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UN report regrets gap in youth wealth

Young people today are better educated than any previous generation, but 130 million youths are still illiterate, more than half a billion live on less than US$2 a day, and a record 88 million are unemployed, according to a UN report.

The UN World Youth Report 2005 provides a snapshot of the 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 who are increasingly seeking the bright lights of cities, engaging in international activities and becoming more influenced by the global media than by their own families and communities.

"While there is still enormous diversity among young people worldwide, the processes of urbanization and globalization and rapid advances in information and communications technology have arguably contributed to the emergence of a new global media-driven youth culture," UN Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Jose Antonio Ocampo said in a foreword to the report.

But the report highlights the stark differences in the lives and opportunities of young people in poor African and Asian nations and richer Western countries.

Almost half of the world's 15- to 24-year-olds were living on less than US$2 a day, and over 200 million were trying to survive on less than US$1 a day in 2002.
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