That’s almost 2% of the total world population!

Picture courtesy UN

A worldrecord breaking 117 million people in 131 countries stood up last weekend as part of a United Nations-led campaign demanding world leaders to keep their promises to halve extreme poverty and achieve the other Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by their target date of 2015.Over 8,000 events were held around the globe, from Afghanistan and Burundi to Thailand and Uganda, as part of the “Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty” campaign held from 17 to 19 October.The exact number of registered participants was 116,993,629 people.The break down:* Africa: 24,496,151* Middle East region: 17,847,870* Asia: 73,151,847* Europe: 951,788* Latin America: 211,250* North America: 123,920* Oceania: 210,803This event broke the Guinness World Record for the largest social mobilization on a single issue ever. ( Full More posts on The Road about activism and poverty Note: These figures were originally not included, but updated later.