One billion people worldwide live in slums, a number that will likely double by 2030. The characteristics of slum life vary greatly between geographic regions, but they are generally inhabited by the very poor or socially disadvantaged. Slum buildings can be simple shacks or permanent and well-maintained structures but lack clean water, electricity, sanitation and other basic services. In this post, I've included images from several slums including Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya, the second largest slum in Africa (and the third largest in the world); New Building slum in central Malabo, Equatorial Guinea; Pinheirinho slum - where residents recently resisted police efforts to forcibly evict them; and slum dwellers from Kolkata, Mumbai and New Delhi, India. India has about 93 million slum dwellers and as much as 50% of New Delhi's population is thought to live in slums, 60% of Mumbai. -- Paula Nelson (55 photos total)
Cambodian lawmaker Mu Sochuo, from the opposition Sam Rainsy party, pleads with riot policemen to stop a forced eviction of villagers at a slum village in the centre of Phnom Penh, Jan. 4, 2012. Cambodian lawmakers from the opposition Sam Rainsy party visited the village after authorities forcefully evicted villagers from the Borei Keila community in the capital. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
A Cambodian policeman stands guard as children carry corrugated iron during the eviction of residents in a slum village in the centre of Phnom Penh, Jan. 4, 2012. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
A Cambodian woman sits near her baby as residents are evicted from a slum village in the centre of Phnom Penh, Jan. 4, 2012. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
A Cambodian woman salvages some belongings after the forced eviction of residents from a slum village, Jan. 4, 2012. (Tang Chhin Sothy/AFP/Getty Images)
Children stand in the schoolyard of the Academy for Peace and Justice while waiting to sing the national anthem in Port-au-Prince, Jan. 9, 2012. Bankrolled by a roster of Hollywood celebrities, the Academy of Peace and Justice is Haiti's first free secondary school and draws hundreds of children from Port-au-Prince's biggest slums. Its success stands out in Haiti, which is still struggling to lift itself from the rubble left by an earthquake two years ago that killed roughly 300,000 people and left more than 1.5 million homeless. (Swoan Parker/Reuters)
Students dust off their shoes before arriving at the Academy for Peace and Justice in Port-au-Prince Jan. 9, 2012. The Academy of Peace and Justice is Haiti's first free secondary school and draws hundreds of children from Port-au-Prince's biggest slums. (Swoan Parker/Reuters)
Students of the Academy for Peace and Justice attend class in Port-au-Prince Jan. 9, 2012. (Swoan Parker/Reuters)
A student attends lessons at the Academy for Peace and Justice, Haiti's first free secondary school, in Port-au-Prince Jan. 9, 2012. (Swoan Parker/Reuters)
Afghan refugee Nazeeha Taj, 5, plays with a drum in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 11, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Afghan refugee children stand at the main gate of their muddy house at a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Jan. 4, 2012. (Anjum Naveed/Associated Press)
Pakistani boys compete in a wheelbarrow race at a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Jan. 3, 2012. (Anjum Naveed/Associated Press)
An Afghan refugee girl walks with her sister in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 13, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Two Afghan refugee girls and a boy make their way through a muddy alley, following a rainy night, in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 16, 2012. The Pakistani government and the United Nations refugee agency reached an agreement in March 2009, to allow some 1.7 million registered Afghan refugees living in Pakistan to continue sheltering there until at least 2012, thousands of them still live without electricity, running water and other basic services. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
An Afghan refugee girl stands in a muddy alley, following a rainy night, Jan. 16, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
A Pakistani family gathers round a fire inside a shanty, to warm themselves during a cold evening, in a slum in Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 13, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Pakistani children warm themselves during a cold evening, Jan. 13, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Afghan refugee girl, Hira Farouq, 4, eats a lollipop while playing with other children, Jan. 16, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
