Data Insights
Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every few days.
June 16, 2025
Most of the increase in natural disasters in the late 20th century is due to improved reporting
Tracking the occurrence of natural disasters can save lives by helping countries prepare for future ones.
In our work on natural disasters, we visualize data from EM-DAT, the most comprehensive international disaster database. Make a chart of the number of recorded disaster events over time — like the one above — and it looks like the number of disasters rose alarmingly from the 1970s to the millennium. This has led to many media outlets and organizations claiming that the number of disasters has quadrupled over the last 50 years.
However, as EM-DAT itself makes clear, most of this is due to improvements in recording. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, which builds this database, was not established until 1973, and didn’t start publishing EM-DAT until 1988.
The number of recorded disasters increased due to more focused efforts to obtain globally comprehensive data and improvements in communication technologies, which allowed more events to be included, even in the planet's most remote areas.
EM-DAT suggests that only data from 2000 onwards is relatively complete and comparable. The number of events before 2000 is likely to be underestimated. Note that this data does not tell us anything about the intensity of disasters.
Read my full article, with my colleague Pablo Rosado, on the limitations of disaster databases →
June 11, 2025
Smallpox declined gradually, until the WHO coordinated the global effort to eradicate it
In 1796, Edward Jenner developed the world’s first vaccine against smallpox. As it was refined and widely adopted, many countries in Europe and North America, the Soviet Union, and island nations eliminated smallpox through national vaccination programs.
But in the mid-20th century, the disease remained widespread across Africa and Asia, infecting tens of millions every year.
Before the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to eradication in 1959, few believed it was possible, given the failures of other eradication efforts like malaria. But smallpox had no animal reservoir, clear symptoms, and there was an effective, low-cost vaccine.
By 1967, the WHO intensified the eradication campaign with more funding. The strategy focused on “ring vaccination” — containing outbreaks by vaccinating people around each case — and embedding the work within local health programs.
As the chart shows, this approach worked swiftly: within a decade, the number of endemic countries fell to zero. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1980, two centuries after Jenner’s discovery. It’s a lasting triumph of science and cooperation.
June 09, 2025
Portugal's roads have become much safer over the last thirty years
Thirty years ago, Portugal had some of the most fatal roads in Europe. It was second only to Latvia in terms of death rates from road injuries.
But since then, death rates have fallen by 84%.
The chart shows road deaths per 100,000 people compared to other European countries. This metric is age-standardized, so it keeps the population's age distribution constant over time.
Portugal still has slightly higher death rates than many of its neighbors in Western Europe, but the gap is much smaller than in the 1990s.
Portugal’s roads have become much safer for many reasons, including seatbelt laws, speed limits, stricter drink-driving enforcement, better road design and pedestrian zones, and improvements in the safety and resilience of cars themselves.
While it made dramatic improvements over the 1990s and early 2000s, this progress has slowed in the last five to ten years.
June 06, 2025
Less than 200 years ago, one in three Dutch children died before the age of five
Losing a child is one of the worst things that can happen to a parent.
Imagine living in a world where there was a one-in-three chance your child would die. This wasn't just the reality for your children; it could just as well happen to your siblings, friends, or neighbors.
Such a world seems unimaginable today, but it wasn’t too far from reality two centuries ago, even in some economically advanced countries.
The chart shows the share of newborns who died before age five in the Netherlands since 1840. These historical estimates are more uncertain than recent data, but it's likely that before the 1870s, about one-in-three newborns died. Each birth carried odds no parent today could contemplate facing.
But a huge amount of progress has been made since then. Today, one in 250 Dutch children dies. This progress was driven by many factors, including improvements in nutrition, access to clean water, sanitation, vaccines, and reductions in poverty.
June 04, 2025
In some regions, around one in ten cancer cases are caused by a common, treatable bacterium
You might be surprised to learn that a common stomach infection can lead to cancer. That infection is caused by Helicobacter pylori — H. pylori for short — a bacterium that can live in the stomach lining for decades.
The infection often begins in childhood and may not cause symptoms right away. But over time, it can damage the stomach’s protective lining, causing inflammation and ulcers. In some people, it eventually leads to cancer.
