Quick Facts About the Environment

Our programs are multi-faceted, holistic and proven to be effective. Independent research has concluded that Compassion child sponsorship has large and statistically significant impacts on the educational, employment and leadership outcomes of the children in our programs.

These facts about the environment give a glimpse into living conditions, infrastructure, war and weather, among other issues contributing to child poverty.

• Between 1901 and 1910 there were 82 recorded disasters, but between 2003 and 2012 there were more than 4,000. ¹
• Every year natural disasters kill around 90,000 people and affect close to 160 million people worldwide. ⁹
• Economic losses attributed to weather-related natural disasters total $3.2 trillion since 1980. ²
• From 1995 through 2014, 89 percent of storm-related fatalities were in lower-income countries, even though these countries experienced just 26 percent of storms. ³
• An estimated 446 million people live in fragile and conflict-affected states. These states are poorer, with slower economic growth rates and higher population growth rates than other countries. ²
• In 2015, 68 percent of the world’s population (5.0 billion people) used at least a basic sanitation service such as toilets or latrines; 2.3 billion people still do not have basic sanitation facilities. ⁴

• 892 million still defecate in the open, for example in street gutters, behind bushes or into open bodies of water. ⁴
• Almost 60 percent of deaths due to diarrhea worldwide are attributable to unsafe drinking water and poor hygiene and sanitation. Hand washing with soap alone can cut the risk of diarrhea by at least 40 percent. ¹⁰
• The countries where open defection is most widespread have the highest number of deaths of children aged under 5 years as well as the highest levels of malnutrition and poverty, and big disparities of wealth. ⁴
• Over 10 percent of the population still relies on untreated surface water in 22 countries. ⁸
• At least 10 percent of the world’s population is thought to consume food irrigated by waste water. ⁴
• 860 million people worldwide continue to live in slums. ⁵
• Between 2030 and 2050, climate change is expected to cause approximately 250,000 additional deaths per year, from malnutrition, malaria, diarrhoea and heat stress. ⁶
• Worldwide 18,000 people a day die because of air pollution. ⁷