Not what it produced — what it must produce. Perfect Capita is the
annual output per citizen a nation has to reach for nobody to fall short of seven standards.
01
Food
Enough of it, year round, without dependence on a harvest that fails.
$4.46
Per person, per day
Cost of a healthy diet, global average, 2024. FAO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2025. 2.6 billion people cannot afford it.
02
Water
Clean, close and reliable, rather than carried and rationed.
$114bn
Global, per year
Capital cost of universal safely managed water and sanitation, SDG targets 6.1 and 6.2. Hutton and Varughese, World Bank, 2016.
03
Shelter
A dwelling that stands, with tenure that is not in question.
$3-4tn
Global, per year to 2030
Investment needed for adequate, affordable housing, against a shortfall of 268.8 million units. UN-Habitat, World Cities Report 2026.
04
Energy
Power at the wall, not a generator and a fuel bill.
$53bn
Global, per year
Universal electricity access at $45bn a year on the least-cost assessment, plus $8bn for clean cooking. IEA and Tracking SDG7, 2025.
05
Education
A school within reach and a teacher in front of the class.
$309
Per child, per year
Low and middle income countries. World Bank and UNESCO, Education Finance Watch 2024.
06
Health
Care that does not begin with a decision about whether to afford it.
$271
Per person, per year
Total health spending needed to meet the SDG3 targets, 67 low and middle income countries. Stenberg et al., Lancet Global Health, 2017.
07
Livelihood
Work that pays enough to keep the other six.
$1.4tn
Global, per year
Financing gap for universal social protection across 133 low and middle income countries, 3.3 per cent of their GDP. ILO, 2024.
Every figure above is published and attributed. They are not in the same units.
Food, education and health are recurrent services costed per person.
Water and energy are costed per connection, housing per unit, and social protection as a share
of GDP.