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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

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Introduction

Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we're looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts you.

It is a major threat to global health and prosperity. Air pollution, in all forms, is responsible for more than 6.5 million deaths each year globally, a number that has increased over the past two decades.

What Is Air Pollution?

Air pollution is a mix of hazardous substances from both human-made and natural sources.

Vehicle emissions, fuel oils and natural gas to heat homes, by-products of manufacturing and power generation, particularly coal-fueled power plants, and fumes from chemical production are the primary sources of human-made air pollution.

Nature releases hazardous substances into the air, such as smoke from wildfires, which are often caused by people; ash and gases from volcanic eruptions; and gases, like methane, which are emitted from decomposing organic matter in soils.

Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP), a mixture of gasses and particles, has most of the elements of human-made air pollution: ground-level ozone, various forms of carbon, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and fine particulate matter.

Ozone, an atmospheric gas, is often called smog when at ground level. It is created when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight.

Noxious gases, which include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx), are components of motor vehicle emissions and byproducts of industrial processes.

Particulate matter (PM) is composed of chemicals such as sulfates, nitrates, carbon, or mineral dusts. Vehicle and industrial emissions from fossil fuel combustion, cigarette smoke, and burning organic matter, such as wildfires, all contain PM.

A subset of PM, fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) is 30 times thinner than a human hair. It can be inhaled deeply into lung tissue and contribute to serious health problems. PM 2.5 accounts for most health effects due to air pollution in the U.S.

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) vaporize at or near room temperature-hence, the designation volatile. They are called organic because they contain carbon. VOCs are given off by paints, cleaning supplies, pesticides, some furnishings, and even craft materials like glue. Gasoline and natural gas are major sources of VOCs, which are released during combustion.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen. Of more than 100 PAHs known to be widespread in the environment, 15 are listed in the Report on Carcinogens. In addition to combustion, many industrial processes, such as iron, steel, and rubber product manufacturing, as well as power generation, also produce PAHs as a by-product. PAHs are also found in particulate matter.

Air Pollution and Climate Change

Air pollution and climate change affect each other through complex interactions in the atmosphere. Air pollution is intricately linked with climate change because both problems come largely from the same sources, such as emissions from burning fossil fuels. Both are threats to people's health and the environment worldwide. Read more: Health Impacts of Air Quality.

What is NIEHS Doing?

Over its 50-plus year history, NIEHS has been a leader in air pollution research. The institute continues to fund and conduct research into how air pollution affects health and the population groups who are most affected.

How does air pollution affect our health?

When the National Ambient Air Quality Standards were established in 1970, air pollution was regarded primarily as a threat to respiratory health. In 1993, NIEHS researchers published the landmark Six Cities Study, which established an association between fine particulate matter and mortality.

Air pollution exposure is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in human cells, which may lay a foundation for chronic diseases and cancer. In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) classified air pollution as a human carcinogen.

Mortality rates related to air pollution are a concern. Exposure to the air pollutant PM2.5 is associated with an increased risk of death.

A team of researchers, partially funded by NIEHS, found that deaths decreased after air pollution regulations were implemented and coal-powered plants were retired. The study data covered 21 years. More specifically, they found exposure to PM2.5 from coal was associated with a mortality risk that was twice as high as the risk from exposure to PM2.5 from all sources. PM2.5 from coal is high in sulfur dioxide, black carbon, and metals.

Public health concerns include cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and reproductive, neurological, and immune system disorders.

Research on air pollution and health effects continually advances.

Cancer

A large study of more than 57,000 women found living near major roadways may increase a woman's risk for breast cancer.

The NIEHS Sister Study found other airborne toxic substances, especially methylene chloride, which is used in aerosol products and paint removers, are also associated with increased risk of breast cancer.

Occupational exposure to benzene, an industrial chemical and component of gasoline, can cause leukemia and is associated with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

A long-term study, 2000-2016, found an association between lung cancer incidence and increased reliance on coal for energy generation.

Cardiovascular Disease

Fine particulate matter can impair blood vessel function and speed up calcification in arteries.

NIEHS researchers established links between short-term daily exposure by post-menopausal women to nitrogen oxides and increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

For some older Americans, exposure to TRAP can result in lowered levels of high-density lipoprotein, sometimes called good cholesterol, increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease.

According to a National Toxicology Program (NTP) , TRAP exposure also increases a pregnant woman's risk for dangerous changes in blood pressure, known as hypertensive disorders, which are a leading cause of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and maternal and fetal illness and death.

Respiratory Disease

Air pollution can affect lung development and is implicated in the development of , asthma, and other respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Increases in asthma prevalence and severity are linked to urbanization and outdoor air pollution. Children living in low-income urban areas tend to have more asthma cases than others. Research published in 2023 tied two air pollutants, ozone and PM2.5, to asthma-related changes in children's airways.

PM and nitrogen oxide are linked to chronic bronchitis.

In 2020, a major public health challenge was confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires across the western U.S. Building on a well-established connection between air pollution and respiratory-tract infections, a study linked wildfire smoke with additional COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Whom does air pollution affect the most?

Air pollution affects everyone's health, but certain groups may be harmed more.
Almost 9 out of 10 people who live in urban areas worldwide are affected by air pollution.
Children
The NIEHS-funded Children's Health Study at the University of Southern California is one of the largest studies of the long-term effects of air pollution on children's respiratory health. Among its findings:

Higher air pollution levels increase short-term respiratory infections, which lead to more school absences.

Children who play several outdoor sports and live in high ozone communities are more likely to develop asthma.

Children living near busy roads are at increased risk for asthma.

Children with asthma who were exposed to high levels of air pollutants were more likely to develop bronchitis symptoms.

Living in communities with higher pollution levels can cause lung damage.

Other studies on women and children

NIEHS-funded researchers from the University of California, Davis, Environmental Health Sciences Center are conducting the Bio-Specimen and Fire Effects (B-SAFE) Study. This ongoing project seeks to discover if and how recent wildfires and their smoke affected pregnant women and their babies. Begun in 2017, study participants are pregnant women who were living in Northern California when the 2018, 2019, or 2020 wildfires occurred there.

Breathing PM 2.5, even at relatively low levels, may alter the size of a child's developing brain, which may ultimately increase the risk for cognitive and emotional problems later in adolescence.

Prenatal exposure to PAHs was associated with brain development effects, slower processing speed, attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and other neurobehavioral problems in urban youth.

In New York City, prenatal exposure to air pollution may play a role in childhood ADHD-related behavior problems.

Prenatal exposure to particulate matter was associated with low birth weight.

Women exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester, may have up to twice the risk of having a child with autism.

Second and third trimester exposure to PM 2.5 might increase the chance of those children having high blood pressure in early life.

In California's agricultural San Joaquin Valley, women who were exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, or nitrogen dioxide during their first 8 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have a baby with neural tube defects.

In Marietta, Ohio, home to a ferromanganese refinery, manganese concentrations in blood and hair, a biomarker of air pollution exposure, were associated with lower child IQ scores.

Older adults

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are a public health challenge for aging populations. NIEHS-funded researchers at the University of Washington identified a link between air pollution and dementias. This well-conducted study adds considerable evidence that ambient air fine particles increase risk of dementias. Conversely, a multi-year study published in 2022 shows improved air quality is associated with lower risk of dementia in older women. The researchers also stated this decline in dementia risk was equivalent to taking nearly 2 1/2 years off the age of the women studied.

Air pollution was linked to a greater chance of developing several neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other dementias. Hospital admissions data from 63 million older adults in the U.S., obtained over 17 years (2000-2016), was analyzed along with estimated PM 2.5 concentrations by zip code to conduct the study.

In older adults, long-term exposure to TRAP may significantly hasten physical disabilities. The risk is more pronounced among racial minorities and lower-income people.

Osteoporosis affects women more than men. A large study associated high levels of air pollutants with bone damage, particularly in the lumbar spine, among postmenopausal women. This study expands previous findings linking air pollution and bone damage.

Nutrients may counter some harmful effects from air pollution. A 2020 study found omega-3 fatty acids, obtained by eating certain fish, may protect against PM 2.5-associated brain shrinkage in older women.

Rural dwellers

An NIEHS-funded study found that concentrations of PM 2.5 in rural Washington State were comparable to urban Seattle. In this study, as regional PM 2.5 increased, there were increased asthma symptoms, such as limitation of activities, more wheezing, and more nighttime waking, in rural children.

NIEHS supported a translational research project, Addressing Air Pollution and Asthma, that may lead to improved health for children suffering from asthma. They found that certain agricultural practices contribute to poor air quality and asthma among children. The team combined high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) cleaners and a home-based education program to reduce children's exposure to pollutants in the home.

In the rural U.S., large-scale animal feeding operations might compromise regional air quality through emission of pollutants, such as ammonia gas. A study found acute lung function problems in children with asthma in such areas.

Different genes
Your genes play a role in respiratory health. NIEHS-funded research discovered that people with specific gene variants, which made them more likely to have lung inflammation, had a greater chance of suffering from asthma if they lived close to major roadways.

NIEHS and community involvement

NIEHS supports community participation in the research process and encourages collaborative approaches that build capacity in communities to address environmental health concerns. Community-engaged research and citizen science are two types of collaborative research approaches.

For example, NIEHS helps residents of Imperial County, California track air pollution through a network of 40 community-run monitors. In this county, long-term improvements in air quality were associated with significant lung-function improvement in children.

In another example, NIEHS grant recipients developed community-level tactics and public policies for reducing exposure to TRAP:

Using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.

Building land-use buffers and vegetation barriers.

Improving urban design with gardens, parks, and street-side trees.

Creating active-travel options, such as bicycling and walking paths.

THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project brings together researchers and community groups to find solutions for communities affected by trade-related pollution, such as ports and roadways with trucking.

Why improving air quality matters

Air pollution and birth outcomes are linked as global public health concerns. Researchers analyzed indoor and outdoor air pollution data from all inhabited continents along with key pregnancy outcomes. Their findings indicate efforts to reduce PM2.5 exposure could lead to significant reductions in the number of low-birth weight and pre-term birth infants worldwide. Air pollution reduction would be especially beneficial for children born in low- and middle-income countries.

Among children in Southern California, decreases in ambient nitrogen dioxide and PM 2.5 were associated with fewer cases of asthma.

An NIEHS-funded study found that a mixture of several B vitamins may protect DNA from changes attributable to PM 2.5 air pollution.

Bronchitis symptoms declined as pollution levels dropped in the Los Angeles region.

Improving air quality may improve cognitive function and reduce dementia risk, according to supported in part by NIH and the Alzheimer's Association.

When fossil-fuel power plants close, nearby air pollution is reduced. A study found the incidence of preterm births went down within 5 kilometers of retired coal and oil-powered plant locations.

Further Reading

Stories from the Environmental Factor (NIEHS Newsletter)

Printable Fact Sheets

Podcasts

Additional Resources

Air Pollution Linked to Dementia Cases (September 2023) - In this edition of NIH Research Matters, read about findings from the Health and Retirement Study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, that showed higher air pollution exposure was linked to an increased risk of dementia. After consideration of all sources, fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, from agriculture and wildfires were specifically associated with an increased risk of dementia. Reducing such exposures might help lower the incidence of dementia. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

, a tool developed in partnership by several government agencies, allows you to monitor air quality in real time anywhere in the U.S. Simply enter your zip code as indicated on the website.

EPA's Air Sensor Toolbox provides information on the operation and use of air-sensor monitoring systems for technology developers, air-quality managers, citizen scientists, and the public.

NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative - This solutions-focused research initiative aims to reduce the health consequences associated with extreme weather events and evolving climate conditions. NIH has a strong history of creating innovative tools, technologies, and data-driven solutions to address global environmental problems.

Smoke-ready Toolbox for Wildfires is a compendium of resources from the EPA to help educate you about the risks of smoke exposure and actions that protect your health.

Wildfire Smoke Collection - The journal Environmental Health Perspectives has published high-impact papers and reviews exploring exposure and resulting health effects related to wildfires.

Related Health Topics

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Introduction

Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we're looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts you.

It is a major threat to global health and prosperity. Air pollution, in all forms, is responsible for more than 6.5 million deaths each year globally, a number that has increased over the past two decades.

What Is Air Pollution?

Air pollution is a mix of hazardous substances from both human-made and natural sources.

Vehicle emissions, fuel oils and natural gas to heat homes, by-products of manufacturing and power generation, particularly coal-fueled power plants, and fumes from chemical production are the primary sources of human-made air pollution.

Nature releases hazardous substances into the air, such as smoke from wildfires, which are often caused by people; ash and gases from volcanic eruptions; and gases, like methane, which are emitted from decomposing organic matter in soils.

Traffic-Related Air Pollution (TRAP), a mixture of gasses and particles, has most of the elements of human-made air pollution: ground-level ozone, various forms of carbon, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and fine particulate matter.

Ozone, an atmospheric gas, is often called smog when at ground level. It is created when pollutants emitted by cars, power plants, industrial boilers, refineries, and other sources chemically react in the presence of sunlight.

Noxious gases, which include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx), are components of motor vehicle emissions and byproducts of industrial processes.

Particulate matter (PM) is composed of chemicals such as sulfates, nitrates, carbon, or mineral dusts. Vehicle and industrial emissions from fossil fuel combustion, cigarette smoke, and burning organic matter, such as wildfires, all contain PM.

A subset of PM, fine particulate matter (PM 2.5) is 30 times thinner than a human hair. It can be inhaled deeply into lung tissue and contribute to serious health problems. PM 2.5 accounts for most health effects due to air pollution in the U.S.

Volatile organic compounds (VOC) vaporize at or near room temperature-hence, the designation volatile. They are called organic because they contain carbon. VOCs are given off by paints, cleaning supplies, pesticides, some furnishings, and even craft materials like glue. Gasoline and natural gas are major sources of VOCs, which are released during combustion.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen. Of more than 100 PAHs known to be widespread in the environment, 15 are listed in the Report on Carcinogens. In addition to combustion, many industrial processes, such as iron, steel, and rubber product manufacturing, as well as power generation, also produce PAHs as a by-product. PAHs are also found in particulate matter.

Air Pollution and Climate Change

Air pollution and climate change affect each other through complex interactions in the atmosphere. Air pollution is intricately linked with climate change because both problems come largely from the same sources, such as emissions from burning fossil fuels. Both are threats to people's health and the environment worldwide. Read more: Health Impacts of Air Quality.

