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2017: A Year in Crisis

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In 2017 the world faced a series of devastating humanitarian emergencies, not least here in the UK - making it one of the most demanding years for the British Red Cross since WWII. Here’s a look back at 2017 in numbers

  • 9m – people in the UK reported as always or often lonely

  • 200 – tonnes of donated clothes, blankets, toiletries and essential items by members of the public following the Grenfell Tower Fire

  • 24.1m – people facing food shortages in East Africa (across Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and South Sudan)

  • 11,741 – destitute asylum seekers helped by the British Red Cross in the UK

  • 70 – percentage of Yemen population urgently in need of humanitarian assistance as conflict escalates and cholera epidemic spreads

  • 41m – people affected by the South Asian Floods

  • 7.3 – magnitude of the Iran/Iraq earthquake killing more than 400 people and injuring more than 7,000

  • 7,228 – people helped by the Red Cross in Anguilla following Hurricane Irma

  • 600,000 – people crossing into Bangladesh in less than two months as they flee a surge of violence in Myanmar

  • 631 – British Red Cross volunteers deployed to Grenfell

  • 17m – people affected in the Lake Chad crisis. 2017’s Silent Emergency across Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria

  • 13 – temperature recorded in Shropshire on the coldest night of the year

  • 1,621 – people signed up to be British Red Cross Community Reserve Volunteers - a new initiative aimed at creating a taskforce of people willing to use their kindness to help others, when a major crisis hits their local community

  • 35,147 – hygiene kits distributed by the Red Cross to people fleeing Myanmar for Bangladesh

  • 22 – IronMen competitions competed by a British Red Cross community fundraiser

  • 250,000 – people receiving face-to-face first aid learning by the British Red Cross in the UK

  • 1,233,955 – volunteer hours clocked up in British Red Cross shops across the UK

  • £25m – amount raised across three UK appeals

  • £10.6m – amount raised to support people overseas (including those communities in the Caribbean affected by hurricanes Maria and Irma, the ongoing food crisis in East Africa and the Syria Crisis Appeal, amongst others)

  • 147 – years the British Red Cross has been operating in the UK

For further information, or to speak to a British Red Cross Spokesperson, please contact Vicci Moyles, vmoyles@redcross.org.uk 0207 877 7033 / 07879 680068

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