People living in impoverished countries are more than just financially poor—their lives, health, and

well-being are all negatively impacted by poverty. Though the faces of poverty are diverse, poverty’s
causes and effects tell a familiar story.

Who lives in poverty?

• Today our world is home to 6.7 billion people. 1
• One in four people in the developing world (1.4 billion) lived on less than $1.25 a day in 2005. 2

Children and women are disproportionately affected.

• Every day, more than 16,000 children die from hunger-related causes—one child every six
seconds. 3
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, 12 million children under the age of 18
have lost one or both parents to HIV. In Botswana and Zambia,
for example, 20 percent of children under the age of 17 are
orphans, most of them as the result of HIV. 4
• The number of children who are not attending school was 72
million in 2005. 5 That’s almost the total U.S. population under
18. 6
• Out of the 550 million working poor in the world, 7 an estimated Photo by Lana Slezic for CRS
330 million, or 60%, are women. 8
• One woman dies every minute as a result of problems in pregnancy or childbirth. Across much
of Africa and South Asia, lack of access to adequate medical care makes pregnancy and
childbirth the single biggest cause of mortality among women of childbearing age. 9

Poverty and hunger are linked.

• Hunger and poverty create a vicious cycle. Poverty makes it difficult for people to afford
adequate nutrition. Hunger in turn causes poverty, as the weakness, developmental stunting
and illness caused by under-nutrition prevent people from earning a sustainable living. 10
• In 2008, the world’s poor were plunged deeper into hunger, malnutrition and poverty as food
prices worldwide skyrocketed, driven up by both circumstantial causes (such as bad weather,
a rise in energy prices, and excessive stockpiling due to speculative buying) and structural
causes (such as higher demand due to agricultural supports in rich countries, the use of food
crops for biofuels, and under-investment in agriculture in many poor countries). (Learn more
about these issues here.) Between 2007 and 2008, the number of undernourished people in
the world climbed from 923 million to 963 million people. 11
• One year later, the world economic crisis saw the price of food decline somewhat as fuel
prices decreased, but it has brought little help for the world’s poor. Wealthy countries now find
themselves less able to provide assistance, and economic opportunity in fragile countries has
been compromised. 12

USCCB Copyright © 2009, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. All rights reserved. This work may be reproduced in whole or in part without alteration for nonprofit educational use, provided
such reprints are not sold and include this notice.
Catholics Confront Global Poverty Global Poverty Fact Sheet 2

How trade affects poverty

• Farmers in developing countries cannot compete with highly subsidized
farmers in industrialized countries who can afford to sell crops below
production costs. The World Bank estimates that removing all cotton
subsidies and import tariffs would boost global economic welfare by an
estimated $283 million per year, while raising the price of cotton in
international markets by an average of 13 percent. 13
• Agriculture is the major–sometimes the only–source of export earnings for
many poor countries. These countries want to sell their goods in the United States and
European markets, but often have a hard time doing so because of trade barriers, like tariffs. A
tariff is essentially a tax levied on goods when the goods cross the border.

How debt affects people living in poverty

• The crushing debts that many poor countries owe wealthy countries and international financial
institutions for past loans tie up funding they could be investing in alleviating poverty and
improving development. For every $1 received in grant aid, low-income countries pay $2.30 in
debt service. 14
• The total external debt of low-income countries was $375 billion in 2006. That year those
countries paid $94 million a day in debt service, including payments of interest and principal. 15

Donor countries and assistance

• Soaring food and fuel prices in recent years have made poor countries poorer and hungry
people hungrier. At the same time, the world economic crisis threatens the commitments of
wealthy countries to increase the amount of assistance they provide. The goal has long been
for the world’s wealthiest countries to increase assistance to 0.7 percent of their Gross
National Income.
• In 2007, the United States dedicated only 0.16 percent of its Gross National Income to official
development assistance, down from a high of 0.22 percent in 2005. 16 The percentage puts the
U.S. consistently at the bottom of the list of wealthy nations. At the same time, the U.S. has
ranked first among wealthy countries in the total disbursement of aid, providing $21.8 billion in
2007. 17