What is NIEHS Doing?

Over its 50-plus year history, NIEHS has been a leader in air pollution research. The institute continues to fund and conduct research into how air pollution affects health and the population groups who are most affected.

How does air pollution affect our health?

When the National Ambient Air Quality Standards were established in 1970, air pollution was regarded primarily as a threat to respiratory health. In 1993, NIEHS researchers published the landmark Six Cities Study, which established an association between fine particulate matter and mortality.

Air pollution exposure is associated with oxidative stress and inflammation in human cells, which may lay a foundation for chronic diseases and cancer. In 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer of the World Health Organization (WHO) classified air pollution as a human carcinogen.

Mortality rates related to air pollution are a concern. Exposure to the air pollutant PM2.5 is associated with an increased risk of death.

A team of researchers, partially funded by NIEHS, found that deaths decreased after air pollution regulations were implemented and coal-powered plants were retired. The study data covered 21 years. More specifically, they found exposure to PM2.5 from coal was associated with a mortality risk that was twice as high as the risk from exposure to PM2.5 from all sources. PM2.5 from coal is high in sulfur dioxide, black carbon, and metals.

Public health concerns include cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and reproductive, neurological, and immune system disorders.

Research on air pollution and health effects continually advances.

Cancer

A large study of more than 57,000 women found living near major roadways may increase a woman's risk for breast cancer.

The NIEHS Sister Study found other airborne toxic substances, especially methylene chloride, which is used in aerosol products and paint removers, are also associated with increased risk of breast cancer.

Occupational exposure to benzene, an industrial chemical and component of gasoline, can cause leukemia and is associated with non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

A long-term study, 2000-2016, found an association between lung cancer incidence and increased reliance on coal for energy generation.

Cardiovascular Disease

Fine particulate matter can impair blood vessel function and speed up calcification in arteries.

NIEHS researchers established links between short-term daily exposure by post-menopausal women to nitrogen oxides and increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

For some older Americans, exposure to TRAP can result in lowered levels of high-density lipoprotein, sometimes called good cholesterol, increasing their risk for cardiovascular disease.

According to a National Toxicology Program (NTP) , TRAP exposure also increases a pregnant woman's risk for dangerous changes in blood pressure, known as hypertensive disorders, which are a leading cause of pre-term birth, low birth weight, and maternal and fetal illness and death.

Respiratory Disease

Air pollution can affect lung development and is implicated in the development of , asthma, and other respiratory diseases, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Increases in asthma prevalence and severity are linked to urbanization and outdoor air pollution. Children living in low-income urban areas tend to have more asthma cases than others. Research published in 2023 tied two air pollutants, ozone and PM2.5, to asthma-related changes in children's airways.

PM and nitrogen oxide are linked to chronic bronchitis.

In 2020, a major public health challenge was confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic and wildfires across the western U.S. Building on a well-established connection between air pollution and respiratory-tract infections, a study linked wildfire smoke with additional COVID-19 cases and deaths.

Whom does air pollution affect the most?

Air pollution affects everyone's health, but certain groups may be harmed more.
Almost 9 out of 10 people who live in urban areas worldwide are affected by air pollution.
Children
The NIEHS-funded Children's Health Study at the University of Southern California is one of the largest studies of the long-term effects of air pollution on children's respiratory health. Among its findings:

Higher air pollution levels increase short-term respiratory infections, which lead to more school absences.

Children who play several outdoor sports and live in high ozone communities are more likely to develop asthma.

Children living near busy roads are at increased risk for asthma.

Children with asthma who were exposed to high levels of air pollutants were more likely to develop bronchitis symptoms.

Living in communities with higher pollution levels can cause lung damage.

Other studies on women and children

NIEHS-funded researchers from the University of California, Davis, Environmental Health Sciences Center are conducting the Bio-Specimen and Fire Effects (B-SAFE) Study. This ongoing project seeks to discover if and how recent wildfires and their smoke affected pregnant women and their babies. Begun in 2017, study participants are pregnant women who were living in Northern California when the 2018, 2019, or 2020 wildfires occurred there.

Breathing PM 2.5, even at relatively low levels, may alter the size of a child's developing brain, which may ultimately increase the risk for cognitive and emotional problems later in adolescence.

Prenatal exposure to PAHs was associated with brain development effects, slower processing speed, attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, and other neurobehavioral problems in urban youth.

In New York City, prenatal exposure to air pollution may play a role in childhood ADHD-related behavior problems.

Prenatal exposure to particulate matter was associated with low birth weight.

Women exposed to high levels of fine particulate matter during pregnancy, particularly in the third trimester, may have up to twice the risk of having a child with autism.

Second and third trimester exposure to PM 2.5 might increase the chance of those children having high blood pressure in early life.

In California's agricultural San Joaquin Valley, women who were exposed to high levels of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, or nitrogen dioxide during their first 8 weeks of pregnancy were more likely to have a baby with neural tube defects.

In Marietta, Ohio, home to a ferromanganese refinery, manganese concentrations in blood and hair, a biomarker of air pollution exposure, were associated with lower child IQ scores.

Older adults

Alzheimer's disease and related dementias are a public health challenge for aging populations. NIEHS-funded researchers at the University of Washington identified a link between air pollution and dementias. This well-conducted study adds considerable evidence that ambient air fine particles increase risk of dementias. Conversely, a multi-year study published in 2022 shows improved air quality is associated with lower risk of dementia in older women. The researchers also stated this decline in dementia risk was equivalent to taking nearly 2 1/2 years off the age of the women studied.

Air pollution was linked to a greater chance of developing several neurological disorders, including Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and other dementias. Hospital admissions data from 63 million older adults in the U.S., obtained over 17 years (2000-2016), was analyzed along with estimated PM 2.5 concentrations by zip code to conduct the study.

In older adults, long-term exposure to TRAP may significantly hasten physical disabilities. The risk is more pronounced among racial minorities and lower-income people.

Osteoporosis affects women more than men. A large study associated high levels of air pollutants with bone damage, particularly in the lumbar spine, among postmenopausal women. This study expands previous findings linking air pollution and bone damage.

Nutrients may counter some harmful effects from air pollution. A 2020 study found omega-3 fatty acids, obtained by eating certain fish, may protect against PM 2.5-associated brain shrinkage in older women.

Rural dwellers

An NIEHS-funded study found that concentrations of PM 2.5 in rural Washington State were comparable to urban Seattle. In this study, as regional PM 2.5 increased, there were increased asthma symptoms, such as limitation of activities, more wheezing, and more nighttime waking, in rural children.

NIEHS supported a translational research project, Addressing Air Pollution and Asthma, that may lead to improved health for children suffering from asthma. They found that certain agricultural practices contribute to poor air quality and asthma among children. The team combined high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) cleaners and a home-based education program to reduce children's exposure to pollutants in the home.

In the rural U.S., large-scale animal feeding operations might compromise regional air quality through emission of pollutants, such as ammonia gas. A study found acute lung function problems in children with asthma in such areas.

Different genes
Your genes play a role in respiratory health. NIEHS-funded research discovered that people with specific gene variants, which made them more likely to have lung inflammation, had a greater chance of suffering from asthma if they lived close to major roadways.

NIEHS and community involvement

NIEHS supports community participation in the research process and encourages collaborative approaches that build capacity in communities to address environmental health concerns. Community-engaged research and citizen science are two types of collaborative research approaches.

For example, NIEHS helps residents of Imperial County, California track air pollution through a network of 40 community-run monitors. In this county, long-term improvements in air quality were associated with significant lung-function improvement in children.

In another example, NIEHS grant recipients developed community-level tactics and public policies for reducing exposure to TRAP:

Using high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration.

Building land-use buffers and vegetation barriers.

Improving urban design with gardens, parks, and street-side trees.

Creating active-travel options, such as bicycling and walking paths.

THE (Trade, Health, Environment) Impact Project brings together researchers and community groups to find solutions for communities affected by trade-related pollution, such as ports and roadways with trucking.

Why improving air quality matters

Air pollution and birth outcomes are linked as global public health concerns. Researchers analyzed indoor and outdoor air pollution data from all inhabited continents along with key pregnancy outcomes. Their findings indicate efforts to reduce PM2.5 exposure could lead to significant reductions in the number of low-birth weight and pre-term birth infants worldwide. Air pollution reduction would be especially beneficial for children born in low- and middle-income countries.

Among children in Southern California, decreases in ambient nitrogen dioxide and PM 2.5 were associated with fewer cases of asthma.

An NIEHS-funded study found that a mixture of several B vitamins may protect DNA from changes attributable to PM 2.5 air pollution.

Bronchitis symptoms declined as pollution levels dropped in the Los Angeles region.

Improving air quality may improve cognitive function and reduce dementia risk, according to supported in part by NIH and the Alzheimer's Association.

When fossil-fuel power plants close, nearby air pollution is reduced. A study found the incidence of preterm births went down within 5 kilometers of retired coal and oil-powered plant locations.

Further Reading

Stories from the Environmental Factor (NIEHS Newsletter)

Printable Fact Sheets

Podcasts

Additional Resources

Air Pollution Linked to Dementia Cases (September 2023) - In this edition of NIH Research Matters, read about findings from the Health and Retirement Study, funded by the National Institute on Aging, that showed higher air pollution exposure was linked to an increased risk of dementia. After consideration of all sources, fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, from agriculture and wildfires were specifically associated with an increased risk of dementia. Reducing such exposures might help lower the incidence of dementia. The study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

, a tool developed in partnership by several government agencies, allows you to monitor air quality in real time anywhere in the U.S. Simply enter your zip code as indicated on the website.

EPA's Air Sensor Toolbox provides information on the operation and use of air-sensor monitoring systems for technology developers, air-quality managers, citizen scientists, and the public.

NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative - This solutions-focused research initiative aims to reduce the health consequences associated with extreme weather events and evolving climate conditions. NIH has a strong history of creating innovative tools, technologies, and data-driven solutions to address global environmental problems.

Smoke-ready Toolbox for Wildfires is a compendium of resources from the EPA to help educate you about the risks of smoke exposure and actions that protect your health.

Wildfire Smoke Collection - The journal Environmental Health Perspectives has published high-impact papers and reviews exploring exposure and resulting health effects related to wildfires.

Related Health Topics

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Air pollution is a familiar environmental health hazard. We know what we're looking at when brown haze settles over a city, exhaust billows across a busy highway, or a plume rises from a smokestack. Some air pollution is not seen, but its pungent smell alerts you.

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Convention No. 182 concerns the worst forms of child labour. This section provides more information on what these worst forms are. You can then explore this further through the Taking action and useful resources section.

This section details with difficult issues, but issues that are widespread all over the world today and affecting young people of all ages. It is important that we are correctly informed in order to better understand the situation, however when discussing these issues with much younger children please approach them sensitively.

The worst forms of child labour

Slavery and similar issues such as the trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom, children in armed conflict:

Slavery is where one person is owned by and made to work for another person without having any say over what happens to them. Slaves are held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase, or birth, and are not allowed to leave or to refuse to work.

Child trafficking is the illegal trading (buying, selling and movement) of children for labour or sexual exploitation. Children are trafficked for many reasons, including forced labour, prostitution and recruitment as child soldiers and beggars.

Debt bondage is forced labour, where work is exchanged to pay off loans that people cannot pay off with money or goods. For example, a poor family may hand over their child to someone to pay off their debt, and that child will have to work for years until the debt is cleared.

Serfdom is when a person is forced to live and work on land belonging to another person, often with little or no pay.

Forced labour is when someone is made to work against their wishes. For example, Children in armed conflict are forced to fight or to work as cooks, porters and messengers. These children are abused and exploited, often being forced to kill or maim other human beings.

The sexual exploitation of children (prostitution, pornography and pornographic performances):

Sexual exploitation is the mistreating, abusing and/or taking advantage of someone for personal gain and profit, by involving them in prostitution or commercial sexual activity. Prostitution is the exchange of sexual activities for money.

Children around the world, girls and boys, are exploited sexually, used by adults for sex or used in sexual images ( pornography) or performances. They may be bought and sold into marriage, prostitution or slavery - in both developing and industrialized countries. Children are also kidnapped and then trafficked across borders and then sold to be prostitutes in foreign countries.

This form of child labour has serious short and long term consequences. Children are at a high risk of physical abuse, malnutrition and sexually transmitted diseases. It is extremely difficult for children to get out of this situation and very hard for them to deal with what they have experienced physically and mentally.

The involvement of children in illicit activities, for example, the production and trafficking of drugs:

Illicit activities are illegal activities or crimes.

Producing and trafficking drugs is an illicit activity that often involves children. Trafficking is illegal trading (buying or selling). Children might do this against their will or with the belief that this will give them status and money. Children who produce or traffic drugs are at great risk of abuse and many also become addicted to drugs at a very young age.

Children are also involved in other crimes as defined in national laws, such as buying stolen goods, shoplifting, robbery, hijacking cars, theft and burglary. They may be forced with threats and violence to take part in criminal activities, or be under pressure to find money for their survival and that of their family. Some children get involved in crime through gangs, or because they think this is a way to obtain respect.

Street children, runaways or children living in poverty are also used in organized beggary. Children are sometimes even intentionally disfigured to attract more money from passers by, and they may be beaten if they don't manage to collect enough money.

Children involved in illicit activities are often exposed to violence, which can severely affect their mental and physical development. In addition, they may not develop good social skills and are much more likely to suffer from depression, alcohol and drug addictions and identity difficulties and become juvenile delinquents.

Work which is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children:

Work which could harm children's health or well-being and/or expose them to danger is also a "worst form of child labour".

This could be work in a dangerous environment, such as in a mine, where children risk death or injury from tunnel collapses, accidental explosions or rock falls. In industry, the children may be exposed to dangerous chemicals and substances, so burns and serious injury are common. They may also be exposed to toxic substances such as mercury and lead, and can develop chronic health conditions such as silicosis (a respiratory disease in the lungs). Agricultural work also presents great dangers, especially where children have to work with dangerous tools and equipment or with chemical substances, like pesticides for crops. Much of the time, the children have either no safety equipment, or it is adult equipment, which does not fit properly and does not provide proper protection.

