These days, one out of every five people lives below the poverty line, and almost a third of all the people on our planet live in so called third world countries. They somehow manage to live on less than a dollar a day, while almost half of the world’s population lives on less than two dollars a day. For most people throughout the developed world, the issues presented on our list have been resolved a long time ago, which makes raising awareness for these problems a lot more difficult.
We tend to overlook the life-threatening issues that most people in the world face every single day while taking our well-being for granted. Most of us couldn’t even phantom what it would be like to live a life deprived of clean running water or electricity, yet this is what almost half the people alive today are faced with on a daily basis. Let us than take a closer look at ten of the biggest problems throughout the third world.
10Poverty
We should start off by saying that poverty is the number one reason why these countries are referred to as ‘third world’. About 1.3 billion people in third world countries live on $1.25 a day or even less. Serious efforts were made between 1990 and 2008 and the number decreased by nearly half. However, a recent UN report shows an increase in food prices, which is causing global concern for the first time in about 20 years. Poverty and hunger are inseparable. Millions live in hunger and malnutrition either because they cannot afford to buy nutritious food or because they cannot afford the farming supplies needed to grow their own food.