How climate change affects poverty

• People in poverty are disproportionately harmed by natural disasters, which
are on the increase as the result of climate change. In the 1990’s alone, 97
percent of all deaths from natural disasters occurred in developing
countries. As climate change increases the frequency of such disasters,
people in poverty do not have the resources to recover before the next
disaster strikes. 18
• Rises in global temperatures are already causing increased drought and
flooding in the world’s most vulnerable places, which means that the number of
undernourished people is expected to rise as well. According to the United Nations, most of
Africa is expected to face decreased crop yields as a result of climate change. Rain-fed crop
production in some African countries is predicted to fall by up to 50% by 2020. 19
• People in poverty are finding it increasingly difficult to access clean, safe, water because of
drought caused by climate change and the contamination of soil and freshwater wells in low-
lying coastal areas by salt water due to rising sea levels. 20
Catholics Confront Global Poverty Global Poverty Fact Sheet 3

How conflict affects poverty

• Conflict and poverty are closely linked. Poorer countries are more likely to experience violent
conflict, while countries experiencing high levels of conflict grow poorer. 21
• The number of armed conflicts in the world declined from1990 until 2002, when the number
leveled at around 30 armed conflicts and has remained there to the present. 22

How migration and the flight of refugees affects poverty

• “Conflict and poverty, the most common reasons people are compelled to leave their homes,
are now amplified by the effects of climate change, increasing scarcity of resources and food
shortages—factors which may lead to greater insecurity in the future,” United Nations
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for World Refugee Day. 23 In the past
year, the number of refugees has grown to more than 16 million worldwide.
• Most of the migrants traveling to the United States without legal documents are from Mexico,
where lack of jobs and educational opportunities have led many workers to leave their homes
in search of better opportunities for their families. The Catholic bishops in the United States
have been calling for reform of U.S. immigration policy, which currently makes it difficult for
immigrant workers to be reunited with family members, achieve citizenship, and avoid
exploitation, and does not address the root causes of migration.
• As of March 2008, 11.9 million immigrants were living in the United States without legal
documentation. That number is up from the 11.1 million living in this country in 2005, and
represents a 40 percent increase since 2000, when the number of undocumented persons was
estimated at 8.4 million. 24

How poorly managed extractive industries and their revenues affect poverty
• Paradoxically, many countries that are rich in oil, gas, and minerals have
very high levels of poverty: This is sometimes known as the “resource
curse.” For example, even as Nigeria’s oil production has skyrocketed since
1970, its poverty rate has doubled. In 1970, 36% of the people of Nigeria
lived in poverty. Nigeria is now the world’s 8th largest oil producer, and in
2007, its oil exports totaled over $60 billion. 25, 26 In spite of this, 70% of the
people in Nigeria now live in poverty. 27 In addition, oil spills have destroyed
the livelihoods and health of thousands of people in the Niger Delta, and
conflict over control of oil and its revenues has resulted in repeated shut downs at some oil
production sites.
• Many of the countries that are rich in natural resources also have high levels of corruption. The
African Union estimates that Africa loses $148 billion each year to corruption—about 25% of
sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP. 28
• People in countries dependent on exports of primary commodities (e.g., oil, minerals, and
grain) are more likely to suffer violent conflict. 29
Catholics Confront Global Poverty Global Poverty Fact Sheet 4

