO)
Number of children born each year into houses without access to sanitation: 60 million (UN)
% of hospital beds in developing countries occupied by people associated with dirty water/sanitation diseases: 50% (UNDP)
Weight of water women in Africa & Asia commonly carry on their heads, daily: 20kg

 

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