On Sunday, the World Bank released a report evaluating progress made towards the Millennium Development Goals, a set of objectives to be achieved by 2015. The Goals, which were agreed upon five years ago by world leaders, include decreasing child mortality rates, increasing enrollment in primary schools, bettering health care, and making education more accessible to larger numbers of girls. According to the World Bank report, though, there's still a ways to go before those objectives are achieved -- especially where child mortality is concerned.
11 million Children under 5 who die annually in developing countries
48% Percentage of those deaths caused by acute respiratory infection, diarrhea, measles and malaria (combined)
2/3 Rate by which the World Bank predicted child and infant mortality rates would fall between 1990 and 2015
33 Countries that are actually "on track" to fulfill that prediction
2 Geographic regions that are actually "on track" to do so (Europe and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean)
2x How much higher school attendance rates are in India for the wealthiest 20% of the population as compared to those of the poorest 20%
2x How much higher the child mortality rate is in Mali for "children from poor, rural families" as compared to "those from rich urban ones"
51 Developing countries that have "already achieved the goal of complete enrollment of eligible children"
7 Additional developing countries (most of which are Latin American) that are "on track" to do so
100 million+ Primary school-age children around the globe who are not in school
60% Percentage of those children who are girls
401 Pages in the World Bank report
The statistics cited above come from the World Bank, the Associated Press and BusinessWeek.
