Hunger Facts
An estimated 1.02 billion people in the world go hungry.
Each year, 3 million under-five children die because they are undernourished.1 Far more children live with undernutrition than die from it. For infants and young children, the effects of chronic malnutrition in the early years of life are largely irreversible.
In the United States, over 49 million people—including 16.7 million children—live in households that struggle to put food on the table. That means one in seven households in the U.S. are living with hunger or are at risk of hunger.2
But we CAN end hunger.
We have the means. The financial costs to end hunger are relatively slight. The United Nations Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world's poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year. Animal lovers in the United States and Europe spend more than that on pet food each year.
What makes the difference between millions of hungry people and a world where all are fed?
Only a change in priorities. Only the will to end hunger.
Want to learn more? Bread for the World Institute collects facts on domestic and global hunger. It also generates answers to frequently asked questions about hunger. Or you can learn about what issues Bread for the World members are working on right now to bring an end to hunger in the U.S. and around the world. You can also get involved or write a letter to your member of Congress.
1. The World Bank Group (2008). Nutrition: What is Malnutrition? Retrieved July 17, 2008, http://youthink.worldbank.org/issues/health/nutrition/malnutrition.php
2. Hosehold Food Security in the United States, 2008. U.S. Department of Agriculture, November 2009. http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR83/ERR83.pdf
