Our World in Data

“By Hannah Ritchie”

“At the height of the epidemic, more than half of all deaths in Zimbabwe and Botswana, and over 40% in South Africa and Namibia, were caused by the disease.”

“In my own country, the United Kingdom, Christianity is the most popular, and following no religion is becoming increasingly common, particularly among young people.”

“Pew counts people by the religion they report, regardless of their beliefs or practices.”

“when we add up all religious groups, most people in the world — around three in four — identify with a religion. Those with no religious affiliation are still a minority.”

“The Living Planet Index captures the average decline in population numbers across almost 36,000 populations. These changes are then averaged using a geometric mean and given different weightings in the final index.”

“Since 1900, the global death rate has declined by 96%. If it were still as high as it was then, around 16 million people would die from malaria every year instead of 610,000.”

“If you want to be a part of this historic change, read my brief article on how you can contribute to humanity's battle against malaria. By Max Roser”

“According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, the global death rate from malaria has almost halved since the year 2000.”

“...those for the 20th century published by the late malaria researcher Richard Carter.”

“In the early 1980s, over 90% of its population lived in extreme poverty, but by the early 2020s, that number had dropped to nearly zero.”

“By Hannah Ritchie”

“I love that biodiversity loss gets its rare spot in the limelight. It's a problem that I think doesn't get enough attention.”

“The new Living Planet Index report has just been published. It estimates an average decline of 73% in studied wildlife populations since 1970.”

“In 1950, almost one in four children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In Africa, one in three children died.”

“By Max Roser”

“Its generation per person peaked in 2003 and has _fallen_ by more than a third since then. Today, levels are back to where they were in the late 1960s.”

“Sectoral data from the International Energy Agency confirms that electricity consumption in industry has fallen by one-quarter since 2005.”

“By Hannah Ritchie”

“In 2024, 50 million immigrants were living there, up from 10 million in 1970. ... Around 15% of the population was foreign-born in 2024, similar to the figure in the late 19th century.”

“Of the six world regions, Latin America is where the median age has increased the most since 2000. It rose by a third, from 23 to 31 years, in a bit less than a generation.”

“But there's a second point that I think receives less attention in public discussions: how quickly this is changing.”

“It shows how the median age has changed across world regions from 2000 to 2023, the most recent year for which the UN publishes estimates.”

“By Hannah Ritchie”

“When people think about global oil, their minds often go toward countries in the Middle East. But it's the United States that is the world's largest oil producer.”

“This changed around a decade ago, when the government banned the export of raw nickel, forcing companies to process it domestically.”

“But much of that growth involved Chinese capital. The International Energy Agency reports that Chinese companies now own the vast majority of Indonesia's nickel refining assets.”

“By Esteban Ortiz-Ospina”

“Read my article on how much energy data centers and artificial intelligence use — By Hannah Ritchie.”

“Around 1.5% of the world's electricity was used for data centers in 2025. People are often surprised by how low this number is”

“In all nine countries, people's average incomes have more than doubled since 1990.”

“I want to highlight the African countries that are achieving economic growth.”

“Malaria is an infectious disease that kills over 600,000 people a year. Most of them, children.”

“By Hannah Ritchie”

“66 countries and territories had already passed peak population this year. Almost all of them are in Europe and East Asia.”

“Esteban Ortiz-Ospina provides an answer by looking at how child labor is defined and measured and what the estimate does and does not capture.”

“As Hannah Ritchie explains in a new article, if things turn out differently, this peak could come much earlier or later, depending on the country.”

“64 countries had already passed peak population as of 2026, with the trend expected to sweep through South America by the 2050s and South Asia — including India — by the 2060s.”

“The International Energy Agency just published some new estimates for a select number of countries and regions.”

“Criminologist Matt Ashby and colleagues created a new dataset that aims to make crime data more comparable across borders.”

“Rich countries spend around 60 times as much per person on healthcare as the poorest countries... The data is adjusted for differences in living costs between countries.”