SSA is home to more than 1.42 billion people and accounts for 16 percent of the world’s population, but 67 percent of the world’s extreme poor as of 2024. It is also home to a large portion of the world’s rural poor and holds the highest poverty rate of any region.
SSA is predominantly rural, with more than 57 percent of its population living in rural areas in 2023. Seven out of ten countries with the highest levels of rural poverty are in this region, and these countries account for 76 percent of global rural poverty.
SSA and South Asia have the highest levels of hunger in the world. SSA also has the highest child mortality rate (7.4%) of any region and a child stunting rate of 31.5%, nearly identical to South Asia’s rate of 31.4%.
According to FAO (2023), the share of the population that was undernourished in 2022 was 22.5 percent for Sub-Saharan Africa, 15.6 percent for South Asia, 7.5 percent for Northern Africa, 6.1 percent for South America, 5.0 percent for Southeast Asia, 3.0 percent for Central Asia, and 9.2 percent for the world.
The United States is considered the wealthiest country in the world, yet millions of its people live in poverty. The official poverty rate was 12.9% in 2023, with about 50 million people living in poverty.
An estimated 13 percent of all children, including 40 percent of Black children and 8 percent of White children are born poor.
When poverty is measured by counting those who fall below 50 percent of a country’s median income, the United States has by far the highest overall poverty rate among developed nations.
Among the most impoverished groups are:
An estimated 47 million people experienced food insecurity in the U.S. in 2023. These households faced difficulties in providing enough food for all members due to a lack of access to nutritious and affordable food.
The U.S. had the highest rate of food affordability struggles among G7 countries in 2023 (Newsweek, 2024). Yet, nearly 60 million tons of food, almost 40 percent of the entire U.S. food supply, is wasted each year.
The stunting rate is estimated at 3.4% of children under five, slightly higher than the North American regional average (3.2%). Additionally, 40.2% of adult women and 39.0% of adult men in the U.S. are living with obesity, both higher than the regional averages of 39.4% for women and 38.3% for men.
There are over half a million people experiencing homelessness in the U.S. These individuals live in temporary shelters, transitional housing, or in places not meant for human habitation.
