Numbers

925 million: Estimated number of people worldwide who were undernourished in 2010, down from 1.023 billion in 2009, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

98: Percentage of the world’s undernourished people who live in developing countries (2010).

578 million: Estimated number of people in the Asia and Pacific region who were undernourished in 2010, the largest number among the world’s hungry.  It is followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (239 million), Latin America and the Caribbean (53 million), Near East and North Africa (37 million) and developed countries (19 million).

40+: Estimated percentage of the world’s hungry who live in China and India alone.

5 million: Estimated number of deaths a year among children under five caused by undernutrition in developing countries (2006).

60: Percentage of the world’s undernourished who are women (2007).

1.1 billion: Estimated number of people worldwide who are living on less than $1 a day, according to the World Bank. The current international poverty line is at $1.25/day.

2008: Year that the World Bank Group launched the Global Food Crisis Response Program (GFRP) to provide support for countries hard hit by high food prices.

15.1: Percentage of Filipinos who experienced involuntary hunger from April to June this year, according to a recent survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS). This translates to some 3 million Filipinos.

1,800: Minimum amount in kilocalories that an average person needs as energy intake in a day, according to the FAO.

Compiled by Schatzi Quodala, Inquirer Research

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Food Programme, World Bank, Inquirer Archives

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