The map shows that in parts of Asia and South America, H. pylori is responsible for about 10% of all new cancer cases. The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that it causes around 800,000 cancer cases globally each year, making it one of the top infectious causes of cancer.
The good news is that the infection can be detected with a simple test and eliminated with antibiotics. If caught early, the risk of stomach cancer can be dramatically reduced. Since the bacterium is often transmitted through contaminated food and water, better sanitation and food safety also make a difference.
Read more about infections that cause cancers, and how they can be prevented or treated →
June 02, 2025
Greece is turning its back on coal and replacing it with solar and wind
To tackle climate change, the world must transition away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon power sources.
Greece is almost there when it comes to coal. Coal became the dominant source of electricity in the second half of the 20th century, but it has fallen out of favor in the 21st.
The chart shows that just over a decade ago, almost half of the country’s power came from coal. This has now fallen to 6%.
Solar and wind have replaced it; their share has tripled in the last decade; when combined, they’ve become the largest source.
As a result, the country’s CO2 emissions from coal have fallen by nearly 90% from their peak, and national emissions as a whole have halved.
Solar and wind are growing rapidly in many countries; explore this data in our energy data explorer →
May 30, 2025
Young Americans spend much more time alone than they did fifteen years ago
Young Americans spend much more time alone than they did in the past. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, people aged 15–29 spent about 45% more time alone in 2023 than in 2010.
The survey classifies all time spent without anybody physically present as “time spent alone”. This can include time spent talking on the phone or video calls.
Time spent alone among young people increased slowly in the second half of the 2010s and then rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. It hasn’t fallen back to earlier levels since then.
In absolute terms, young people spent around four hours alone per day in 2010. By 2023, that number had grown to six hours per day.
Although all Americans spend more time alone, the increase is much smaller for older age groups. Those aged 30 to 44 spend about 20% more time alone now than in 2010, while for people 45 and older, the increase is about 10%.
While time alone can help with rest and personal reflection, it can also lead to loneliness and declining well-being. As time spent alone has increased, young people’s time with family, and even more so with friends, has decreased.
Explore more research and data on how people spend their time →
May 26, 2025
Ten pathogens are responsible for three-quarters of diarrheal deaths in children
More than half a million children die from diarrheal diseases each year. This is tragic because many of these deaths could be prevented with the tools we already have.
Just ten pathogens are responsible for three-quarters of all diarrheal deaths in children; these are shown in the chart in red, blue, and gold. The leading cause is rotavirus, which kills over 200,000 children each year. Rotavirus vaccines already exist and are very effective in reducing death rates, but vaccination rates are still lagging in many poorer countries.
Other major killers include Shigella, Cryptosporidium, and E. coli, which can be tackled through better hygiene, clean water, improved sanitation, and new treatments.
These pathogens typically spread through contaminated food and water, respiratory droplets, and close contact with others. Basic tools like clean water and sanitation, access to vaccines, and oral rehydration treatment could go a long way in preventing early death, and give every child the chance to have a healthy, long life.
Explore more writing and data on diarrheal diseases on our dedicated page →
May 23, 2025
Suicide rates are higher in men than women
Globally, more than 700,000 people die from suicide every year.
Understanding the factors that increase the risk of suicide can help us provide the most effective interventions and support systems.
One thing we do know is that more men die from suicide than women. In the chart, you can see male suicide rates (on the vertical axis) plotted against female rates. One dot is one country. Since all of the dots lie above the line, male suicide rates were higher in all countries included in this dataset.
The size of this gender gap varies by country. In the United States, rates among men are four times higher than amongst women. In South Korea and Japan, they’re around double. Some countries lie closer to the line, meaning the gap is smaller.
The exact reasons for this gender gap are still debated. Factors could include the lethality of different methods, stigma around seeking help, different social pressures, and alcohol and drug abuse.
Every suicide is a tragedy. However, suicide death rates have declined in many countries, and we know that they can be reduced further with greater understanding and support. If you are dealing with suicidal thoughts, you can receive immediate help by visiting resources such as findahelpline.com.
Read my colleague Saloni Dattani’s article on how suicide statistics can vary across sources →
May 21, 2025
Famines kill far fewer people today than they did in the past, but remain a major threat
Famines are still a major global problem. From 2020 to 2023 alone, they caused over a million deaths.
