Daily Data Insights
Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every weekday.
August 19, 2024
Many people alive today still recall when smallpox was common
Smallpox was a deadly disease that has been recorded since ancient times. It killed around 30% of those who developed the disease.
In 1980, it became the first disease to be eradicated worldwide. This considerable achievement resulted from centuries of coordinated effort and scientific development.
People were able to fight the virus by developing and refining smallpox vaccines, using quarantine control measures, and applying ring vaccination.
Many countries — in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and many island nations — eliminated smallpox around a century ago. This is shown on the map, whose data was compiled by researchers Frank Fenner and colleagues in 1988.
Smallpox continued to kill in many countries in South Asia, Africa, and South America until the 1970s. It remains a vivid memory for many older people alive today.
Read more about the history of smallpox and its eradication →
August 16, 2024
Coal power has effectively died in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom was the birthplace of coal. It has now, effectively, died there.
As shown in the chart, in the late 1980s, around two-thirds of the UK’s electricity came from coal. By the time I was born in the 1990s, this had dropped to just over half.
The use of coal has plummeted in my lifetime. It now makes up less than 2% of the UK’s electricity.
Coal was first replaced by gas but is now being pushed out by wind, solar, and biomass.
August 15, 2024
The sex gap in life expectancy has changed over time
Around the world, women tend to live longer than men.
However, the sex gap in life expectancy has changed over time, as this chart shows. The data comes from combining the WHO’s Human Mortality Database and the United Nations World Population Prospects.
As you can see, the sex gap in life expectancy — defined as female life expectancy minus male life expectancy — was around 3 years in the 19th century in countries like France and Sweden. It spiked during the two World Wars, as deaths surged among young men in combat.
But it also grew gradually over the 20th century to around 7 years.
One reason for this widening gap was the rise in tobacco smoking, especially among men. Smoking increases the risk of various cancers and heart disease and leads to premature death.
Since then, as smoking has declined, the sex gap in life expectancy has narrowed in many countries.
August 14, 2024
Many countries have abandoned efforts to obtain nuclear weapons
The number of countries that possess nuclear weapons has never been higher. Only one country that had them — South Africa — entirely dismantled its arsenal.
But, as the chart shows, many more states had considered or pursued nuclear weapons in the past — they are displayed in yellow and orange.
In the late 1970s, more than a dozen countries considered them or pursued them by launching nuclear weapons programs, but almost all stopped. Only Syria has considered nuclear weapons recently, and only Iran has pursued building them.
This data is based on the work of political scientist Philipp Bleek and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
Find out which countries gave up obtaining nuclear weapons →
August 13, 2024
Cereal yields have increased in all regions, but Africa lags behind
Improved crop yields have allowed us to feed billions more people while sparing forests and other land from agriculture.
Global cereal yields have tripled since 1961. And as you can see in the chart, they have increased in all regions.
However, yields across most African countries have lagged behind. At 1.7 tonnes per hectare, they’re still less than half the global average of 4.2 tonnes.
This is bad for farmers: they get much smaller harvests and live on much lower incomes. It makes it harder for countries to feed their populations. And it’s a problem for biodiversity: lower yields mean that farmland has to expand into wild habitats.
Increasing agricultural productivity — particularly across Africa — is one of the biggest challenges of this century.
August 12, 2024
The day a child is born is the most dangerous day of their life
The world has made progress against the tragedy of infant mortality. But infants remain at risk, especially after birth.
The experience of a baby leaving the womb and entering the world is a sudden change, and birth complications, suffocation, trauma, and sepsis can be fatal.
The chart shows the risks over the first year of life. It uses national data from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to show the daily death rate (on the vertical axis), plotted against the baby’s age in days (on the horizontal axis).
As you can see, the first day of life is the riskiest. Risks then decline sharply in the days following birth and continue to decline gradually over the rest of the year. This pattern is seen across countries.
Read more about how mortality risks change over our lifetimes →
August 09, 2024
The form and extent of government support for early childcare varies a lot between countries
Data from the World Bank shows that paid leave for early childcare varies a lot around the world.
The chart shows several key differences. In some countries, like India, only mothers get paid leave. In France, fathers also get paid leave. Parents in Russia can partially share the leave.
There are also differences in the purpose of the leave. In countries like South Africa, it’s for childbirth. In others, like the United States, it’s for childcare in the months after birth. In countries like China, paid leave covers both childbirth and early childcare.
The length of paid leave differs immensely, too. In Egypt, for example, only 90 days are available, while in Japan, parents have a combined total of 800 days.
What’s not shown in the chart is how much money parents receive. This also varies a lot between countries.
