Statistics

Last years UN Human Development Report quoted that the worlds richest 500 people have a combined annual income equivalent to the poorest 416 million! Think about that for a while. A group of people who would struggle to fill the lobby of a six star hotel have same income as 416,000,000 people, whole countries full!

Excuse all the exclamation marks but this is remarkable. This stat forced me to do a bit of research on income distribution. A fifth of the worlds population survive on less that US$1 a day. 40% of the worlds population divide 5% of the income between them while the richest 10% have 54% of the cake. One fifth of the worlds population wouldn’t think twice about spending $2 on a cappuccino. One fifth of the world goes hungry on a regular basis, and not for reasons of weight loss.

Here is an exercise. Add up your family income, divide by the number of people in your family, divide by 365 and convert to US$. Think about supporting that many people on your income.

I know inequality is natural but may be it is just a tad too unequal at the moment.

Feed the world.