Yet the long-term trend shows significant progress. In the late 1800s and the first half of the 1900s, it was common for famines to kill over 10 million people per decade. This was true as recently as the 1960s, when China’s Great Leap Forward became the deadliest famine in history.
But as you can see in the chart, that number has dropped sharply, to about one to two million per decade.
This improvement is even more striking given that the world’s population has grown substantially. Despite many more people living on Earth, far fewer die from famines than before.
This progress has resulted from various factors, including increased food production, poverty reduction, fewer conflicts, and more accountable governments.
May 19, 2025
Despite being preventable and treatable, malaria is the leading cause of child mortality in much of Sub-Saharan Africa
In 2021, malaria was the leading cause of death among children under five in more than 20 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In Nigeria, over 125,000 young children died from it — that’s 340 every day, one child around every four minutes. The country accounts for one-third of all under‑5 malaria deaths in the world.
Malaria is both preventable and treatable. But millions of children still lack access to basic protection: bed nets, timely treatment, and safe living conditions. We’ve seen malaria eliminated elsewhere.
The tools exist; the challenge is getting them to those who need them most.
May 16, 2025
Over a hundred million infants receive measles vaccines annually, protecting them and communities against a deadly disease
Over 100 million infants are vaccinated against measles every year, which means more than 80% of one-year-olds are protected from this potentially life-threatening disease. This global effort has saved millions of lives.
That scale should be reassuring. Measles vaccines are safe and reduce the risk of infection by over 95%, making them one of our most powerful tools to prevent childhood deaths. Outbreaks have become increasingly rare in many countries, global infant mortality has fallen, and measles vaccination alone is estimated to have saved more than 94 million lives.
But that progress is under threat: vaccination rates have fallen in recent years, as the chart shows, and fewer children are getting the protection they need. When coverage slips, measles spreads rapidly; more children suffer and die from a disease we can easily prevent.
Read my colleague Hannah’s article on the number of lives saved by childhood vaccinations →
May 14, 2025
The length of software tasks AI systems can do on their own has been increasing quickly
How will artificial intelligence (AI) impact people’s jobs?
This question has no simple answer, but the more AI systems can independently carry out long, job-like tasks, the greater their impact will likely be.
The chart shows a trend in this direction for software-related tasks. The length of tasks — in terms of how long they take human professionals — that AIs can do on their own has increased quickly in the past couple of years.
Before 2023, even the best AI systems could only perform tasks that take people around 10 seconds, such as selecting the right file.
Today, the best AIs can fairly reliably (with an 80% success rate) do tasks that take people 20 minutes or more, such as finding and fixing bugs in code or configuring common software packages.
It’s unclear how much these results generalize; other factors, like reliability, need to be considered.
But AI capabilities continue to improve, and if developments keep pace for the next few years, we could see systems capable of performing tasks that take people days or even longer.
Read more about how we can help make our future with AI go well →
May 12, 2025
China is moving much faster on electric cars than the EU or the United States
Road transport is responsible for around three-quarters of global carbon dioxide emissions from transport. Switching from petrol and diesel to electric vehicles is an important solution to decarbonize our economies.
This chart shows the change in share of new cars that were electric in China, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US) between 2020 and 2023. This includes fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars, though most are fully electric.
In 2020, electric cars were rare everywhere. But by 2023, over one-third of new vehicles in China were electric, compared to less than a quarter in the EU and under a tenth in the US.
While we only have annual data up to 2023, preliminary figures suggest that in 2024, electric cars outsold conventional ones for the first time in China.
May 09, 2025
In some countries, women still don’t have the same freedom to work as men
Many previous generations of women in my family would not have been allowed to do the work I do today — even if computers, the Internet, and Our World in Data had existed then. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case where I live: I’ve had the same right to get an education, work, and build a career as my brother.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case everywhere.
The map highlights the countries where women had legal restrictions on their rights to work in formal employment in 2023. All are in the Middle East, North Africa, or Sub-Saharan Africa.
These restrictions can include the need for permission or documentation from a male family member — such as a husband or brother — to work, or legal consequences if they don’t follow working restrictions.
While nearly 20 countries still have these legal barriers for women, this number was much larger in the past: in 1970, it was almost 70.