These differences in government support affect young families’ finances, how childcare is shared, and how much time newborns spend with their parents.
August 08, 2024
The world gets more seafood from aquaculture than wild catch
There are two ways to produce seafood: catch fish in the wild or farm your own. Seafood farming is often called “aquaculture”. Aquaculture is dominated by the farming of fish, but also includes other organisms, such as crustaceans and aquatic plants.
Aquaculture has grown rapidly over the last few decades. In fact, as the chart shows, it has overtaken wild catch since 2013.
This has relieved some pressure on wild fish stocks: if this increased demand for fish had been satisfied by wild catch, then many more would be severely overexploited.
August 07, 2024
In rich countries, women have become a much bigger part of the workforce over the past 50 years
The chart shows that in wealthy countries, many more women are now in the workforce compared to 50 years ago.
Data from the OECD and researcher Clarence Long shows that in the late 1960s and 1970s, only 25% to 40% of women were economically active.
This number has increased to more than 50% in all countries shown. In Spain, for example, the share of women in the workforce more than doubled, going from about one in four to more than half.
Even with these increases, women’s participation in the workforce is still significantly lower than men's. However, women devote more time to unpaid work than men.
August 06, 2024
Death rates from outdoor air pollution tend to be highest across middle-income countries
Outdoor air pollution is a significant health issue that impacts well-being and mortality.
It can increase the risk of several leading causes of death, including stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and respiratory diseases like asthma.
This chart shows that death rates from outdoor air pollution vary widely across countries. These rates, measured as the number of premature deaths per 100,000 people, are based on data from the IHME's Global Burden of Disease study.
Outdoor air pollution tends to worsen as countries transition from low to middle-income status and industrialize. This is often due to increased energy and industrial emissions without adequate regulation and cleaner technologies.
However, as countries reach higher income levels, death rates decline again as air quality improves.
Explore outdoor air pollution death rates for all countries →
August 05, 2024
Death rates have declined across all ages
Infants, children, adults, and the elderly are all less likely to die than in the past.
The chart shows death rates by age in France since the early 19th century, combining data from the Human Mortality Database and the United Nations World Population Prospects. Death rates have fallen in every age group.
When data collection began in 1816, around 1 in 5 babies in France died during infancy. Two centuries later, that figure was 1 in 274, a 50-fold reduction.
In 1816, around 1 in 20 people aged 65, died. In 2021, it was 1 in 106, a five-fold reduction.
These reductions mean that death continues to be delayed, and life expectancy continues to rise.
August 02, 2024
Tuberculosis in Ethiopia: a drastic decline but still far behind wealthier nations
In 1980, Ethiopia had the highest death rate from tuberculosis in the world. Almost 400 people died per 100,000 people, according to data from the latest edition of the Global Burden of Disease study.
Since then, the country has achieved a sixfold reduction in the death rate. This steep decline is shown in the chart.
The nation's widespread health initiatives have likely significantly improved access to tuberculosis care and treatment. These efforts have significantly exceeded the progress of other countries with similar tuberculosis rates in the 1980s.
Despite these advances, Ethiopia's tuberculosis mortality rate remains significantly above that of wealthier nations, where fewer than 1 in 100,000 people die from the disease annually.
August 01, 2024
In 2022, the sum of imports and exports across countries amounted to 63% of global GDP
According to the latest trade statistics from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, the sum of exports and imports across countries amounted to 63% of global GDP in 2022, the most recent year available.
This metric, also known as the trade openness index, represents the ratio of total trade (exports plus imports) to global output. The higher this ratio, the greater the influence of international trade transactions on global economic activity.
The chart shows the trade openness trend since 1970. After a decade of ups and downs, with a noticeable dip in 2020, trade rebounded above pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
In fact, from a long-run perspective, the 63% observed in 2022 was historically unprecedented.
Economic historians estimate that in 1912, at the peak of the “first wave of globalization”, the trade openness index reached 30%. Global trade declined substantially during the First and Second World Wars, then increased again with the onset of the “second wave of globalization”, exceeding 50% of GDP at the beginning of the 21st century.
The fact that global trade openness was higher in 2022 than ever before may seem surprising, given that several countries that followed different trajectories received considerable attention in the media. For example, imports and exports peaked at 65% of GDP in China in 2006 but have since declined to 38% in 2022.
Read more about the first and second waves of globalization →
July 31, 2024
Every day of infancy is safer than in the past
This chart shows death rates across the first year of a baby’s life and how they have been reduced over time.
The data spans 1921 to 2021 and comes from the Office for National Statistics in England & Wales.
