Hunger Fact Sheet
Global Hunger & Poverty
* Each day, over 26,000 children die from preventable diseases such as malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and acute respiratory infections. Malnutrition alone is associated with 16,000 deaths - one child every 5 seconds.
* More than 963 million people in the world are malnourished. Severe malnutrition affects nearly 178 million children under the age of 5 in developing countries.
* Each year approximately 3 million children under the age 5 die of malnutrition. Those children who develop chronic malnutrition at a young age mostly never recover from it.
* In 2006, 9.7 million children died before reaching their fifth birthday, and 4/5 of them were from Africa and South Asia.
* Of the 6.7 billion people in today's world, 1.4 billion live on less than $1.25 per day.
* Malnutrition negatively affects health, productivity, and sense of hope in people. Socially, it also brings a sense of shame so that those who most need it are often unable to call for it.
Domestic Hunger & Poverty
* Over 35 million people - including 11.7 million children - live in households that experience hunger or the risk of hunger. This represents approximately one in ten households in the United States.
* 3.8 percent of U.S. households experience hunger. Some people in these households frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for a whole day.
* 12.6 percent of U.S. households are at risk of hunger. Members of these households have lower quality diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need.
* Preschool and school-aged children who experience severe hunger have higher levels of chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and behavior problems than children with no hunger, according to a recent study.
(Source: Bread for the World, Hunger Fact, 2009)