A Pakistani woman washes clothes outside her house in the slum area of Lahore, Jan. 8, 2012. The IMF forecasts Pakistan to post growth of just 2.6 percent in 2011, among the lowest in Asia, while inflation is tipped to stand at around 14 percent this year and next -- among the highest in the world. (Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images)
An Afghan refugee boy, Hikmat Agha, 4, waits to start his daily class, to learn how to recite verses from the Quran, in a mosque in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Pakistan, Jan. 18, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
Afghan refugee girls attend a daily class to learn how to recite verses from the Quran, in a mosque in a slum on the outskirts of Islamabad, Jan. 18, 2012. (Muhammed Muheisen/Associated Press)
A woman slum dweller sits at the site of a fire in Kolkata, India, Jan. 23, 2012. Over a thousand people were left homeless after at least 100 shanties were gutted in a major fire. (Bikas Das/Associated Press)
Slum dwellers search for their belongings through the debris after a fire in Kolkata, India, Jan. 23, 2012. (Bikas Das/Associated Press)
A woman begs in a subway in Mumbai, India, Jan. 11, 2011. Villagers flock to cities to find work causing slums to expand and people to live on the streets. India has about 93 million slum dwellers, and as much as 50 percent of New Delhi's population is thought to live in slums, and 60 percent of Mumbai's population. (Rafiq Maqbool/ Associated Press)
A dog lies beside pavement dwellers sleeping on a road in Mumbai, India, Jan. 11, 2011. Sixty percent of the residents of Mumbai live in slums. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
Street children eat a meal on a roadside in Mumbai, India, Jan. 11, 2011. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
An Indian woman sleeps outdoors in a shanty area in Hyderabad, India, Jan. 11, 2012. India has about 93 million slum dwellers. (Mahesh Kumar A./Associated Press)
An Indian bride, who is a pavement dweller, waits for her wedding ceremony, which will be performed on a street in Mumbai, Jan. 11, 2012. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
A mobile unit arrives at a slum during an anti-polio drive in New Delhi, Jan. 15, 2012. India marked a full year since its last reported case of polio. The milestone is seen as a major victory in the global effort to eradicate the crippling disease. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)
A child is administered polio drops at a slum by a mobile unit during an anti-polio drive in New Delhi, Jan. 15, 2012. (Saurabh Das/Associated Press)
Mohammed Shamim Sheikh, who suffers from multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis, listens to a social worker at his home in a slum on the outskirts of Mumbai, Jan. 16, 2012. Indian doctors have reported the country's first cases of "totally drug-resistant tuberculosis," a long-feared and virtually untreatable form of the killer lung disease. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
Workers erect an awning made of Indian tricolor to hide a slum near the venue of an election rally where an address was to be given by congress party president Sonia Gandhi in Kapurthala, India, Jan. 19, 2012. (Altaf Qadri/Associated Press)
A man takes a bath outside his shanty in front of the Indian national flag in Dharavi, one of Asia's largest slums, in Mumbai, Jan. 24, 2012. Female workers at Dharavi made a 151ft-long (46m) Indian flag to celebrate India's Republic day. (Danish Siddiqui/Reuters)
Indian men walk past a 151 feet long handmade Indian national flag hung on a wall of the Dharavi slum, Jan. 24, 2012. The flag was prepared to celebrate women's empowerment by seventeen members of a non-governmental organization ahead of the Republic Day. India celebrates its Republic Day on Jan. 26. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
An elevated view of the Indian national flag on a wall of the Dharavi slum, Jan. 24, 2012. (Rafiq Maqbool/Associated Press)
Residents of the Pinheirinho slum stand ready to defend their neighborhood from police they expect to arrive with a court order to evict them from their homes, in Sao Jose dos Campos, 50 miles (80 kms) northeast of Sao Paulo, Jan. 13, 2012. Some 1,500 families who have been occupying a private plot of land for the past eight years expect to be evicted as the real owner's request for eviction reaches a final decision in a local court. (Marcelo Alves/Reuters)
Residents of the Pinheirinho slum stand ready with a muzzled dog to defend their neighborhood from police in Sao Jose dos Campos, Jan. 13, 2012. (Marcelo Alves/Reuters)
Police walk past a barrier set on fire by residents of the Pinheirinho slum, who are resisting police arrival to evict them by court order. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
A woman is directed to avoid an area where police are confronting residents of the Pinheirinho slum, who are resisting police arrival to evict them, Jan. 22, 2012. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