Many types of work are physically harmful to children, especially when done for long periods of time. For example, children may have to sit bent over in one position, or crawl in small spaces which can cause disfigurement, spinal injuries and difficulty walking straight. This could be work such as sewing footballs or clothes, breaking bricks and rocks for road building, making matchsticks, crawling through a mine, making bricks. Or they might constantly be bent over from carrying loads that are too heavy.

Furthermore, child labourers are involved in hazardous work when they are exposed to all types of weather conditions (e.g. scorching hot sun, hard rain) and may not have shoes or adequate clothing. They can easily develop coughs and catch pneumonia or other illnesses.

Children are also exposed to hazardous work when the workplace is unsanitary, poorly lit and poorly ventilated. This is also true when clean drinking water, health services and schools are unavailable, especially in the more remote areas. In these conditions, children are more at risk of catching illnesses and disease.

All of these types of work interfere with a child's education, as most children have neither the time, nor the energy, to attend school. Their families rely on the little wages the children make to survive.

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Convention No. 182 concerns the worst forms of child labour. This section provides more information on what these worst forms are. You can then explore this further through the Taking action and useful resources section. This section details with difficult issues, but issues that are widespread all over the world today and affecting young people of all ages.

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Slavery is illegal almost everywhere - but today, millions of children, women and men are trafficked and trapped in forced labor slavery around the world.

Traffickers and slave holders use deception, threats or violence to force vulnerable people into grueling labor or sexual exploitation for little or no pay. Individuals trapped in labor trafficking are often denied life necessities like adequate food or sleep. They are even prevented from leaving for school or urgent medical care.

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Labor Trafficking | International Justice Mission

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Slavery is illegal almost everywhere - but today, millions of people are trafficked and trapped in forced labor slavery around the world.

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Childhood should be a time to grow, learn, play and flourish in safety. But, an estimated 12 million children around the world don't have that chance. Instead, they wake up each day trapped in modern slavery, with over 3 million children exploited in forced labour, and nearly 9 million children in forced marriage.

Some have been forced into back-breaking work in mines, brick kilns, sweatshops and private homes. Others are forced into marriage, into sexual exploitation, begging or selling drugs. And it happens closer than we would like to think - children in the UK, EU and other developed economies are often vulnerable to slavery.

Children - especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds - are particularly vulnerable to slavery. They may face all of the same drivers of slavery, such as poverty, social status and discrimination, but also lack agency and an ability to speak up, because they are a child. Children can face additional power imbalances with adults that make them ever more vulnerable to forms of slavery such as child trafficking and forced labour.

Many children are exploited far away from their families, without people to look out for them or recognise the signs that they are being exploited.

Common forms of slavery of children include:

Children abused in prostitution, pornography, or other forms of sexual exploitation

Children forced into begging, petty crime or the drug trade

Forced labour exploitation in the private economy, for example in agriculture, factories, construction, brick kilns, mines, bars, the tourist industry or in private homes

Children forced to take part in armed conflicts. This includes not only child soldiers, but also porters or girls taken as "wives" for soldiers and militia members

Children forced to marry. Anyone under 18, who doesn't consent to a marriage (or doesn't fully understand consent), is exploited within their marriage, or is not able to leave is living in slavery. Of the children in modern slavery, nearly 9 million are in forced marriage.

According to the 2022 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery, the highest proportion of children are in forced marriage (nearly 9 million). Of the children in forced labour (3.3 million) half are in commercial sexual exploitation, and just under 40% are in forced labour exploitation in the private economy. These figures not only demonstrate a rise in the number of children experiencing modern slavery, but suggest that the economic shocks of Covid-19 will make many more children at risk of modern slavery.

Child work, child labour, child slavery - what's the difference?

The terms around exploitation of children can be quite confusing so here is a short guide:

Child work. Some types of work make useful, positive contributions to a child's development, helping them learn useful skills. Often, work is also a vital source of income for their families

Child labour. Child labour is not slavery, but nevertheless hinders children's education and development. Child labour tends to be undertaken when the child is in the care of their parents

Worst forms of child labour. As well as slavery and forced labour, the worst forms of child labour include "hazardous work", which irreversibly damages children's health and development through, for example, exposure to dangerous machinery or toxic substances, and may even endanger their lives

Child slavery. Child slavery is when a child is handed over and exploited for someone else's gain, meaning the child will have no way to leave the situation or person exploiting them

Child trafficking. Trafficking involves transporting, recruiting or harbouring people for the purpose of exploitation, using violence, threats or coercion. When children are trafficked, no violence, deception or coercion needs to be involved. Child trafficking is merely the act of transporting or harbouring children for exploitative work

How widespread is the problem?

Data suggests that both child labour and child slavery are growing. In the past, we have seen that even when child labour figures were decreasing, child slavery figures remained almost the same.

Worryingly, the 2021 Global Estimates on Child Labour demonstrated that child labour had increased for the first time in 20 years. The 2022 Global Estimates of Modern Slavery demonstrate that there has also been an increase in the number of children in slavery, from around 10 million children, to over 12 million children, although the Estimates suggest this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Learn more about our work against child slavery

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What is child slavery? | Anti-Slavery International

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Child slavery can be breaking rocks, fighting as a child soldier, or even child marriage. Millions of children are in slavery. Learn about it.

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HIV and AIDS (for Teens) - Nemours KidsHealth

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There is no cure for AIDS, which is why prevention is so important. Get the facts on HIV/AIDS, as well as how it affects the body and is treated, in this article.

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What Is HIV?

HIV ( human immunodeficiency virus) is a virus that attacks cells that help the body fight infection, making a person more vulnerable to other infections and diseases. It is spread by contact with certain bodily fluids of a person with HIV, most commonly during unprotected sex (sex without a condom or HIV medicine to prevent or treat HIV), or through sharing injection drug equipment.

If left untreated, HIV can lead to the disease AIDS ( acquired immunodeficiency syndrome).

The human body can't get rid of HIV and no effective HIV cure exists. So, once you have HIV, you have it for life.
Luckily, however, effective treatment with HIV medicine (called antiretroviral therapy or ART) is available. If taken as prescribed, HIV medicine can reduce the amount of HIV in the blood (also called the viral load) to a very low level. This is called viral suppression. If a person's viral load is so low that a standard lab can't detect it, this is called having an undetectable viral load. People with HIV who take HIV medicine as prescribed and get and keep an undetectable viral load can live long and healthy lives and will not transmit HIV to their HIV-negative partners through sex.

In addition, there are effective methods to prevent getting HIV through sex or drug use, including pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), medicine people at risk for HIV take to prevent getting HIV from sex or injection drug use, and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), HIV medicine taken within 72 hours after a possible exposure to prevent the virus from taking hold. Learn about other ways to prevent getting or transmitting HIV.

What Is AIDS?

AIDS is the late stage of HIV infection that occurs when the body's immune system is badly damaged because of the virus.

In the U.S., most people with HIV do not develop AIDS because taking HIV medicine as prescribed stops the progression of the disease.

A person with HIV is considered to have progressed to AIDS when:

the number of their CD4 cells falls below 200 cells per cubic millimeter of blood (200 cells/mm3). (In someone with a healthy immune system, CD4 counts are between 500 and 1,600 cells/mm3.) OR

they develop one or more opportunistic infections regardless of their CD4 count.

Without HIV medicine, people with AIDS typically survive about 3 years. Once someone has a dangerous opportunistic illness, life expectancy without treatment falls to about 1 year. HIV medicine can still help people at this stage of HIV infection, and it can even be lifesaving. But people who start HIV medicine soon after they get HIV experience more benefits-that's why HIV testing is so important.

How Do I Know If I Have HIV?

The only way to know for sure if you have HIV is to get tested. Testing is relatively simple. You can ask your health care provider for an HIV test. Many medical clinics, substance abuse programs, community health centers, and hospitals offer them too. If you test positive, you can be connected to HIV care to start treatment as soon as possible. If you test negative, you have the information you need to take steps to prevent getting HIV in the future.

To find an HIV testing location near you, use the HIV Services Locator.

HIV self-testing is also an option. Self-testing allows people to take an HIV test and find out their result in their own home or other private location. With an HIV self-test, you can get your test results within 20 minutes. You can buy an HIV self-test kit at a pharmacy or online. Some health departments or community-based organizations also provide HIV self-test kits for a reduced cost or for free. You can call your local health department or use the HIV Testing and Care Services Locator to find organizations that offer HIV self-test kits near you. (Contact the organization for eligibility requirements.)

Note: State laws regarding self-testing vary and may limit availability. Check with a health care provider or health department Exit Disclaimer for additional testing options.

Learn more about HIV self-testing and which test might be right for you.

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Learn about HIV, its stages, and how the virus can be controlled with treatment.

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Biodiversity Is Nearing an ‘Extinction Crisis’

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In a new study, researchers found a “global erosion of species,’ with nearly half of animal populations in decline.

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The number of species at risk for extinction clearly shows that we need to work to conserve and protect currently endangered animals before it’s too late.

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Increasing extinction rates are caused by unsustainable land use, habitat and biodiversity loss, pollution and climate change. As a result, nearly 1 million species face extinction in the coming decades.

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What Is Bullying?

Bullying is when someone is picked on by a person or group. Bullies might make fun of people who they think don't fit in.

Bullies might make fun of others for many things, including:

appearance (how someone looks)

behavior (how someone acts)

race or religion

social status (whether someone is popular)

sexual identity (like being gay, lesbian, or transgender)

Bullying can come in different types:

Physical bullying is when bullies hurt their targets physically. This might be shoving, tripping, punching, or hitting. Any form of touching that a person does not want can be bullying and possible sexual assault.

Verbal bullying is taunting or teasing someone.

Psychological bullying is gossiping about or excluding people to make them feel bad about themselves.

Cyberbullying is when bullies use the internet and social media and say things that they might not say in person. This can include sending mean texts, posting insults about someone on Twitter, or making rude comments on their Instagram pictures. Cyberbullies also might post personal information, pictures, or videos designed to hurt or embarrass someone else.

What Are the Effects of Bullying?

Bullies often pick on people over and over again. This can make teens:

feel afraid, stressed, depressed, or anxious

have thoughts about suicide or hurting themselves

have trouble with their schoolwork

have problems with mood, energy level, sleep, and appetite

What Kind of People Are Bullies?

Both guys and girls can be bullies. Bullies may be:

outgoing and aggressive. This kind of bully might make fun of you to your face or physically hurt you.

quiet and sneaky. This kind of bully might try to manipulate in secret. They might anonymously start a damaging rumor just to see what happens.

friendly and fake. This kind of bully might pretend to be your friend so that you tell them things, but then do hurtful things behind your back.

Many bullies are a lot alike. They:

like to be in control of others

are focused on themselves

have poor social skills and have a hard time getting along with people

might not care about people, or lack empathy

are often insecure and bully others to make themselves feel better

Some bullies don't understand normal social emotions like guilt, empathy, compassion, or remorse. These people need help from a mental health professional like a counselor, social worker, psychiatrist, or psychologist.

What Can I Do?

There are many things that you can do if you're being bullied or know someone who is. You can:

Tell a trusted adult. Adults in positions of authority, like parents, teachers, or coaches, often can deal with bullying without the bully ever learning how they found out about it. It's vital to report bullying if it threatens to lead to physical danger and harm. Stalking, making threats, and physical attacks are very serious and when they're not reported, they give the bully license to become more and more violent.

Ignore the bully and walk away. Bullies like getting a reaction. If you walk away or ignore them, you're telling them that you don't care.

Walk tall and hold your head high. Using this type of body language sends a message that you're not vulnerable.

Don't get physical. You're more likely to be hurt and get into trouble if you try to fight a bully. Work out your anger in another way, such as exercising or writing it down (make sure you delete or tear up any emails, posts, letters, or notes you write in anger).

Try to talk to the bully. Try to point out that their behavior is serious and harmful. This can work well if you notice that a member of your own group has started to pick on or shun another member.

Practice confidence. Practice ways to respond to the bully verbally or through your behavior. Practice feeling good about yourself (even if you have to fake it at first).

Talk about it. It may help to talk to a guidance counselor, teacher, or friend - anyone who can give you the support you need. Talking can be a good outlet for the fears and frustrations that can build when you're being bullied.

Find your (true) friends. If you've been bullied with rumors or gossip, tell your friends so that they can help you feel safe and secure. Avoid being alone, especially when the bullying is happening a lot.

Stand up for friends and others you see being bullied. Your actions help the victim feel supported and may stop the bullying.

Join your school's bullying or violence prevention programs. Peer mediation is another way you may be able to work things out with a bully. If your school doesn't have these programs, start one of your own.

What If I'm the Bully?

Some people bully to deal with their own feelings of stress, anger, or frustration. Bullies might also have been bullied and now want to show their power by bullying someone else.

But bullying behavior backfires and makes everyone feel miserable - even the bullies. People might feel intimidated by bullies, but they don't respect them. If you would rather that people see your strength and character - even look up to you as a leader - find a way to use your power for something positive rather than to put others down.

If you have bullied someone:

Try talking to a trusted adult to talk about why you have become a bully. Ask them for some advice on how you could change.

Try thinking of how the person being bullied feels. Imagine how you would feel if you were the target.

Even though people are different, it's important to treat everyone with respect.

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Bullying has everyone worried, not just the people on its receiving end. Learn about dealing with bullies, including tips on how to stand up for yourself or a friend.

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Bullying is a form of youth violence and an adverse childhood experience (ACE). CDC defines bullying as any unwanted aggressive behavior(s) by another youth or group of youths, who are not siblings or current dating partners, that involves an observed or perceived power imbalance, and is repeated multiple times or is highly likely to be repeated. Bullying may inflict harm or distress on the targeted youth including physical, psychological, social, or educational harm. Common types of bullying include:

Physical such as hitting, kicking, and tripping

Verbal including name-calling and teasing

Relational/social such as spreading rumors and leaving out of the group

Damage to property of the victim

Bullying can also occur through technology, which is called electronic bullying or cyberbullying. A young person can be a perpetrator, a victim, or both (also known as "bully/victim"). For more information about bullying definitions please see Bullying Surveillance Among Youths: Uniform Definitions for Public Health and Recommended Data Elements, Version 1 [8.64 MB, 116 Pages, 508] .

Bullying is widespread in the United States. Bullying negatively impacts all youth involved including those who are bullied, those who bully others, and those who witness bullying, known as bystanders.

