Original version

BBC World Service Online

More or Less

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life

Tim Harford explains the numbers and statistics in the news and in life.

More or Less: Modern Slavery

Factual

Slavery.jpg

08/03/2014

Modern Slavery

BBC World Service - More or Less, Modern Slavery

Are there 21 million slaves in the world today?

“I dedicate this award to all the people who have endured slavery, and the 21 million people who still suffer slavery today,” said director Steve McQueen, as he accepted the Oscar for Best Picture for his film 12 Years a Slave. But where does he get that number from? 

More or Less explores the figures to find out who are modern day slaves, and where are they? We speak to Kevin Bales, lead author of the Global Slavery Index and Dr Alex Balch from Centre for the Study of International Slavery at the University of Liverpool.

(Photo: Indian activists of the United Nations Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery pose as bonded labourers with their hands tied up by rope to mark the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery in New Delhi, 2003.    Credit: Prakash Singh/AFP/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

More or Less

Modern Slavery

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service