A resident of the Pinheirinho slum listens as he learns that a federal court injunction temporarily suspended an eviction of the area they have been occupying. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
Residents of the Pinheirinho slum celebrate beside their homes, after hearing a federal court injunction that temporarily suspended an eviction of the area. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
A man runs through the street in front of Pinheirinho slum where residents try to fight eviction attempts by police. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
Police stand guard on empty streets a day after they forcibly evicted residents of the Pinheirinho slum under court order. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
Police disperse demonstrators protesting the eviction of residents from Pinheirinho slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Jan. 25, 2012. Amnesty International is calling on Brazil's government to help more than 5,000 people left homeless when police violently evicted them from a sprawling slum. (Nelson Antoine/Associated Press)
Residents of the Pinheirinho slum use a church as a temporary shelter the day after they were evicted from their homes by police acting under court order. (Roosevelt Cassio/Reuters)
People follow court proceedings on a television set broadcasting live from the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands in a shop in the Kibera Slums in Nairobi, Kenya, Jan. 23, 2012. International Criminal Court judges on Monday ordered four prominent Kenyans, including two potential presidential candidates, to stand trial for allegedly orchestrating a deadly wave of violence after their country's disputed 2007 presidential election. (Khalil Senosi/Associated Press)
A woman walks past a grain shop at a market in the Kibera slum of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Jan. 20, 2012. Kibera is a vast shanty town that lacks even basic services such as sanitation. Many Kibera residents - there are hundreds of thousands of them - are angry that while prices of food have risen, wages have not. Many say their families now have to forego meals. A few Kibera residents make their way to supermarkets in a nearby mall to buy tiny portions of food. But they are well out of reach for most. (Noor Khamis/Reuters)
A woman prepares grains at her shop in the Kibera slum in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi Jan. 20, 2012. (Noor Khamis/Reuters)
Water from a leaky fire hose rains down on neighborhood residents as they attempt to put out a fire that had already burned dozens of homes, in the New Building slum neighborhood in central Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. As firefighters struggled to get enough water pressure to make their firehoses work, residents fought the fire with buckets of waste water and used mallets to tear down homes in the fire's path. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are currently co-hosting the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Local residents throw buckets of water on a burning house as a fire destroyed dozens of homes, in the New Building slum neighborhood in central Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, Jan. 23, 2012. Firefighters on the scene struggled to make their firefighting equipment work and were only sporadically able to spray the fire with water. Equatorial Guinea and Gabon are currently co-hosting the African Cup of Nations soccer tournament. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
A local resident walks amidst the ruins of dozens of houses after a fire ravaged part of the New Building slum neighborhood, Jan. 23, 2012. As firefighters struggled to get enough water pressure to make their fire hoses work, residents fought the fire with buckets of waste water and used mallets to tear down homes in the fire's path. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
Sisters Benedicta Macole and Susana Ritope Macole, survey twisted scraps of metal roofing, all that remains of the house where they grew up, after a fire ravaged part the New Building slum neighborhood, Jan. 24, 2012. Residents say scores of homes in the tightly-packed neighborhood were destroyed, leaving several hundred people displaced. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
As people stand on a wall to watch a fire burn through dozens of homes, residents carry rescued furniture out of the New Building slum neighborhood, Jan. 23, 2012. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
Local residents crowd around a fire truck in the main street of the New Building slum neighborhood, where a fire ravaged dozens of homes, Jan. 23, 2012. (Rebecca Blackwell/Associated Press)
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