Bullying is common. About 1 in 5 high school students reported being bullied on school property. More than 1 in 6 high school students reported being bullied electronically in the last year.

Some youth experience bullying more than others. Nearly 40% of high school students who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual and about 33% of those who were not sure of their sexual identity experienced bullying at school or electronically in the last year, compared to 22% of heterosexual high school students. About 30% of female high school students experienced bullying at school or electronically in the last year, compared to about 19% of males. Nearly 29% of White high school students experienced bullying at school or electronically in the last year compared to about 19% of Hispanic and 18% of Black high school students.

Bullying is a frequent discipline problem. Nearly 14% of public schools report that bullying is a discipline problem occurring daily or at least once a week.

Reports of bullying are highest in middle schools (28%) followed by high schools (16%), combined schools (12%), and primary schools (9%).

Reports of cyberbullying are highest in middle schools (33%) followed by high schools (30%), combined schools (20%), and primary schools (5%).

Bullying can result in physical injury, social and emotional distress, self-harm, and even death. It also increases the risk for depression, anxiety, sleep difficulties, lower academic achievement, and dropping out of school. Youth who bully others are at increased risk for substance misuse, academic problems, and experiencing violence later in adolescence and adulthood. Youth who bully others and are bullied themselves suffer the most serious consequences and are at greater risk for mental health and behavioral problems.

Bullying is preventable. There are many factors that may increase or decrease the risk for perpetrating or experiencing bullying. To prevent bullying, we must understand and address the factors that put people at risk for or protect them from violence. CDC developed, Youth Violence Prevention Resource for Action [4 MB, 64 Pages] , to help communities take advantage of the best available evidence to prevent youth violence. This resource is also Cdc-pdf available in Spanish [3.89 MB, 68 Pages, 508] and can be used as a tool in efforts to impact individual behaviors as well as the relationship, family, school, community, and societal risk and protective factors for violence. The approaches in this resource, particularly universal school-based programs that strengthen youths' skills and modify the physical and social environment, have been shown to reduce violence and bullying or key risk factors.

Different types of violence are connected and often share root causes. Bullying is linked to other forms of violence through shared risk and protective factors. Addressing and preventing one form of violence may have an impact on preventing other forms of violence.

See Youth Violence Resources for articles, publications, data sources, and prevention resources for bullying.

1. Gladden RM, Vivolo-Kantor AM, Hamburger ME, Lumpkin CD. Bullying surveillance among youths: Uniform definitions for public health and recommended data elements, Version 1.0. Atlanta, GA; National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Department of Education; 2013. Available from https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/bullying-definitionsfinal-a.pdf.

2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth risk behavior surveillance-United States, 2019. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report-Surveillance
Summaries 2020; 69(SS1). Available fromhttps://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/2019/su6901-H.pdf

3. Diliberti, M., Jackson, M., Correa, S., and Padgett, Z. (2019). Crime, Violence, Discipline, and Safety in U.S. Public Schools: Findings From the School Survey on Crime and Safety: 2017-18 (NCES 2019-061). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.

4. Farrington D, Baldry A. Individual risk factors for school bullying. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research 2010; 2(1):4-16. Available from https://doi.org/10.5042/jacpr.2010.0001.

5. David-Ferdon, C., Vivolo-Kantor, A. M., Dahlberg, L. L., Marshall, K. J., Rainford, N. & Hall, J. E. (2016). Youth Violence Prevention Resource for Action: A Compilation of the Best Available Evidence. Atlanta, GA: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Note: The title of this document was changed in July 2023 to align with other Prevention Resources being developed by CDC's Injury Center. The document was previously cited as "A Comprehensive Technical Package for the Prevention of Youth Violence and Associated Risk Behaviors."

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Adolescents & adults often unaware teens experience dating violence

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Bullying is when someone is being hurt either by words or actions on purpose, usually more than once, feels bad because of it, and has a hard time stopping what is happening to them.

Bullying can be:

Physical

hitting

pushing and shoving

fighting

tripping

yelling at someone

making rude gestures

taking or breaking another person's things

Emotional

name calling

making fun of someone

laughing at someone

leaving someone out on purpose

starting rumors or telling lies about someone

sending mean messages on a computer or cell phone

trying to make someone feel bad about who they are

Where Does Bullying Happen?

Bullying can happen anywhere. It can occur in your neighborhood, while going to school, at school, and while on-line.

What is Cyberbullying?

Using technology-internet, email, cell phones, social media, pictures- to hurt or harm someone else.

Includes:

Sending mean text messages

Posting statements online that are unkind or not true

Sending or posting pictures that are not yours to share

Making negative comments online about someone

Agreeing with someone who posts something hurtful

Bullying is never okay, cool, or acceptable.
No one EVER deserves to be bullied.

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Bullying is when someone is being hurt either by words or actions on purpose, usually more than once, feels bad because of it, and has a hard time stopping what is happening to them.

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This year, the human population on Earth is expected to reach eight billion. To mark the occasion, BBC Future takes a look at one of the most controversial issues of our time.

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Effects of overpopulation: Scientists are getting worried. Very worried.One-third of the planet's resources have been consumed. Of what remains, almost tw...

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Conversations about overpopulation can quickly become controversial because they beg the question: Who exactly is the cause of the problem and what, if anything, should be done about it? Many population experts worry discussions around overpopulation will be abused by small-minded people to suggest some are the "right people" to be on the planet (like themselves), and some people are "the wrong people" (usually people in poverty, people of color, foreigners, and so on-you get the drift). But there are no "right" or "wrong" people on the planet, and discussing the problems of global overpopulation can never be an excuse, or in any way provide a platform, for having that type of conversation.

Each human being has a legitimate claim on a sufficient and fair amount of Earth's resources. But with a population approaching 8 billion, even if everyone adopted a relatively low material standard of living like the one currently found in Papua New Guinea, it would still push Earth to its ecological breaking point. Unfortunately, the "average person" on Earth consumes at a rate over 50% above a sustainable level. Incredibly, the average person in the United States uses almost five times more than the sustainable yield of the planet.

When we use the term "overpopulation," we specifically mean a situation in which the Earth cannot regenerate the resources used by the world's population each year. Experts say this has been the case every year since 1970, with each successive year becoming more and more damaging. To help temper this wildly unsustainable situation, we need to understand what's contributing to overpopulation and overconsumption and how these trends are affecting everything from climate change to sociopolitical unrest.

The Causes of Overpopulation

Today the Earth is home to more than 7.8 billion people. By 2100 the population is on track to hit 10.8 billion, according to the United Nations - and that's assuming steady fertility declines in many countries. Interestingly, if extra progress is made in women's reproductive self-determination, and fertility falls more than the United Nations assumes is likely, the population in 2100 might be a relatively smaller 7.3 billion.

For now, the world's population is still increasing in huge annual increments (about 80 million per year), and our supply of vital non-renewable resources are being exhausted. Many factors contribute to these unsustainable trends, including falling mortality rates, underutilized contraception, and a lack of education for girls.

Falling Mortality Rate

The primary (and perhaps most obvious) cause of population growth is an imbalance between births and deaths. The infant mortality rate has decreased globally, with 4.1 million infant deaths in 2017 compared to 8.8 million in 1990, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This is welcome public health news, of course.

At the same time, lifespans are increasing around the world. Those of us who are alive today will likely live much longer than most of our ancestors. Global average life expectancy has more than doubled since 1900, thanks to advancements in medicine, technology, and general hygiene. Falling mortality rates are certainly nothing to complain about either, but widespread longevity does contribute to the mathematics of increasing population numbers.

Underutilized Contraception

The global fertility rate has fallen steadily over the years, down from an average of 5 children per woman in 1950 to 2.4 children per woman today, according to the UN Population Division. Along with that promising trend, contraceptive use has slowly but steadily increased globally, rising from 54% in 1990 to 57.4% in 2015. Yet, on the whole, contraceptive use is still underutilized. For example, according to the WHO, an estimated 214 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy are not using modern contraceptives.

These women aren't using contraceptives for a variety of reasons, including social norms or religious beliefs that discourage birth control, misconceptions about adverse side effects, and a lack of agency for women to make decisions around sex and family planning. An estimated 44% of pregnancies were unintended worldwide between 2010-2014. Getting more women the access and agency to utilize family planning methods could go a long way in flattening the population curve.

Lack of Female Education

Although female access to education has increased over the years, the gender gap remains. Roughly 130 million girls worldwide are out of school currently, and an estimated 15 million girls of primary school age will never learn to read and write, compared with 10 million boys.

Increasing and encouraging education among women and girls can have a number of positive ripple effects, including delayed childbearing, healthier children, and an increase in workforce participation. Plenty of evidence suggests a negative correlation between female education and fertility rates.

If increased female education can delay or decrease fertility and provide girls with opportunities beyond an early marriage, it could also help to mitigate current population trends.

The Effects of Overpopulation

It is only logical that an increase in the world's population will cause additional strains on resources. More people means an increased demand for food, water, housing, energy, healthcare, transportation, and more. And all that consumption contributes to ecological degradation, increased conflicts, and a higher risk of large-scale disasters like pandemics.

Ecological Degradation

An increase in population will inevitably create pressures leading to more deforestation, decreased biodiversity, and spikes in pollution and emissions, which will exacerbate climate change. Ultimately, unless we take action to help minimize further population growth heading into the remainder of this century, many scientists believe the additional stress on the planet will lead to ecological disruption and collapse so severe it threatens the viability of life on Earth as we know it.

Each spike in the global population has a measurable impact on the planet's health. According to estimates in a study by Wynes and Nicholas (2017), a family having one fewer child could reduce emissions by 58.6 tonnes CO2-equivalent per year in developed countries.

Increased Conflicts

The scarcity brought about by environmental disruption and overpopulation has the potential to trigger an increase in violence and political unrest. We're already seeing wars fought over water, land, and energy resources in the Middle East and other regions, and the turmoil is likely to increase as the global population grows even larger.

Higher Risk of Disasters and Pandemics

Many of the recent novel pathogens that have devastated humans around the world, including COVID-19, Zika virus, Ebola, and West Nile virus, originated in animals or insects before passing to humans. Part of the reason the world is entering " a period of increased outbreak activity " is because humans are destroying wildlife habitats and coming into contact with wild animals on a more regular basis. Now that we're in the midst of a pandemic, it has become clear how difficult it is to social distance in a world occupied by nearly 8 billion people.

What Can Be Done?

When addressing overpopulation, it's crucial to take an approach of providing empowerment while mobilizing against anybody advocating for the use of coercion or violence to solve our problems. The combined efforts of spreading knowledge about family planning, increasing agency among women, and debunking widely held myths about contraception will measurably change the trajectory of the world's population.

As we carry out our work at Population Media Center (PMC), we see first-hand that spreading awareness about family planning methods and the ecological and economic benefits of having smaller families can change reproductive behavior. For example, listeners of our Burundian radio show Agashi ("Hey! Look Again!") were 1.7 times more likely than non-listeners to confirm that they were willing to negotiate condom use with a sexual partner and 1.8 times more likely than non-listeners to say that they generally approve of family planning for limiting the number of children.

At PMC we harness the power of storytelling to empower listeners to live healthier and more prosperous lives, which in turn contributes to stabilizing the global population so that people can live sustainably with the world's renewable resources. Discover how PMC is taking action against overpopulation today!

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What is Overpopulation? Causes, Effects, and Solutions

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Overpopulation is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet today. In this article, Population Media Center examines the root causes of overpopulation, its impact on our environment and society, and what we can do to address it.

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The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence states clearly: "all men are created equal." But does this hold true for all people in 2020?

Yes, Americans can legally vote in elections, go to school or assemble in groups to peacefully protest. However, true equality goes beyond laws and policies. From inadequate access to fresh food and clean water, to screening in early stages of disease or the inability to rent an apartment because of discriminatory housing practices, these long standing systemic inequities for some Black Americans can have long lasting effects on health.

Michigan Medicine researchers have been studying racial disparities in the health care system for years, in hopes of gaining a better understanding of how the complex issue of institutional racism, among other factors, create differing health outcomes for Black and white Americans.

Researchers continue investigating these issues in hopes of shedding light on the problem and to prompt systemic changes. Here are ten of their studies from the last few years:

A startling and disproportionate death rate among Black Americans around the country from COVID-19 is revealing persistent inequities and the need for solutions to address them.

"It's the fact that we see an undeniable burden of disease in the Black population. It's this disproportionate amount that is worrisome. The underlying issue to why we see so many is actually attributed to structural inequity."

The largest study of its kind finds societal factors and access to quality care, rather than genetics, contributes to a 2.5 times higher prostate cancer mortality rates for Black men, compared to non-Hispanic white men.

"(Black men) generally get fewer PSA screenings, are more likely to be diagnosed with later stage cancer, are less likely to have health insurance, have less access to high-quality care and other disparities that can be linked to a lower overall socioeconomic status," says study co-senior author Daniel Spratt, M.D., co-Chair of Genitourinary Clinical Research at U-M.

Spratt adds, "While our job is to treat cancer, we know that these other factors are in play, so as doctors we need to make sure we focus on the health of the entire patient and, as a society, on addressing racial inequities."

Ryan Huetro, M.D., a family medicine physician at Michigan Medicine, wrote an op-ed about his work studying health disparities for Black and Indigenous people and how increasing the probability that minorities see doctors of their race or ethnicity can improve health care delivery.

"Black patients, for instance, may feel warier with a white doctor than a Black doctor, and white doctors may feel less comfortable caring for minoritized patients," he says. "Mounting evidence suggests when physicians and patients share the same race or ethnicity, this improves time spent together , medication adherence , shared decision-making , wait times for treatment , cholesterol screening , patient understanding of cancer risk , and patient perceptions of treatment decisions . Not surprisingly, implicit bias from the physician is decreased."

Earlier this year, a study showed nearly half of all Black, Hispanic and Indigenous women had discontinuous insurance coverage between pre-conception and after delivering their babies compared to approximately a fourth of white women.

"Racial and ethnic disparities in maternal and child health outcomes are a national public health crisis," says senior author and obstetrician-gynecologist at Michigan Medicine Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital , Lindsay Admon, M.D., M.Sc. "In the United States, insurance coverage is an important prerequisite for accessing healthcare. Throughout the most critical periods of pregnancy, we identified wide racial-ethnic disparities related to women's ability to access to preconception, prenatal, and postpartum care."

