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Consumption

• In 2006, people consumed $30.5 trillion worth of goods and services, up 28 percent from just 10 years earlier. (Worldwatch Institute -  State of the World 2010) 
• The world’s total output of goods and services, known as the gross world product (GWP), rose by 5.4 percent in 2008, to $69 trillion. The rate of growth, a deceleration from the heated 7.5 percent annual average of the previous five years, was dampened by the global recession that emerged during the year. (Worldwatch Institute - Vital Signs)
• 20% of the world’s people living in rich countries account for 86% of total global consumer spending. (UNDP Human Development Report 1998)
• The US and Canada, with 5.2% of the world’s population, are responsible for 31.5% of consumption. South Asia, with 22.4% of the population, is responsible for 2% of consumption. (Worldwatch Institute, ‘State of the World 2004: The Consumer Society’)
• The average African household today consumes 25% less than 25 years ago. (UNDP Human Development Report 1998)
• In 2005, China used 26% of the world’s steel, 32% of rice, and 47% of cement. Though their per-capita resource consumption is low, with their large populations China and India look set soon to join the US and Europe as superpowers of consumption. (Worldwatch Institute, ‘State of the World 2006: The Challenge of Global Sustainability’)
• According to the New Economics Foundation, total consumption levels had already exceeded the planet’s ecological capacity by the late 1970s. (New Economics Foundation and The Open University, The UK Interdependence Report, 2006)
• Number of planets needed to sustain the world at different countries' levels of consumption: USA - 5 ; UK - 3; France - 3; Germany - 2.5; Russia - 2.5; Brazil - 2; China - 1; India - .5 (New Economics Foundation and The Open University, The UK Interdependence Report, 2006)

Fair Trade Purchases

• Internationally, all fair trade product lines expanded their markets in 2005, especially fair trade coffee in the US (+ 71%), bananas in Austria (+46%) and sugar in France (+125%). (Fairtrade Foundation; Fairtrade Labelling Organization, ‘FLO News Bulletin July 2006’)
• More than 5 million people – farmers, workers and their families – across 58 Southern countries benefit from the international fair trade system. (Fairtrade Foundation; Fairtrade Labelling Organization, ‘FLO News Bulletin July 2006’)

Organic Farming

•  In 2005, 31 million hectares of land were farmed organically by 623,147 farmers in 120 countries. If certified forest and wild harvest land are included, the global organic land area increases to 51.2 million hectares. (Soil Association (UK), ‘Organic Market Report 2006’)