FASCINATING FACT – How Many People Depend on Coffee Production for Their Daily Survival?

Between 800 million and 1 billion people worldwide depend on coffee production for their full or partial daily survival – equivalent to over 10 percent of the TOTAL world population, as per the latest socio-economic figures available. Please think of that next time you enjoy a cup of coffee !!

This post was first published in 2014 and today the figures have increased dramatically. Some companies in high-consuming IMPORTING countries have in recent years pushed the idea that satellite-based surveys have found the world’s number of coffee growers to have been cut in half to 12 million families – this is entirely BULL and it’s an INSULT to the millions of coffee producers world wide that for the vast majority are living in conditions of MISERABLE endemic poverty. There are so many facts that a satellite based survey NEVER will be able to calculate or even less detect, first and foremost, how many PEOPLE live of the same continuing size of land, i.e. the AVERAGE size of land has been reduced from 2-3 hec in the early 1990s to between 0.5-0.7 hec today, why? Because every 10 years a generational shift cause the existing farm household plot to be divided between children, so for instance, in Uganda the figure of coffee producing families/households have DOUBLED to 2 million by 2014 according to official figures, from 1 million in official census figures in 2004. This SAME trend has happened WORLDWIDE and today we KNOW that there are at least 50 million families or households in the world today and, including the MANY more indirect por part-time jobs CREATED by the coffee production chain at least 200 million FAMILIES that depend on coffee production on a daily basis. Yes, some of these jobs – like getting extra job in harvest season for truck drivers transporting coffee from the source of origins to ports – May only account for 5-10% of total income in some families but because the POVERTY INDEX is so high, if these families don’t get that 5-10% extra in coffee-related income, they will NOT be able to put even ONE BASIC DECENT MEAL on the table every day.

There are a lot of figures being thrown around the world when it comes to coffee, including that an estimated 125 million families are involved in coffee growing. But if we include all the workers, the season labor, children and other family members, plus the related jobs like the truck driver or port worker — whose work during part of the year depend from the earnings that come from processing, transporting and shipping the coffee — the figure quickly multiplies.

Add to this the significant number of people who also has coffee contributing to a part of the salary, whether from serving coffee in cafes or restaurants, working at a factory which manufactures plastic cups for coffee or other industry-related activities, and even in industrialized countries millions of people depend on coffee for at least a part of their salary.

Between 600 million and 800 million people worldwide depend on coffee production for their full or partial daily survival — or equivalent to at least 10 percent of the world’s population. How is that for a coffee fact?