"We need to look at tumors that develop in young people and in African Americans to see if they have molecular differences compared to the typical colorectal cancer seen in older adults," says study author Elena Stoffel, M.D. , director of the Cancer Genetics Clinic at the U-M Cancer Center.

They compared participants' blood pressure levels, along with three cognitive measures: global cognition, memory and executive function. Black individuals had faster declines in global cognition and memory than white individuals, differences that were equivalent to 2.5 to 4 years of cognitive aging, researchers say.

"Low vision services can improve quality of life and the ability of patients to do important everyday activities. However, ensuring equitable access to these services is a major challenge," says senior study author Joshua Ehrlich, M.D., MPH , an ophthalmologist at Kellogg Eye Center and eye policy researcher at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation .

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Health Inequality Actually Is a "Black and White Issue", Research Says

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University of Michigan research shows the direct correlation between systemic racism and racial health disparities in the United States.

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What are health inequalities?

People experience different combinations of these factors, which has implications for the health inequalities that they are likely to experience. This means that people grouped according to one factor, such as disabled people or people from a particular ethnic background, will not be homogenous - there will be variation in health profiles and risks within any given population group. The way these factors combine and interact with each other also influences the health inequalities people experience. This is often referred to as ' intersectionality'. For example, women experiencing homelessness have distinct health risks and needs compared to men experiencing homelessness.

This explainer provides an overview of how health inequalities are shaped and experienced in England's population. We focus on data up to 2019 in most of what follows, and then look at the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic towards the end.

Inequalities in life expectancy

Life expectancy is a key measure of a population's health status. Inequality in life expectancy is therefore one of the foremost measures of health inequality.

Life expectancy is closely related to people's socio-economic circumstances. The most common summary measure of these circumstances across a population is deprivation. The index of multiple deprivation is a way of summarising how deprived people are within an area, based on a set of factors that includes their levels of income, employment, education and local levels of crime.

In England, there is a systematic relationship between deprivation and life expectancy, sometimes known as the social gradient in health. In 2017-19, women living in the least-deprived 10 per cent of areas could, at birth, expect to live to 86.4 years old, whereas women in the most-deprived 10 per cent of areas could expect to live to 78.7 years - a gap in life expectancy of almost 8 years. For men, this gap was even wider, with a difference of 9.4 years between the life expectancy for those in the least-deprived 10 per cent of areas (83.5 years) and the most-deprived 10 per cent of areas (74.1 years). In recent years, inequalities in life expectancy by deprivation have widened.

This social gradient relationship holds true across the whole population - health inequalities are experienced by everyone, not just those at the very bottom and top. Figure 1 shows how, during 2015-19 in England, rising levels of neighbourhood deprivation were linked to falling levels of life expectancy.

There are also geographical inequalities in life expectancy. in 2017-19, the North East of England experienced the lowest life expectancy at birth for both men and women across England's regions, followed by the North West. Life expectancy in the four most southerly English regions was higher than the England average, whereas in all other regions, life expectancy was lower than the England average.

The north of England has a higher concentration of deprived neighbourhoods than the south of England, and therefore a greater proportion of communities where life expectancy is likely to be lower based on their levels of deprivation. But in addition to this, for any given level of deprivation, life expectancy in the north of England is lower than in the south of England.

The maps below illustrate differences in life expectancy at birth in 2017-19 by local authority areas. For women, the gap between the area with the lowest life expectancy (Blackpool, at 79.5 years) and the area with the highest (Westminster, at 87.2 years) is 7.7 years. For men, the gap is 10.5 years, also between Blackpool (74.4 years) and Westminster (84.9 years).
Hover over each local authority to see the average life expectancy at birth.
Some population groups have significantly shorter life expectancy than the general population. For example, based on 2018-19 data, women with a learning disability had a life expectancy at birth of 67 years - 17 years less than females in the general population. Men with a learning disability had a life expectancy at birth of 66 years, which was 14 years younger than men in the general population.

Inequalities in life expectancy exist between ethnic minority and white British groups, as well as between different ethnic minority groups. 1 The picture of health inequalities by ethnicity in general is both complex and limited by a lack of high-quality data. In terms of life expectancy, 'experimental' ONS statistics suggest that in 2011-14, life expectancy at birth among men and women of white and Mixed groups was lower than in all other ethnic groups. This may be due in part to the ' healthy migrant effect', whereby people who migrate tend to be in good health, as well as lower rates of smoking and alcohol consumption in ethnic minority groups compared to white groups.

Inequalities in healthy life expectancy

Another key measure of health inequality is how much time people spend in good health over the course of their lives, given how crucial good health is to quality of life and people's ability to do the things that they value.

A widely-used measure for this is healthy life expectancy. This estimates time spent in 'good' or 'very good' health, based on how people perceive and report on their general health.

The gap in healthy life expectancy at birth by deprivation is stark. In 2017-19, people living in the least deprived areas could expect to live almost two decades longer in good health than those in the most deprived areas. People in the most deprived areas spend around a third of their lives in poor health, twice the proportion spent by those in the least deprived areas. This means that people in more deprived areas spend, on average, a far greater part of their already far shorter lives in poor health.

Again, geographical inequalities exist in this measure. In 2017-19, healthy life expectancy at birth for women in the North East of England was 59.0 years, compared to 65.9 years for women in the South East, a gap of 6.9 years. For men, this gap was 5.9 years.

Inequalities in avoidable mortality

Deaths are considered avoidable if they could have been averted or delayed through timely, effective healthcare (known as 'treatable mortality') or wider public health and preventive interventions (known as 'amenable mortality'). In 2019, almost 140,000 (roughly one in five) deaths in the UK were considered avoidable.

Differences in rates of avoidable mortality between population groups reflect differences in people getting the help that they need to address life-threatening health risks and illnesses. In England, in 2019, women in the most deprived areas were 3.5 times more likely to die from an avoidable cause than those in the least deprived areas. Men in the most deprived areas were 3.6 times more likely to die from an avoidable cause than those in the least deprived areas.

Figure 4 shows avoidable mortality by local authority area between 2017 and 2019. Darker blue areas have higher rates of preventable mortality. Blackpool had the highest rate at 405.1 deaths per 100,000, almost three times higher than the lowest area, which was Hart at 138.0 per 100,000.
Hover over each local authority to see the mortality rate per 100,000 population from avoidable causes.

Inequalities in long-term health conditions

Long-term conditions are a major cause of poor quality of life in England. People in lower socio-economic groups are more likely to have long-term health conditions, and these conditions tend to be more severe than those experienced by people in higher socio-economic groups. Deprivation also increases the likelihood of having more than one long-term condition at the same time, and on average people in the most deprived fifth of the population develop multiple long-term conditions 10 years earlier than those in the least deprived fifth.

People from ethnic minority groups are more likely than white British people to report limiting long-term illness and poor health, with those identifying as white Gypsy and Irish Traveller reporting the poorest health.

Inequalities in the prevalence of mental ill-health

Assessing differences in the prevalence of mental illness between social groups is challenging and complex, because rates of recognition, reporting and diagnosis are likely to vary between groups. Existing evidence is patchy and inconsistent, but data from a range of sources highlights a range of differences in how mental illness and treatment for mental illness is experienced.

First, data suggests that demand for mental health services is higher among more deprived communities. Figures 5 and 6 show that in England in 2018/19, both the rate of attended contacts with community and outpatient mental health services and the rate of inpatient stays in secondary mental health services were higher among more deprived populations. Data also shows that between 2010-17, suicide rates among the most deprived decile were consistently around double the rates among the least deprived decile (although the correlation between deprivation decile and suicide rate is only seen among working-age adults).

Second, existing evidence suggests that inequalities in various types of mental ill-health exist across a range of protected characteristics, including sexual orientation, disability, sex and ethnicity.

The 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey found that women in England were more likely than men to report experiencing a common mental health disorder, with 19 per cent of women reporting symptoms compared to 12 per cent of men.

The Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey also showed disparities in mental ill-health by ethnicity in England. For example, rates of psychotic disorder experienced by Black men (3.2 per cent) and Asian men (1.3 per cent) were higher than among white men (0.3 per cent), although for women no significant difference by ethnicity was observed.

Several socially excluded groups have been shown to experience higher rates of mental ill-health than the general population. For example, more than 80 per cent of people experiencing homelessness report having a mental health difficulty, and in 2019 people in this group were 14 times more likely than those in the general population to die by suicide. Asylum seekers and refugees are also at increased risk of experiencing depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders.

There is also substantial evidence of ethnic differences in pathways into psychiatric care across England. For example, in 2018/19, rates of detention under the Mental Health Act among the Black or Black British group were more than four times higher than the white group. In addition, access to mental health services through general practice has been found to be less likely for people in the Black group compared to people in the white group. This has been linked in part to higher rates of serious mental illness in this group as well as to racism and discrimination within services.

Equity and endurance: how can we tackle health inequalities this time?

Here we draw out what can be learnt from past attempts to tackle health inequalities and make the case for a long-term approach that endures.

Inequalities in access to and experience of health services

Access to health services refers to the availability of services that are timely, appropriate, easy to get to and use, and sensitive to user choice and need. Inequitable access can result in particular groups receiving less care relative to their needs, or more inappropriate or sub-optimal care, than others, which often leads to poorer experiences, outcomes and health status. Access to the full range of services that can have an impact on health includes access to preventive interventions and social services, as well as primary and secondary health care.

Inequitable access might mean that a group faces particular barriers to getting the services that they need, such as real or anticipated discrimination or challenges around language. It can mean that information is not communicated in an easily understandable or culturally sensitive way. These issues are often reported for asylum seekers and refugees and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities in particular.

Access can be measured in terms of service availability and uptake. More deprived areas tend to have fewer GPs per head and lower rates of admission to elective care than less deprived areas, despite having a higher disease prevalence.

Different social groups might also have systematically different experiences within the services that they use, including in terms of the quality of care they receive and whether they are treated with dignity and respect. A recent review commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory, for example, found evidence of women from ethnic minority backgrounds experiencing 'stereotyping, disrespect, discrimination and cultural insensitivity' when using maternal and neonatal healthcare services. To take another example, in a 2018 study by Stonewall, 13 per cent of LGBT respondents reported experiencing unequal treatment from health care staff because they were LGBT, with this number rising to 32 per cent for people who are transgender and 19 per cent for LGBT people from ethnic minority backgrounds. The differences between groups in this latter example demonstrate how using intersectional lenses gives us a more precise picture of health inequalities.

Pathways to health inequalities

The examples above show systematic differences across various measures of health for different population groups in England. This section explores differences inthe likelihood of engaging in healthy or unhealthy behaviours and differences in the wider determinants of health. Both involve differences in the health risks that people are exposed to and in the opportunities they have to lead healthy lives.

Behavioural risk factors

People's behaviour is a major determinant of how healthy they are. Smoking, poor diet, physical inactivity and harmful alcohol consumption are leading risk factors that drive preventable ill health and premature mortality in England. Behavioural risks to health are more common in some parts of the population than in others. The distribution is patterned by measures of deprivation, income, gender and ethnicity, and risks are concentrated in the most disadvantaged groups. For example, in England in 2019, the proportion of adults who were smokers in the lowest income quintile was 27 per cent, compared to 10 per cent in the highest income quintile.

Higher-risk health behaviours also tend to cluster together in certain population groups, with individuals in disadvantaged groups more likely to engage in more than one risky behaviour. The prevalence of multiple higher-risk behaviours varies significantly by deprivation. In 2017, the proportion of adults with three or more behavioural risk factors was 27 per cent in the most deprived fifth, compared with 14 per cent in the least deprived fifth.

Health-related behaviours are shaped by cultural, social and material circumstances. For example, recent analysis suggests that the poorest 10 per cent of UK households would need to spend, after housing costs, 74 per cent of their income on food in order to follow the government's official guidance on a healthy diet - compared to only 6 per cent of income for the richest 10 per cent of households.

Furthermore, evidence suggests that some people's circumstances make it harder for them to move away from unhealthy behaviours, particularly if they are worse off in terms of socio-economic factors such as debt or poverty. This is compounded by differences in the environments in which people live - for example, in 2017 deprived areas in England were likely to have many more fast food outlets per person than less deprived areas. This indicates that interventions aimed at changing behaviours need to be able to adapt to the reality of people's lives, addressing the contexts in which behaviours take place and recognising the challenges of achieving behavioural change under conditions of stress.

The wider determinants of health

The wider determinants of health are the social, economic and environmental conditions in which people live that have an impact on health. They include income, education, access to green space and healthy food, the work people do and the homes they live in. It is widely recognised that, taken together, these factors are the principal drivers of how healthy people are, and that inequalities in these factors are a fundamental cause of health inequalities. Addressing these wider socio-economic inequalities is therefore a crucial part of reducing health inequalities.

Table 1 provides some examples of health impacts relating to a range of wider determinants. The examples focus on individual determinants, but these determinants are often experienced together and cumulatively over time. Particular groups can be disadvantaged across a number of factors, and these disadvantages can be mutually reinforcing. Deprived areas have, for example, on average nine times less access to green space, higher concentrations of fast food outlets and more limited availability of affordable healthy food.
Table 1 Selected impacts of wider determinants on health inequalities

Income
Income determines people's ability to buy health-improving goods, from food to gym memberships. Living on a low income is a source of stress, and emerging neurological evidence suggests that being on a low income affects the way people make choices concerning health-affecting behaviours.

Children from households in the bottom fifth of income distribution are over four times more likely to experience severe mental health problems that those in the highest fifth.

Housing
Poor-quality and overcrowded housing conditions are associated with increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, depression and anxiety.

Households from minority ethnic groups are more likely than white households to live in overcrowded homes and to experience fuel poverty.

Environment
Access to good-quality green space is linked to improvements in physical and mental health, and lower levels of obesity. Levels of access to green space are lower on average for people from ethnic minority communities and people living in areas with lower average incomes.

Exposure to air pollutants is estimated to cut short 28,000-36,000 lives a year in the United Kingdom. Differential levels of exposure are associated with both deprivation and ethnicity.

Transport
Those living in the most deprived areas have a 50 per cent greater risk of dying in a road accident compared with those in the least deprived areas. Children and young adults in the most deprived areas are more likely to be killed or injured on the road than those in wealthier areas.