On the left-hand side of the chart, you can see that death rates are much higher on the first day of life. They then drop sharply over the following days and continue declining gradually over the rest of the year.
But you can also see that over decades, the entire curve has shifted downwards. This means that every day of infancy is safer than in the past.
July 30, 2024
The global number of children not attending school has declined by nearly 40% since 2000
The chart shows the global number of children and adolescents who are not in school across primary and secondary education.
According to the most recent UNESCO data, this number has fallen from 390 million in 2000 to 244 million in 2023. That’s nearly a 40% reduction. The global population of children has grown during this time, making the decrease in out-of-school children even more significant.
Many more children are getting an opportunity to learn now than 20 years ago, but progress has stagnated in the last five years.
Historically, more girls than boys were out of school, but this gap has nearly closed. Unfortunately, the global aggregate data split by gender has not been updated by UNESCO since 2019. This makes it hard to track recent progress between boys and girls.
Explore the number of children out of school in other countries →
July 29, 2024
Two centuries ago, only 1 in 10 adults could read. Today, it’s almost 9 in 10
In 1820, only 1 in 10 people over the age of 15 could read. Today, the corresponding global literacy rate — the share of adults aged 15 and older who can read and write — is 87%. That means more than 5 billion people can read and write today, compared to fewer than 100 million two centuries ago.
The chart shows the rising global literacy rate over time. The data combines historical estimates from academic historians with more recent statistics from UNESCO.
As we can see, widespread literacy is a recent achievement. This trend underlines a huge achievement, but it’s important to remember that there’s still much progress ahead of us. In many schools, children learn very little, and many still do not attend school.
Read more about how literacy is measured, and learn about the research that identifies low-cost ways to improve learning outcomes →
July 26, 2024
In which countries do people drink the most alcohol?
Romania tops the list of countries with the highest alcohol consumption per person, with Georgia, Czechia, Latvia, and Germany rounding out the top five. This is according to the global estimates made available by the World Health Organization (WHO), the latest data referring to 2019.
Alcohol consumption is measured here in liters of pure alcohol to account for beer, wine, and spirits having different alcohol content, ranging from around 5% by volume for a typical beer to 12% for wine to 40% or more for spirits.
To make this more concrete, the average Romanian drinks an estimated 17 liters of pure alcohol per year — roughly equivalent to a weekly consumption of 18 bottles of beer (355 mL each) or 3.6 bottles of wine (750 mL each).
In contrast, alcohol consumption is very low in some countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.
July 25, 2024
Through sustained effort, we are close to eradicating guinea worm disease
Cases of guinea worm disease have fallen dramatically in recent decades. According to the WHO, over 890,000 cases were recorded worldwide in 1989. As you can see on the chart — which we just updated with the latest data — only 14 human cases were reported in 2023.
Guinea worm disease is caused by the parasitic guinea worm, which mainly spreads through stagnant water sources like ponds. The worm’s larvae enter the human body when a person drinks contaminated water, after which they penetrate the digestive tract to mature and reproduce within the body.
Around a year after the initial infection, the adult female breaks through the skin's surface, creating a painful blister through which it gradually emerges over several weeks. When it comes into contact with water, it releases new larvae and continues its life cycle.
The disease was previously endemic in over 20 countries in South Asia and Africa. An international eradication campaign has substantially decreased the number of cases by improving access to clean drinking water and actively monitoring and containing cases in endemic regions.
Learn more about the effort to eradicate guinea worm disease →
July 24, 2024
Fourteen countries in the world get almost all of their electricity from renewables
Since 2020, 14 countries have consistently generated over 95% renewable electricity, according to Ember’s Yearly electricity data. In eight of these countries, electricity has been almost entirely renewable-based for over 20 years.
Renewable sources include hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, and wave power. In all these countries, the largest source of electricity was hydropower.
Sub-Saharan countries, however, use significantly less electricity in their energy mix compared to countries in Europe or North America.
July 23, 2024
Climate change does not affect all areas of the globe uniformly
Some regions are warming faster than others, and countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region have seen some of the most rapid warming.
We observe this through temperature anomalies. Anomalies compare current temperatures to historical averages, showing us shifts over time. In the chart, each bar represents the temperature anomaly for a given year.
In 2023, the global average temperature anomaly was 0.6°C above the 1991–2020 average. However, these anomalies vary by region. In countries such as Syria and Turkey, the average annual surface air temperature in 2023 was around 1.2°C above the 1991–2020 average, compared to approximately 0.3°C in Australia.
This pattern is not a one-off difference; it is also reflected in the decadal temperatures. This data comes from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5 project.
We update this data every month: you can track monthly temperature changes across the globe and at the national level on our site.