In America and around the world, the rich are getting richer and the rest are getting poorer.

• Less than 2% of governments globally have a coherent structured approach to address the social determinants of health. (H&C)
• 15% of the world’s population take nearly all (91%) of the income.
• 85% of the world’s population have almost no wealth.
• .1% of the world’s population have 23% of the wealth.
• The upper 1.1% have 56% of the wealth.
• The lower 85% of the earth’s people have 13.1% of the wealth.
• In 1996, 358 billionaires had a net worth of U$760 billion which equalled the wealth of the poorest 45% of the entire world’s population. (W&C)
• Of the top 200 great powers in the world, 150 are corporations and 50 are nations.
• Only 23 countries in the world control more wealth that General Electric.
• Annually, the health system is the cause of about 1% of families globally experiencing catastrophic expenditures (and up to 5% in some coutries).(W&C)
• Of all the rich democracies, the U.S. Has the greatest gap between the rich and the poor, the smallest middle class, and the greatest concentration of income and wealth in the hands of the few.
• In 1998 the income of the top 5% in the U.S. increased by 44% and the bottom 20% decreased by 16%
• Between 1970 and 1998 the salaries of CEO’s in the U.S rose from 20 times to 419 times what the average workers made.
• One CEO family (Bill Gates) has a net worth of $30,000,000,000 (thirty billion dollars).
• Life expectancy at birth ranges from 34 in Sierra Leone to 82 in Japan. (W&C)
• The probability of a man dying between ages 15 and 60 is 8% in Sweden, 46% in Russia, and 90% in Lesotho. (W&C)
• In Australia, there is a 20-year gap in life expectancy between Australian Aboriginals and the Australian average. (W&C)
• Low and middl-income countries accout for 85% of the world’s road deaths. (W&C)
• Nearly 11 million deaths in 2002 were among children under five and 98% of them were in developing countries. (W&C)
• Income inequality is increasing in countries that account for more than 80% of the world’s population.
• In America and around the world, the rich are getting richer and the rest are getting poorer.

Those points marked by “W&C” are from WHO and the Canadian Institute for Advaned Research. The rest are statistics presented are from the web page “Gritty.” They indicate their sources in more detail there. You are encouraged to visit their website, which provides a great deal of important information in a visually striking manner, at Gritty.