References
1
CIA World Factbook, July 2008, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html
2
World Bank, “Poverty data: A supplement to World Development Indicators 2008,” 2008,
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/WDI08supplement1216.pdf
3
World Food Progamme, “Hunger Stats,” 2008, http://beta.wfp.org/hunger-stats
4
UNAIDS, 2008 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, 2008, p. 165,
www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/2008/2008_Global_report.asp
5
UNESCO, Global Monitoring Report, 2008,
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=41371&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
6
U.S. Census Bureau, “2005-2007 American Community Survey 3-Year Estimates,” 2008,
http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/STTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-qr_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_S0101&-
ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_G00_
7
International Labour Organization, World Employment Report 2004-05: Employment, Productivity and Poverty Reduction, 7 December
2004, www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/wer2004.htm
8
International Labour Organization, “Global Employment Trends for Women 2007. ILO study warns on the feminization of working
poverty,” 2007, www.ilo.org/public/english/region/ampro/cinterfor/temas/gender/news/gl_tren.htm
9
UNFPA, “No Woman Should Die Giving Life,” 2007, http://www.unfpa.org/safemotherhood/mediakit/documents/fs/factsheet1_eng.pdf
10
Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, “Hunger on the rise,” 18 September 2008,
www.fao.org/newsroom/EN/news/2008/1000923/index.html
11
FAO, “Number of hungry people rises to 963 million,” 9 December 2008, http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/8836/
12
BBC, “UN debates global food cost rise,” 26 January 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7850210.stm
13
World Bank, “Prospective Benefits from Cotton Subsidy Cuts and New Technologies,” Special Report: Making Outreach a
Development Priority, October 2008, http://www1.worldbank.org/devoutreach/article.asp?id=512
14
Jubilee USA Network, “Debt, Poverty and MDG’s,” 2007, www.jubileeusa.org/nc/truth-about-debt/debt-the-millenium-development-
goals.html?print=1
15
Jubilee Debt Campaign. “How Big is the Debt of Poor Countries?” 2008,
www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/2%20How%20big%20is%20the%20debt%20of%20poor%20countries%3F+2647.twl
16
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “Debt Relief is down: Other ODA rises slightly,” 4 April 2008,
www.oecd.org/document/8/0,3343,en_2649_37413_40381960_1_1_1_1,00.html
17
Ibid.
18
CIDSE, Development and Climate Justice, p. 9, 2008,
www.cidse.org/uploadedFiles/Areas_of_work/Climate_Change/cidse_policy_paper_climate_justice_dec08_EN.pdf
19
Ibid. p. 10.
20
Ibid.
21
World Bank, Toward a Conflict Sensitive Poverty Reduction Strategy, 2005,
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALDEVELOPMENT/EXTCPR/0,,contentMDK:20486315~menuPK:12
60902~pagePK:210058~piPK:210062~theSitePK:407740,00.html
22
“Number of Conflicts in the World No Longer Declining,” Uppsala Conflict Data Program at Uppsala University, 21 December 2007,
www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-12/uu-noc122107.php
23
Ban Ki-moon, “Message for World Refugee Day,” The UN Refugee Agency, 20 June 2008,
www.unhcr.org/events/EVENTS/4864ba652.pdf
24
Pew Hispanic Center, “Trends in Unauthorized Immigration: Undocumented Inflow Now Trails Legal Inflow,” 2 October 2008,
http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=94
25
CIA World Factbook, “Nigeria,” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html
26
International Monetary Fund, “Table 3: Actual Market Prices for Non-Fuel and Fuel Commodities, 2005-2008,” IMF Primary
Commodity Prices, www.imf.org/external/np/res/commod/table3.pdf
27
CIA World Factbook, “Field Book: Population Below the Poverty Line,” https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/fields/2046.html
28
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “French working paper on anti-corruption,” p. 1, 5 December 2006,
www.oecd.org/dataoecd/50/46/38260631.doc
29
Bannon, Ian and Paul Collier, “Natural Resources and Conflict: What We Can Do,” Natural Resources and Violent Conflict, World
Bank (2003). http://books.google.com/books?id=034PFZRJwvIC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=collier+resource-
rich+countries++conflict+bannon&source=web&ots=eRoJHXBqA8&sig=j96r4eoqidX0dilFVbqaBtaVSLk&hl=en&ei=R8SQSYvGL4-
EtgeanNjRCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPR4,M1