Education
On average among 26 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, people with a university degree or an equivalent level of education at age 30 can expect to live over five years longer than people with lower levels of education.

Work
Unemployment is associated with lower life expectancy and poorer physical and mental health, both for unemployed individuals and their households. In 2019/20, employment rates in the least deprived decile were 81.5 per cent, compared to 68.4 per cent in the most deprived decile.

The quality of work, including exposure to hazards and job security, determines the impact that work has on health. People from minority ethnic backgrounds experience higher levels of work stress than those from white groups.

Interactions between the factors driving health inequalities

Our health is shaped by a complex interaction between many factors. These include the accessibility and quality of health and care services, individual behaviours and, most importantly, wider determinants such as housing and income. Health inequalities exist as a result of systematic variations in these factors across a population.

Inequalities in these factors are inter-related. First, disadvantages are concentrated in particular parts of the population. For example, as noted above, lower socio-economic groups tend to have a higher prevalence of higher-risk health behaviours, worse access to care and less opportunity to lead healthy lives than higher socio-economic groups.

Second, these factors can reinforce each other to compound and magnify the health risks and challenges that disadvantaged groups face. Unemployment, for example, as well as being associated with a direct negative impact on health, can harm future earning potential, thereby affecting other determinants of health such as income and poverty - which in turn can impact on health behaviours and decision-making processes.

Policies and interventions undertaken to tackle health inequalities need to reflect the complexity of how these inequalities are created and perpetuated, otherwise they could be ineffective or even counterproductive.

The impact of Covid-19 on health inequalities

Covid-19 has had an unequal impact on different population groups and has exacerbated existing health inequalities in England.

Mortality rates from Covid-19 have been higher in more deprived areas than in less deprived areas. Up to March 2022, the Covid-19 mortality rate was 2.6 times higher for the most deprived decile in England than for the least deprived decile. This contributed to widening inequalities in life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas: between 2019 and 2021, the gap in life expectancy for women grew by 1.0 years and for men grew by 1.1 years, with gaps in 2021 of 8.7 years for women and 10.4 years for men.

The pandemic has also had an unequal impact on different ethnic groups. Up to December 2021, Black and Asian groups experienced Covid-19 mortality rates that were 2.1 times higher than for the white group and, up to March 2022, also experienced the highest cumulative mortality rates for deaths from all causes (which includes deaths involving Covid-19).

Disabled people experienced a greater risk of dying from Covid-19 than non-disabled people. Up to March 2022, the risk of death involving Covid-19 was 1.6 times greater for disabled women who consider their daily life to be 'limited a lot' (based on self-reported disability status in the 2011 census) compared to women without a disability, and was 1.4 times greater for disabled men who consider themselves 'limited a lot' compared to men without a disability.

Covid-19 restrictions and the reprioritisation of health care services to manage demand associated with Covid-19 also affected some groups more than others. Disabled people were more likely than non-disabled people to report both that Covid-19 restrictions had a negative impact on their lives and that their medical treatment was disrupted during the pandemic.

The longer-term impact of the pandemic is likely to widen health inequalities even further unless urgent and significant action is taken. Recent analysis by The King's Fund has shown inequalities in the elective care backlog, with waiting lists in the most deprived fifth of areas growing by 55 per cent, compared to 36 per cent in the least deprived areas. Health inequalities are also likely to be exacerbated by growing disparities in the wider determinants of health linked in part to the pandemic, including around education, unemployment and financial insecurity.

Tackling health inequalities

Based on factors outside of their direct control, people in England experience systematic, unfair and avoidable differences in their health, the care they receive and the opportunities they have to lead healthy lives.

Health inequalities are not inevitable and the gaps are not fixed. Evidence shows that a comprehensive, multifaceted approach to tackling them can make a difference.

Concerted, systematic and sustained action is needed to address the multiple and overlapping web of factors that drive health inequalities - from differences in experiences and quality of healthcare through to the wider determinants of health. This includes, but goes well beyond, the health and care system. It requires working in partnership across services, sectors and communities, at local, regional and national level.

To find out more about current policy and opportunities for action on health inequalities, you can read further content from The King's Fund on:

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What are health inequalities? People experience different combinations of these factors, which has implications for the health inequalities that they are likely to experience. This means that people grouped according to one factor, such as disabled people or people from a particular ethnic background, will not be homogenous - there will be variation in health profiles and risks within any given population group.

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Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day available - they are considered extremely poor. This makes the Indian subcontinent one of the poorest countries in the world; women and children, the weakest members of Indian society, suffer most.
India is the second most populous country after China with about 1.2 billion people and isthe seventh largest country in the world with an area of ​​3,287,000 km². The highly contrasted country has enjoyed growth rates of up to 10% over many years and is one of the largest economies in the world, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of 1,644 billion US dollars. But only a small percentage of the Indian population has benefited from this impressive economic boom so far, as the majority of people in India are still living in abject poverty.

Poverty in India: from the village to the slum

More than 800 million people in India are considered poor. Most of them live in the countryside and keep afloat with odd jobs. The lack of employment which provides a livable wage in rural areas is driving many Indians into rapidly growing metropolitan areas such as Bombay, Delhi, Bangalore or Calcutta. There, most of them expect a life of poverty and despair in the mega-slums, made up of millions of corrugated ironworks, without sufficient drinking water supply, without garbage disposal and in many cases without electricity. The poor hygiene conditions are the cause of diseases such as cholera, typhus and dysentery, in which especially children suffer and die.

Poverty in India impacts children, families and individuals in a variety of different ways through:

High infant mortality

Malnutrition

Child labour

Lack of education

Child marriage

HIV / AIDS

The high infant mortality

1.4 million children die each year in India before their fifth birthday. In addition to Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and China, India is one of the countries with the highest child mortality rates. Pneumonia, malaria and diarrheal diseases as well as chronic malnutrition are the most frequent causes of death.

Malnutrition - not even a bowl of rice a day

India is one of the world's top countries when it comes to malnutrition: More than 200 million people don't have sufficient access to food, including 61 million children. 7.8 million infants were found to have a birth weight of less than 2.5 kilograms - alarming figures for a country commonly referred to as the emerging market.

Child labour - no time to play and learn

Although child labour for children under the age of 14 in India is prohibited by law, according to official figures, 12.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are working. Aid agencies assume that in reality, there are many more estimating that 65 million children between 6 and 14 years do not go to school. Instead, in order to secure survival, it is believed that Indian children contribute to the livelihood of their families; they work in the field, in factories, in quarries, in private households and in prostitution.

Lack of education - no opportunities without education

According to UNICEF, about 25% of children in India have no access to education. The number of children excluded from school is higher among girls than boys. Although women and men are treated equally under Indian law, girls and women, especially in the lower social caste, are considered inferior and are oppressed by their fathers, brothers and husbands. Without education, the chance of finding a living wage from employment in India is virtually hopeless.

Child marriage - the early end of childhood

In spite of banning minors from marrying in 2006, it is still widespread in many regions of India. The main leaders in this practice are young girls, who are still children themselves and become mothers too early. Many of them die at birth. According to an investigation by the medical journal The Lancet, 44.5% of girls are still married in India before they are of legal age.

Due to poverty, many parents encourage early marriages for their daughters in hopes of better lives for them.

HIV / AIDS - a taboo in Indian society

2.7 million Indians are infected with the HIV virus; about 220,000 of them are children, with the tendency rising. The lack of education and the lack of condoms mean that the virus is spreading faster and faster and more and more people are dying of AIDS - especially in the slums of the growing cities. More and more children are living there as so-called AIDS orphans , often being infected with the virus as well.

SOS Children's Villages - fighting poverty in India

Since 1963, the SOS Children's Villages have been involved in India. In a total of 41 SOS Children's Villages across the vast country, around 18,000 children and young people find a new home - the majority of them are girls. Nearly 5,000 girls and boys receive access to education at the 16 SOS Hermann Gmeiner schools in the Indian subcontinent. In the nine SOS Vocational Training Centres, over 1,300 young people are completing a qualified vocational training. Medical and psychological help is available to needy families in the 34 SOS Social Centres and the two SOS Medical Centres. The SOS Children's Villages is working together with other aid organizations and the population to fight poverty in India.

in India
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Sponsor a Child in India

SOS relies on the kindness and generosity of Canadians to be able to provide a home for the most vulnerable children of India.
For just $36/month you can sponsor a child in India and help provide an orphaned or abandoned child with:

A safe and nurturing home

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Quality education

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Please don't hesitate. Sponsor a child in India now.

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Poverty in India: Facts and Figures on the Daily Struggle for Survival

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Two-thirds of people in India live in poverty: 68.8% of the Indian population lives on less than $2 a day. Over 30% even have less than $1.25 per day available - they are considered extremely poor. This makes the Indian subcontinent one of the poorest countries in the world; women and children, the weakest members of Indian society, suffer most.

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Econofact | Key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies

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The Issue:

The United States has one of the highest rates of child poverty among high-income countries. While government policies have played an important role in improving the material well-being of poor children over the past four decades, much remains to be done. The cost of driving down rates of child poverty through targeted cash transfers to low-income families would be substantial, but it would take a relatively small fraction of GDP. A meaningful reduction in child poverty would have positive long-term effects for the children whose lives are improved and for society at large.

Expanded safety net programs have improved the lives of poor children in the U.S., but millions of children continue to live in material poverty.

The Facts:

More than 10 million U.S. children were officially poor before the current pandemic, according to government statistics. In 2019, 14.4 percent of kids in this country, 10.46 million children, were living in poverty as measured by the official U.S poverty rate. This is higher than the share of adults age 18 to 64 (9.4%) and higher than the share of those 65 and over (8.9%) who live in poverty (see chart). The official poverty rate is determined by a comparison of pre-tax family cash income - including, for example, from earnings and government cash transfer programs, like Social Security or Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) - to the corresponding poverty threshold. The Census poverty thresholds were originally set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963 and they have been adjusted for inflation. They vary based on family size and composition. If the sum of income is below the poverty threshold, all of the members of the family are classified as poor. The official poverty thresholds are quite low: for one adult and two children, the federal poverty line is $20,598 per year; for two adults and two children, the federal poverty line is roughly $26,000 per year.

There are well-known issues with the official poverty measure. It doesn't capture the contribution of some of the government programs designed to address poverty, including the Earned Income Tax Credit, since that is post-tax, and food assistance benefits through the SNAP program, since that is not pure cash. Another major issue is that the official statistics don't account for geographic differences in the costs of living. Despite its flaws as a measure of material well-being, tracking a consistent income-based measure allows scholars and policymakers to gauge how the country's most economically vulnerable individuals are faring and how income-based poverty rates vary across groups, places, and over time.

The extent of child poverty varies greatly across race and ethnic groups, as well as by family structure. Black and Hispanic children have the highest rates of poverty in the U.S.: 26% and 21%, compared to 8.3% among white children and 7.3% among Asian children. Different family structures also correlate with different rates of poverty. In 2019, 41% of children in mother-only families lived in poverty, as compared to 8% in married-parent families. These poverty differences by family structure hold within race/ethnic groups as well. According to data on child poverty rates within race and ethnic groups, children in mother-only families are three to six times more likely to live in poverty. This largely reflects the fact that two adults bring in more income than one adult. But it also reflects the fact that parents who have lower levels of education and lower levels of income are less likely to marry. Thus, single-parent family structure is both a cause and an effect of poverty.

Growing up in poverty has long-term consequences for children and is very much entwined with issues of inequality and social mobility. Children who grow up in poverty have poorer physical and mental health; worse performance in school, and, given neighborhood segregation by income, they are more likely to attend lower quality schools and live in neighborhoods with fewer employed adults. These factors all make it harder for children to reach their human capital potential and achieve higher levels of income when they reach adulthood. This contributes to the relatively low level of social mobility in the United States. Based on worker productivity losses, costs to the healthcare system, and the costs of incarceration and the judicial system, a recent report from the National Academies of Science estimated that child poverty costs the economy of the United States between $800 billion and $1.1 trillion each year (see here).

The expansion of various safety net programs has meaningfully improved children's material well-being over the last 40 years. Policy efforts that have improved children's material well-being over recent decades include expansions in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), SNAP, and Medicaid. The impact of these programs on child well-being is not readily seen in official poverty rates, since the resources these programs deliver to families are not counted in the calculation of official poverty statistics. However, using the U.S. Census Bureau's Supplemental Poverty Measure, which is based on more comprehensive measures of family's resources (including from post-tax and in-kind government transfers) and costs, rates of child poverty have fallen from around 30% in the mid-1960s to around 15% in recent years. This implies that expanded safety net programs have made a positive difference in the lives of poor children in this country, but millions of children continue to live in material poverty.

A social insurance program for children could dramatically reduce child poverty in the U.S., as Social Security has done for elderly poverty. The fact that children have the highest official rates of poverty in the U.S. is a dramatic reversal from the mid-twentieth century, when elderly poverty rates were the highest in the country. In 1959, 35% of those aged 65 and up lived in poverty, versus 27% of kids and 17% of adults. Social security has been a great anti-poverty success story for the elderly in this country. We could make a similar commitment to children. If each child living in poverty received a social insurance benefit equal to the average annual social security retiree benefit ($17,112), child poverty would fall to less than 1%. If each child living in poverty received half the average social security retiree benefit ($8,556), the rate of childhood poverty in the U.S. would fall below 4 percent. This would cost on the order of $179 billion and $90 billion a year, respectively. If the benefits were phased out at a rate of 70 cents on the dollar (which would clearly be a better policy design than a cutoff at the poverty line and would additionally reduce the number of children living in near poverty conditions), the annual cost estimates would be $293 billion and $118 billion, respectively. In 2019, our national Gross Domestic Product was $21.4 trillion. That means that with spending in the range of 0.4% to 1.4% of GDP, we could bring childhood poverty rates to less than 4 or 1 percent.

The economic scars of the COVID-19 pandemic could increase child poverty in the coming years. Child poverty was declining up until the pandemic. There had been a slow, steady decline since the Great Recession. However, those gains could be reversed, without continued federal assistance to low-income families. The pandemic has hit low-income and vulnerable populations the hardest, both in terms of its health effects and its economic effects. Fortunately, the relief measures of the CARES act passed by Congress last spring helped prevent a large increase in poverty in the early months of the pandemic. Research by Jeehoon Han, Bruce Meyer, and Jim Sullivan suggests that the provision of regular Unemployment Insurance, expanded Unemployment Insurance, and the Economic Impact Payments kept poverty from increasing last spring, even though there was a huge drop (14%) in employment. However, when relief provisions expire, child poverty may increase, just as it did during the Great Recession. The post pandemic path of child poverty will depend on how rapidly the economy recovers, how quickly out of work parents are able to find new jobs, and how sustained and effective government assistance to low-income families is.