This data only reflects legal restrictions on working rights. In other countries, strong social or cultural pressures still mean that women are less likely to be in formal employment than men, even if they’re legally allowed to.
Explore more data on female participation in the workforce →
May 07, 2025
Women in the US spend more time with children than men do, across all ages
In the United States, women spend more time with children than men. This is true for adults of any age.
The difference is especially large for people in their 20s and 30s. For example, at age 35, women spend an average of five hours per day with children, while men spend around three hours. (Considered here are people’s children, step and foster children, grandchildren, and other family members under 18.)
Although the gap is smaller for older people, even in later life, women spend more time with children than men.
This gap reflects traditional gender roles, where women do more childcare and less paid work. But it also has broader implications: women spend less time with friends and alone than men, which may affect their social connections, leisure, and well-being.
This data comes from the American Time Use Survey by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Learn more about how men and women spend their time throughout life →
May 05, 2025
Every global region has seen a steep rise in mobile phone subscriptions
Mobile phones have achieved what few technologies do: they’ve been adopted rapidly by people all over the world, in both rich and poor regions.
The chart shows how mobile subscriptions grew between 2000 and 2023. This is given per 100 people in each world region. If the number is over 100, it means some people own more than one mobile device. (This data doesn’t tell us the percentage of people with a phone, as some individuals own multiple devices.)
Mobile phone subscriptions have risen sharply everywhere in just a few decades. Even in the poorest parts of the world, like Sub-Saharan Africa, subscriptions grew from just 2 per 100 people to 89. In South Asia, they went from less than 1 to 84.
Still, this rise matters because mobile phones allow people to learn, connect, and build, even in places without physical infrastructure (like roads or banks). For example, mobile money systems enable people to save, send, and receive money without needing a bank branch or an Internet connection. This has helped millions improve their financial security.
May 02, 2025
People in richer countries spend more on food, but it’s a smaller share of their overall spending
Three billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet that gives them all the nutrients they need.
Most of these people live in low- to middle-income countries, where people have less money to spend on food. You might rightly guess that people in richer countries tend to spend more on food — but they also spend a smaller share of overall spending on food. You can see this in the chart, where each dot represents one country in 2022.
The average budget in Switzerland for food consumed at home was more than four times that of Kenya (when measured in US dollars). But food made up less than 10% of Swiss consumer spending, compared to almost 60% in Kenya.
This means people in richer countries don’t only have more money to spend on food; they also have far more left to spend on other important resources, like housing, education, clothing, and health.
Read more in my article “Engel's Law: Richer people spend more money on food, but it makes up a smaller share of their income” →
April 30, 2025
One in six people live in Sub-Saharan Africa, but it accounts for two-thirds of global extreme poverty
Every twelfth person in the world still lives in extreme poverty. That means surviving on less than $2.15 per day (adjusted for differences in living costs between countries).
For many, that means struggling to afford nutritious food, not being able to afford basic healthcare, safe sanitation, or electricity.
So, where do most people in extreme poverty live? The chart shows that Sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to just 16% of the global population, now accounts for 67% of people living in extreme poverty.
This distribution is very different from 25 years ago. In 2000, Asia was home to most of the world’s population living in extreme poverty. However, strong economic growth in recent decades has led to steep reductions in poverty. Progress in Sub-Saharan Africa has been much slower.
If we're serious about ending extreme poverty worldwide, supporting economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa has to be a top priority. The recent progress achieved by some African countries reminds us that meaningful change is within reach.
April 28, 2025
Most food is transported by boat, so food miles are a relatively small part of the carbon footprint of most diets
Many people are interested in how they can eat in a more climate-friendly way. I’m often asked about the most effective way to do so.
While we might intuitively think that “food miles” — how far our food has traveled to reach us — play a big role, transport accounts for just 5% of the global emissions from our food system.
This is because most of the world’s food comes by boat, and shipping is a relatively low-carbon mode of transport. The chart shows that transporting a kilogram of food by boat emits 50 times less carbon than by plane and about 20 times less than trucks on the road.
So, food transport would be a much bigger emitter if all our food were flown across the world — but that’s only the case for highly perishable foods, like asparagus, green beans, some types of fish, and berries.
This means that what you eat and how it is produced usually matters more than how far it’s traveled to reach you.