Stats about the World That Will Make You Want to Curl Up in Bed and Cry

There are nearly 210 million orphans in the world

Nearly 15% of them will commit suicide before turning 18

75% of the total deaths during World War II were civilians (nearly 50 million people)

22,000 kids die every day because of poverty

A typical cow in the European Union receives a government subsidy of $2.20 a day. The cow earns more than 1.2 billion of the world’s poorest people

The United States now spends some $200 billion on the correctional system each year, a sum that exceeds the gross domestic product of twenty-five US states and 140 foreign countries

At least 10 times as many girls are now trafficked into brothels annually as African slaves were transported to the New World in the peak years of the trans-Atlantic slave trade

Your brain starts to deteriorate when you are 27

The amount the U.S. military spends annually on air conditioning in Iraq and Afghanistan is $20.2 billion. That’s more than NASA’s budget

Both in rich countries and poor, a staggering 30-50% of all food produced rots away uneaten

80% of the world population lives on less than $10 per day

Studies at the University of Kent have shown that the majority of people donate to charity to feel good about themselves

According to a study by NASA engineers, it was found that 60 out of 1000 drivers would go out of their way to hit animals on the road (don’t worry, they were fake, and yes, NASA engineers actually performed this study)

2 million children die of preventable diseases every year (diarrhea, pneumonia) because they are too poor to afford treatment

One fourth of humanity lives without electricity

1.2 billion people live in places without an adequate supply of water

1.6 billion live in places where they do have access to water, but they simply cannot afford it

Cargo ships and cruise liners dump 14 billion pounds of garbage into the ocean every year

34% of the homeless population in the United States is young people under 24

250 million children between the ages of 5 and 15 are working under forced labor conditions

There are 300,000 child soldiers around the world

Although most of the world has abolished the death penalty, 1591 people were executed in 2006. 91% of these took place in the US, China, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, and Iraq

315,000 women die in childbirth every year because they were malnourished and lacked basic nutrients

805 million people go hungry every day, 98% of them live in underdeveloped countries, and the vast majority are children

And since this list is about depressing statistics, we’ll end with the fact that 350 million people around the world are struggling with depression right now