One way to gauge the success of a society is to evaluate how it positions itself for the future; that is, the extent to which it cares for and takes care of its children. Another gauge is how the most vulnerable citizens are treated. Together, these two indicators of success suggest that the United States should do much more to alleviate child poverty. Improving the material well being of poor children would put them in a better position to thrive in school and ultimately be healthy, economically-productive adults. Investing in poor children would not only yield economic benefits for those children, but also for society at large. While recognizing that child poverty compromises the goal of promoting economic opportunity and the future health of the economy, it is also vital that we do not lose sight of the fact that poverty is a human tragedy and speaks to the moral standing of a nation. Rates of child poverty had been falling for a number of years before the COVID pandemic hit. If the political will is there, we could drive child poverty down even further in the years ahead.

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The United States has one of the highest rates of child poverty among high-income countries. While government policies have played an important role in improving the material well-being of poor children over the past four decades, much remains to be done.

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Child poverty describes when a child is raised with limited access to or, in some cases, no access to, the essential resources they need to survive and live well. Children who've grown up in poverty often suffer compared to others because of the lack of food, sanitation, healthcare and education they need to thrive.

Poverty is a problem affecting children around the world. According to UNICEF, an estimated 685 million children around the world live in poverty, whilst in the UK today, one in four children are living in poverty. Our focus is to help the most vulnerable children living in the most dangerous places to overcome poverty and experience fullness of life.

What is keeping children in poverty?
In order to make changes, we need to understand and address the circumstances that create child poverty, and keep them there.

1 in 10 people live on less that £1.50 a day

Every day 15,000 children and 800 mothers die of preventable causes

Children spend over 200 million hours every day collecting water

The poorest children are often taken out of school to help their families earn an income

Unpredictable weather and emergencies brought on by climate change and war can destroy a family's ability to provide for their children, and make it hard for them to build a better future

How we work to end child poverty

We tackle child poverty at its roots. With your support, we work alongside communities to bring lifesaving healthcare, clean water, nutrition, quality education, child protection and ways for families to make a living.

By tackling the root of the problems, we help to empower communities and ensure that the change we make lasts. Communities set their own goals for transformation and work with us to ensure that we're reaching these goals - and that children won't slip back into poverty when we leave. Children like Olya and Gor.

Too many children live in poverty across the world, and with climate crises, conflict and COVID-19 affecting billions, the number of children in poverty is only growing. For those living in countries where people already struggling, the need to help is acute. Sponsor a child today and help us end child poverty.

Discover more

If you're still thinking 'but what really is child poverty and how to I help end it?', learn how we work to empower children in poverty, or consider sponsoring a child today to support them to transform their life.

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Child poverty describes when a child is raised with limited access to or, in some cases, no access to, the essential resources they need to survive and live well. Children who've grown up in poverty often suffer compared to others because of the lack of food, sanitation, healthcare and education they need to thrive.

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Around the world, people are experiencing both the subtle and stark effects of climate change. Gradually shifting weather patterns, rising sea levels and more extreme weather events are devastating evidence of both a rapidly changing climate and an urgent need for solutions.

While the impacts of climate change affect every country on every continent, they don't do it equally. People already burdened by poverty and oppression often suffer the harshest consequences, while having the least ability to cope. Their struggle to earn a living, feed their families and create stable homes is made more difficult every day the climate crisis continues.

The increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like hurricanes, wildfires and droughts threaten lives in these front-line communities, driving people from their homes and jeopardizing food sources and livelihoods. All these effects increase the likelihood of more conflict, hunger and poverty.

Still, the people most at risk are persisting despite it, fighting to grow food, maximize dwindling resources and withstand recurring disasters. The actions people in hard-hit regions are taking every day to overcome the burdens of the climate crisis are just as vital as widespread solutions. And the steps we take now as a global community, including supporting those on the front lines who are braving the challenge, will determine our resilience for the future.

The time for this action is now, with the U.N. secretary-general naming 2021 a "make or break" year to address the climate emergency.

The climate crisis discriminates, but the efforts to fight it cannot. Mercy Corps partners with people and communities facing the starkest effects of climate change, connecting them to information and tools to protect themselves, overcome challenges and thrive in the changing environment.

Read on to learn more about how climate change triggers conflict and exacerbates hunger and poverty for these communities, as well as what Mercy Corps is doing to help them become stronger and more resilient in the face of change.

What are the biggest effects of climate change?

Climate change places compounded stress on our environment, as well as the economic, social and political systems people depend on for food, safety and income. Whether it comes in the form of unbearable heat waves, harsh winters or extreme weather events like the recent hurricanes in Puerto Rico and The Bahamas, climate change puts people's lives at risk by undermining development and creating shortages of basic necessities, like food and water.

Climate change threatens the cleanliness of our air, depletes our water sources and limits food supply. It disrupts livelihoods, forces families from their homes and pushes people into poverty.

Research from 2015 revealed the planet had lost around one-third of its arable land in the previous 40 years, in large part due to climate disasters and poor conservation. And every year more trees and soil are lost. More than 1.3 billion people live on weakening agricultural land, putting them at risk of depleted harvests that can cause hunger, poverty and displacement. Soil, which is essential for healthy crops and ecosystems, is being lost between 10 and 100 times faster than it is forming, though recent research suggests conservation measures can help substantially.

Meanwhile, natural disasters have become more frequent and destructive. In 2019, 396 events - more than the annual average over the previous decade - affected 95 million people globally and caused $103 billion in economic losses. These damages can be nearly impossible for families living in poverty to overcome.

As climate events worsen, people are also threatened by more gradual changes, such as climbing temperatures and declining rainfall.

Droughts alone impact around 55 million people every year , and the damage hits the agriculture industry - the primary source of food and income for many people in developing countries - particularly hard. Between 2008 and 2018, more than 80% of drought damage was absorbed by agriculture in low- and lower-middle-income countries, and the crop and livestock losses caused by all natural disasters in these countries during the same timeframe equated to enough calories to feed 7 million people per year.

As these situations grow more desperate, food shortages can force families to leave their homes and migrate to other countries.

"When there is no rain, like now, we get big challenges. There are no yields, and when you go to the shops you find that food prices have gone up, yet you are still jobless."

- Simon, a farmer in drought-stricken Kenya

Climate change is also one of many root causes of conflict around the world: it leads to food shortages, threatens people's livelihoods and displaces entire populations. Where institutions and governments are unable to manage the stress or absorb the shocks of a changing climate, instability will remain an ongoing threat.

Who is most affected by climate change?

While everyone around the world feels the effects of climate change, the most vulnerable are people living in the world's poorest countries, like Haiti and Timor-Leste, who have limited financial resources to cope with disasters, as well as the world's 2.5 billion smallholder farmers, herders and fisheries who depend on the climate and natural resources for food and income.

Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, shifting seasons and natural disasters disproportionately threaten these populations, endangering their livelihoods and increasing their risk of poverty and hunger.

The majority of people living in poverty rely on agriculture and natural resources to survive. For these people, the effects of climate change - shifting weather, limited water sources and increased competition for resources - are a real matter of life and death. Climate change has turned their lives into a desperate guessing game.

As the effects of climate change increase for these populations, so must the ingenuity of our response.

How does climate change increase conflict?

Conflict is the primary cause of poverty and suffering in the world today. And it's exacerbated by climate change.

By amplifying existing environmental, social, political and economic challenges, climate change increases the likelihood of competition and conflict over resources. It can also intensify existing conflicts and tensions.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, shifts in the timing and magnitude of rainfall undermine food production and increase competition for remaining arable land, contributing to ethnic tensions and conflict.

And in places like central Nigeria and Karamoja, Uganda, where resource scarcity has been a long-standing challenge, climate change has further reduced pasture and water sources and resulted in increased competition and violence.

"The land is insufficient. ... The relationship [between people] is no longer that good. Take farms and cattle for instance. Since the land is not enough, cattle tend to encroach into farmers' crops. It brings about trouble, crises and the involvement of law enforcement agents." - Habibu, pastoralist in resource-scarce central Nigeria

But while climate change can lead to conflict, it can also provide an opportunity for collaboration. These challenges present a unique opportunity for collective action and partnership in order to mitigate the impacts, and the security of front-line communities will depend on cooperation over conflict.

"The community feels anxious because the flooding is quite disruptive of our daily activities, so we try to always communicate and coordinate to find solutions when flooding happens in our neighborhood. ... I am happy to live in my current neighborhood because we handle the flooding issue together as a community." - Sagiman, community member in flood-prone Indonesia
In Uganda, Mercy Corps is helping one South Sudanese refugee form a friendship without borders ▸
What's the relationship between hunger and climate change?

Climate change threatens the world's food supply.

Floods and droughts brought on by climate change make it harder to produce food. As a result, the price of food increases, and access becomes more and more limited, putting many at higher risk of hunger.

Undernutrition is the largest health impact of climate change in the 21st century. The number of undernourished people in the world has been increasing since 2014, reaching nearly 690 million - almost 9% of the global population - in 2019. The vast majority live in low- and middle-income countries - research shows hunger to be most prevalent in Africa and rising fastest in Latin America and the Caribbean. The number of undernourished people in the Latin America and Caribbean region increased by 9 million between 2015 and 2019.

Much of the increase is linked to progressively extreme weather and the growing number of conflicts, which can be driven or exacerbated by climate-related stresses. The 2020 Global Report on Food Crises recently reported its highest number of acutely food insecure people on record, some 135 million people across 55 countries and territories, in part due to climate shocks and natural disasters such as flooding, erratic rain, climate-induced displacement and the devastating locust invasion in East Africa.

How does climate change create climate refugees?

Rising sea levels, extreme weather events and prolonged drought force millions of people to lose or move away from their homes every year in search of food, water, shelter or jobs.

Nearly 70% of all new displacements in the first six months of last year were the result of weather-related disasters, with a total of 9.8 million people around the world driven from their homes by shocks like drought, hurricanes and landslides - around 50,000 people every day.

Meanwhile, gradual changes brought on by deforestation, overgrazing and decreased rainfall slowly transform pastures to dust, destroy crops and kill livestock, effectively challenging the livelihoods of millions of farmers. Many of these families are forced to leave their homes behind in search of basic necessities and new work.

And if sea levels continue to rise without intervention, many of those living near the ocean - about 40 percent of the world's population - will be at risk of losing their homes.

Almost all of these displacements are occurring in low- and middle-income countries, where people have fewer options to cope with progressive shifts or sudden disasters.

What's the forecast for the future and climate change?

The negative impacts of climate change continue to worsen and multiply at dramatic rates, and more ambitious global efforts are necessary to cut emissions and limit the effect of climate change on the planet.

Access to clean water is likely to become even more limited, and the risk of hunger and famine will become even greater than it is today. By 2050, climate change reportedly has the potential to increase the number of people at risk of hunger by as much as 20%. The majority of those at risk live in Africa.

Tens of millions of people are expected to be forced from their homes in the next decade as a result of climate change. This would be the biggest refugee crisis the world has ever seen.

In 2017, the World Health Organization reported climate change is expected to kill an additional 250,000 people every year between 2030 and 2050, from climate-linked malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea and heat stress, all while continuing to jeopardize clean air, safe drinking water and sufficient food supply.

A crisis of this scale demands a united, immediate response of an even greater magnitude: one in which we work together to help communities worldwide confront the challenges of today while developing solutions for a safer, more stable future.

How is Mercy Corps helping?

Mercy Corps is helping people around the world adapt to climate change.

In places as diverse as Puerto Rico, Ethiopia, Mongolia and Indonesia, we listen to the climate challenges each community is facing and collaborate with them to develop solutions that will make the biggest impact. This work aims to remove barriers so communities can adapt, innovate and thrive amidst the impacts of climate change, particularly in three areas: disappearing livelihoods and rising hunger, increasing disaster and escalating violence.
Read more about our approach to climate-resilient development ▸
1. Building climate-resilient livelihoods and food sources

We support farmers and communities to better manage unpredictable weather patterns and maximize the resources they do have by connecting them with information, tools and services for growing hardier yields and raising livestock.

This includes helping farmers diversify their crops and redesign their farmland to improve their productivity and protect the soil, so they are better equipped to continue growing food and earning income in the face of drought. We also train herders on how to keep their animals healthy in drier conditions.

We link farmers and herders with banking services, such as loans and savings, as well as insurance products, that can help them protect their work and build a financial safety net. And we use mobile technology to connect them to critical information - weather updates, crop prices, e-learning - they can leverage to make informed choices on when to plant and sell and how to treat their crops and animals.
REPORT: How investing in resilience helps fight drought ▸
We also work with communities to strengthen and adapt their local market systems and secure economies that can thrive in a changing climate.

This includes introducing new, locally-produced agricultural supplies, such as drought-resistant seeds and drip irrigation, which helps farmers in places like water-scarce Jordan use limited resources more efficiently. We also link farmers in Afghanistan and other farming communities with new buyers, enabling individuals to increase their income and encouraging job creation in rural economies.
How we're helping herders build resilience in rural Ethiopia ▸
2. Helping communities prepare for worsening disasters

We help communities rebound from disasters while strengthening them to be more resilient for the future. We do this by partnering with them to decrease the risk of damage while equipping themselves to respond in the event of another disaster.

In flood-prone places, like Tajikistan and Indonesia, we've worked with communities to reinforce river embankments and prepare for future flooding by developing early warning systems and evacuation routes.

In Puerto Rico, where hurricanes are an annual threat, we've collaborated with existing community centers to create resilience hubs supplied with solar power, water and emergency essentials, so community members won't be dependent on external aid to survive in the event of a future disaster.

Around the world, we teach students and community members about climate impact, risk management and disaster preparedness so they're better prepared for emergencies. And we collaborate with local and national governments to strengthen their communities' resilience to weather-related risks, including improving the way water and land is managed, building disaster response plans and developing policies that reduce vulnerability to climate change.
CASE STUDY: A governance approach to building climate resilience in Indonesia ▸
3. Addressing conflict caused by climate change

To resolve climate-related tension and stop violence before it starts, we help communities and their governments build an environment in which people work together to protect and share natural resources.

