At
2002, an estimated ~33% of the world's population, or around 2B people, had never used a phone; certainly this number has changed radically since, but it's still significant (see
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=20411 )
---------------
From the 2008 World Bank Global Monitoring Report, At 2005
about 25% of the world's population, or 1.6B people, have no access to electricity.* From the same report:
Quote:
|
The majority of these people live in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia and the Pacific. Data at the national level highlight some extreme cases: Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique have the highest percentage of population without access to electricity, at over 93 percent each.
|
*(290 page PDF report:
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGLOMONREP2008/Resources/4737994-1207342962709/8944_Web_PDF.pdf )
----------------
Below are some charts from the World Bank's 2007 Annual Report - the blue line is percentage of the population living under $1/day and the greenish line represents under $2/day:
Source:
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/EXTANNREP/EXTANNREP2K7/0,,contentMDK:21507855~menuPK:4187926~pagePK:64168 445~piPK:64168309~theSitePK:4077916,00.html
---------------
Now we have some stats, as Snowman asks, "why?"
FYI.
Best,