Prevalence
Of the estimated 2.2 billion children worldwide, about a billion, or every second child, live in poverty. Of the 1.9 billion children in developing nations, 640 million are without adequate shelter; 400 million are without access to safe water; 270 million have no access to health services. In 2003, 10.6 million children died before reaching the age of five, which is equivalent to the total child population of France, Germany, Greece, and Italy. 1.4 million die each year from lack of access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation while 2.2 million die each year due to lack of immunizations.
The Child Development Index also illustrates relative child poverty compared across all regions of the world (see Measuring child poverty).
- World performance: CDI = 17.5
- Africa: CDI = 34.5
- Middle East/North Africa: CDI = 11.2
- Central/East Europe and Central Asia: CDI = 9.2
- South Asia: CDI = 26.4
- East Asia: CDI = 8.5
- Latin America and Caribbean: CDI = 6.8
- Developed Countries: CDI = 2.1
The CDI in Africa is twice that of the world average, and South Asia also fares poorly in relation to the global performance. In contrast, the CDI in developed countries is one-ninth of the world CDI, indicating a clear distinction between developing and developed nations.
Read more about this topic: Child Poverty
Famous quotes containing the word prevalence:
“The prevalence of suicide, without doubt, is a test of height in civilization; it means that the population is winding up its nervous and intellectual system to the utmost point of tension and that sometimes it snaps.”
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939)
“That the public can grow accustomed to any face is proved by the increasing prevalence of Keith’s ruined physiognomy on TV documentaries and chat shows, as familiar and homely a horror as Grandpa in The Munsters.”
—Philip Norman, British author, journalist. The Life and Good Times of the Rolling Stones, introduction (1989)