We provide opportunities for people to overcome their differences and collectively manage resources, like training community leaders to build conflict management skills and helping people identify shared concerns and solutions.

"If we work as a team in unity then all work will be easy, but if we keep fighting within each other then we can do nothing." - Gayadin, farmer in flood-prone rural Nepal

In Uganda, for example, we facilitate resource-sharing agreements and promote cooperation between communities to reduce conflict. In Nigeria, we teach farmers and herders how to peacefully resolve disagreements over land and water that could otherwise spiral into violence.

Just as the fight against climate change is a collective effort, we see the shared experience of its local impacts as an opportunity for cooperation and collaboration that can reduce the risk of conflict and foster a better future.

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The facts: How climate change affects people living in poverty

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Climate change is affecting every country on every continent. But for the people living in the world's poorest countries, the effects of climate change - limited water and food sources and increased competition for them - are a matter of life and death.

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Climate change is far more than a problem for humanity. The vast majority of victims of heat waves, natural disasters, habitat change and other calamities will be non-human animals. In fact, we are nearing or have already arrived at the 6th Great Extinction, a period where animal species die off in record numbers - only this time, as a result of humanity, not natural phenomena. Right now, half of all species on Earth are experiencing population declines.

Despite this, most climate coverage tends to focus on human victims of climate change. In this article, we consider the furry, feathered or scaly animals who are also going to suffer. Here are the animals most affected by climate change, as well as what you need to know about how and why our changing environment will harm them.

Which Animals Are Most Affected by Climate Change?

Essentially all animals on Earth are affected by climate change and, due to the massive amounts of known and unknown species on the planet, it is difficult to rank them concretely. But that hasn't stopped organizations from trying.

From the Center for Biological Diversity's 350 Species threatened by Global Warming to the Audubon's Birds and Climate reports, scientists across the world are cataloging the harm done to animals by climate change. Here are many groups of animals likely to face extinction or other harm as a result of human-driven changes to our environment.

Farmed Animals

Animal agriculture is contributing to climate change at a massive scale, responsible for between 11.1 and 19.6 percent of direct emissions and 40 percent of deforestation globally. But it goes the other way too: farmed animals like cows, pigs, chickens and goats are harmed under the increasing global temperatures.

Unlike other animals, farmed animals are unable to flee extreme weather events. Cows can die en masse from heat stroke or forest fires caused by high temperatures. What's worse, being crowded together into factory farms gives these animals very little fresh air to cool off. Farmed animals, due to human intervention, are now far more common than wild animals. While farmed animals are unlikely to go extinct as long as humans are alive, they already suffer under climate change.

Arctic and Antarctic Animals

As climate change begins melting glaciers and upending life at Earth's poles, animals in historically colder climates will suffer and die off. Animals in the Arctic and Antarctic regions (as well as other cold ecosystems) who are likely to become extinct or endangered include:

Insects

Insects are some of the animals most vulnerable to climate change, because they are extremely sensitive to temperature. If the Earth's mean temperature increases to 3.2 degrees Celsius, almost half of all insects will see their natural ranges diminished. In one estimate based on limited populations, 65 percent of all insect species could go extinct due to climate change.

However, climate change may actually advantage certain insects like dragonflies and aphids, allowing them to thrive and even encroach on new territory, possibly causing harm to native flora and fauna, or spreading disease.

Some insects who are particularly vulnerable to climate change include:

Monarch Butterflies

Bumblebees

Glowworms

Dung Beetles

Sierra Nevada Blue Butterflies

Already-Endangered Animals

Many animals are already near extinction due to habitat loss, from the cuddly Giant Panda to the massive Asian Elephant. It should be no surprise that climate change is likely to hasten their descent into extinction, unless humankind can restore their natural ecosystems in time. Some endangered animals who will be most impacted include:

Fish

The Earth's oceans also feel the effects of climate change, with diminishing coral reef populations and water temperatures rising. It certainly doesn't help that the industrial fishing industry is also already devastating fish populations across the world. Due to climate change and fishing, 60 percent of marine ecosystems are already degraded, and nearly 50 percent of marine species will be extinct - or near-extinct - by the end of the century.

Fish, who are known to pass the mirror sentience test and who feel pain, are likely to continue suffering in the wild, fleeing warmer waters for better chances of success in the far north or south.

How Are Animals Affected by Climate Change?

Habitat Loss

Many habitats are under threat due to varying factors like desertification, erosion, glacial melting, flooding, forest fires and more. Unfortunately, areas rich in biodiversity - like the Amazon Rainforest, Madagascar and Southern China - are disproportionately susceptible to climate change. Over 54 percent of all of the Earth's species are currently living in an area that will likely experience loss or fragmentation of habitat due to climate change.

Fewer Sources of Food

Even if a species of animal is capable of surviving higher-temperature heat waves, their food sources may not. Plants are experiencing many climate-induced stressors - like novel pest and disease species, desertification, erosion, invasive plant species and saltwater intrusion - driven by rising temperatures. As plants start to die off in greater numbers, the animals that rely on them for food are likely to die as well, setting the entire food chain off-balance.

Natural Disasters

Extreme temperatures increase the likelihood of natural disasters, especially tropical storms and hurricanes. Warmer weather can increase the wind speeds in these natural events, lengthening their staying power and increasing their destruction. Monsoons, which are not natural disasters but periods of extreme rainfall in Southeast Asia, are also prone to being more erratic and stronger due to climate change.

Forest fires are also more likely in warmer temperatures, such as the 2019-2020 bushfire season in Australia, which destroyed an unprecedented 24 million hectares of land. Increasing amounts of these natural disasters can destroy the habitats of animals, kill animals outright and lead to further land degradation.

Changing Migration Patterns

As habitats fragment and temperatures rise, animals will naturally seek better places to live. In one estimate, half of all species are already on the hunt for cooler places to call home. They almost always go north, which will lead to fewer animal species near the Equator, upsetting natural rhythms of the ecosystems.

In addition to forced migration, climate change is already altering seasonal migratory patterns of many animals who use temperature as a gauge for their movement. For example, salmon, who make a seasonal migration annually, naturally seek colder water. Thus, as colder water becomes less plentiful, they will have to continually seek out deeper streams and rivers to survive, changing their migration patterns and possibly lowering their species count.

Human-Wildlife Conflict

As a result of these changing migratory patterns, animals and humans will come into closer and closer contact, especially near farms and other deforested areas. Many species, now in unfamiliar environments without a steady supply of food, may become more aggressive towards humans. These animals may become hunted en masse, causing further damage to ecosystems.

How Does Climate Change Affect Pets?

Pets and companion animals, like all animals, are affected by rising temperatures. Depending on where they live, dogs and cats may experience worse quality of life due to long heat waves. Pets who've historically lived in colder climates, like Husky dogs or Russian Blue cats, are particularly vulnerable to heat.

Pets will also deal with the indirect effects of heat: more invasive pest species and diseases. Climate change is helping pests survive in more temperate areas that household pets may also reside in. Every year, pests migrate about three kilometers farther from the Equator as the Earth's temperature warms. Soon, it won't be uncommon to see fungal diseases native to Latin America, or ticks from Sub-Saharan Africa, in countries in the far north.

How Many Animals Are Affected by Climate Change?

It is difficult to imagine an animal species that is not affected by climate change. Even if the animal is able to bear higher temperatures without any trouble, their local environment is almost certainly changing. They are likely coping with new species migrating into their territory, environmental degradation or increased contact with humans.

How Many Animals Die From Climate Change Each Year?

While it is not possible to determine exactly how many animals die due to climate change alone (as climate change impacts animals in many direct and indirect ways), we can readily analyze how many animals are dying every year in this century compared to previous centuries.

Since the rise of humankind, we have witnessed an 85 percent decrease in the biomass of wild animals globally. According to the World Wildlife Fund, we've seen a 70 percent decrease in wild animals in the last half century alone. However, the overall mass of animals has actually increased, due to humanity's massive system of animal agriculture, which raises and slaughters 83 billion animals a year.

How Many Animals Will Go Extinct Due to Climate Change?

The Earth has already started, or is about to start, the Sixth Great Extinction. This is the first Great Extinction caused by one species: humankind. We have already caused the extinction of between an estimated 7.5-13 percent of species before the year 1500 C.E., and many more will go extinct because of climate change.

Climate change is likely to wipe out many of the over 40,000 species on the IUCN Red List, a measure of endangered species. However, this list disproportionately examines mammals and birds, and disproportionately excludes invertebrates, who make up most species on Earth. The number of species affected by climate change is likely far higher than 40,000.

How Else Are Humans Affecting Animals?

Climate change is far from the only form of environmental havoc humans are wreaking across the globe. We are heavily modifying the land, razing forests and clearing grasslands, primarily for agriculture - especially animal agriculture. Water and air pollution can poison animals, and habitats are eroded and degraded by water shortages.

The Bottom Line

While it is impossible for any one individual to stop climate change alone, people can contribute to global efforts to reduce carbon and methane emissions. Individuals can limit their carbon footprint most by reducing car and plane travel, as well as their consumption of meat and other animal products. They can also join with other climate action groups that fight for better regulation of fossil fuels and animal agriculture.

Björn Ólafsson

Björn Jóhann Ólafsson is a science writer and journalist who cares deeply about understanding the natural world and her inhabitants through stories and data. He reports on the environmental footprint of the meat industry, the alternative protein sector and cultural attitudes around food. His previous bylines include the EU Observer and Elemental. He lives in Spain with his two lovebirds and is reachable at [email protected] or on X.

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Which Animals Are Most Affected by Climate Change, Explained

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We're nearing or have already arrived at the 6th Great Extinction - only this time, the crisis is manmade.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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Our Trajectory

Earth Will Continue to Warm and the Effects Will Be Profound

The potential future effects of global climate change include more frequent wildfires, longer periods of drought in some regions, and an increase in the wind intensity and rainfall from tropical cyclones. Credit: left - Mike McMillan/USFS, center - Tomas Castelazo / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0, right - NASA.

Global climate change is not a future problem. Changes to Earth's climate driven by increased human emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are already having widespread effects on the environment: glaciers and ice sheets are shrinking, river and lake ice is breaking up earlier, plant and animal geographic ranges are shifting, and plants and trees are blooming sooner.

Effects that scientists had long predicted would result from global climate change are now occurring, such as sea ice loss, accelerated sea level rise, and longer, more intense heat waves.

" The magnitude and rate of climate change and associated risks depend strongly on near-term mitigation and adaptation actions, and projected adverse impacts and related losses and damages escalate with every increment of global warming."

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Some changes (such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme rainfall) are happening faster than scientists previously assessed. In fact, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - the United Nations body established to assess the science related to climate change - modern humans have never before seen the observed changes in our global climate, and some of these changes are irreversible over the next hundreds to thousands of years.

Scientists have high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for many decades, mainly due to greenhouse gases produced by human activities.

A Degree of Difference

So, the Earth's average temperature has increased about 2 degrees Fahrenheit during the 20th century. What's the big deal?

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The IPCC's Sixth Assessment report, published in 2021, found that human emissions of heat-trapping gases have already warmed the climate by nearly 2 degrees Fahrenheit (1.1 degrees Celsius) since 1850-1900. The global average temperature is expected to reach or exceed 1.5 degrees C (about 3 degrees F) within the next few decades. These changes will affect all regions of Earth.

What's the difference between climate change and global warming?

"Global warming" refers to the long-term warming of the planet. "Climate change" encompasses global warming, but refers to the broader range of changes that are happening to our planet, including rising sea levels; shrinking mountain glaciers; accelerating ice melt in Greenland, Antarctica and the Arctic; and shifts in flower/plant blooming times.

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The severity of effects caused by climate change will depend on the path of future human activities. More greenhouse gas emissions will lead to more climate extremes and widespread damaging effects across our planet. However, those future effects depend on the total amount of carbon dioxide we emit. So, if we can reduce emissions, we may avoid some of the worst effects.

" The scientific evidence is unequivocal: climate change is a threat to human wellbeing and the health of the planet. Any further delay in concerted global action will miss the brief, rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future." ²

- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Future Effects in the U.S.

U.S. Regional Effects

U.S. Regional Effects

Climate change is bringing different types of challenges to each region of the country. Some of the current and future impacts are summarized below. These findings are from the Third and Fourth National Climate Assessment Reports, released by the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

Is it too late to prevent climate change?

Humans have caused major climate changes to happen already, and we have set in motion more changes still. However, if we stopped emitting greenhouse gases today, the rise in global temperatures would begin to flatten within a few years. Temperatures would then plateau but remain well-elevated for many, many centuries.

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Northeast. Heat waves, heavy downpours, and sea level rise pose increasing challenges to many aspects of life in the Northeast. Infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, and ecosystems will be increasingly compromised. Farmers can explore new crop options, but these adaptations are not cost- or risk-free. Moreover, adaptive capacity, which varies throughout the region, could be overwhelmed by a changing climate. Many states and cities are beginning to incorporate climate change into their planning.

Northwest. Changes in the timing of peak flows in rivers and streams are reducing water supplies and worsening competing demands for water. Sea level rise, erosion, flooding, risks to infrastructure, and increasing ocean acidity pose major threats. Increasing wildfire incidence and severity, heat waves, insect outbreaks, and tree diseases are causing widespread forest die-off.

Southeast. Sea level rise poses widespread and continuing threats to the region's economy and environment. Extreme heat will affect health, energy, agriculture, and more. Decreased water availability will have economic and environmental impacts.

Midwest. Extreme heat, heavy downpours, and flooding will affect infrastructure, health, agriculture, forestry, transportation, air and water quality, and more. Climate change will also worsen a range of risks to the Great Lakes.

Southwest. Climate change has caused increased heat, drought, and insect outbreaks. In turn, these changes have made wildfires more numerous and severe. The warming climate has also caused a decline in water supplies, reduced agricultural yields, and triggered heat-related health impacts in cities. In coastal areas, flooding and erosion are additional concerns.

References
References
Header image shows cracked mud stretches across sections of the Panamint Valley. Credit: NPS/Kurt Moses; A degree of concern thermometer image credit: Pixabay/geralt

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intergovernmental panel on climate change

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Long-term effects of global climate change in the United States.