Our World in Data

Poor material living conditions have been such a persistent and pervasive reality that, for much of human history, it was unimaginable that they could ever be different. Poverty did not change and so it was easy to believe that poverty was unchangeable. The Reverend Thomas Malthus wrote about the living conditions in his native England: “It has appeared that from the inevitable laws of our nature, some human beings must suffer from want. These are the unhappy persons who, in the great lottery of life, have drawn a blank.” Reconstructions of living conditions over the long-run suggest that when Malthus wrote these words in 1789, he was right about the past. But Malthus turned out to be very wrong about the future after his death: In the two centuries since since then, many countries broke out of the stagnation of the past, achieved economic growth, and reduced poverty. Read more about why our ancestors were stuck in poverty for so long, how this changed, and what it means: https://lnkd.in/gGTmcwa

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems. At Our World in Data, we believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. To understand problems, we need data & research. It’s tempting to believe that we can simply rely on personal experience to develop our understanding of the world. But that’s not the case, as our founder Max Roser explains in this essay: https://lnkd.in/gfXAYCH8 Crucial data & research exist, but they’re often hidden behind paywalls, buried in tables, or obscured by jargon. Our mission is to change this, by making the data & insights needed to understand our world accessible & understandable for everyone: https://lnkd.in/gK4AW5NC Our World in Data is a collaborative project & a public good. You can support our mission in many ways: 1️⃣ Explore & share our work, give us feedback to help us improve, & stay up to date via social media or our newsletters. Find all the ways to engage here: https://lnkd.in/dYN6h4_p 2️⃣ You can also build on our work to create something new. We design our work to have an impact beyond what our team can achieve directly. That’s why we use a permissive Creative Commons license & include easy options to share & download our charts & data. 3️⃣ You can also support us with a donation. Reader donations are essential to our work—they give us the stability & independence to deliver more data, charts, & insights on an increasing number of topics, all free & open to everyone. You can give monthly or once here: https://lnkd.in/ehbQmKsh Learn more about our team and work here: https://lnkd.in/ekCudZE Dive deeper into our mission with related articles, including the source of the first chart in this thread: https://lnkd.in/e8yWpst

Large amounts of antibiotics are used in livestock, and overuse is a risk for antibiotic resistance. But there are ways to reduce this — and several countries have shown how.

Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension— The chart shows the share of children at the end of lower-secondary school age — aged 12 to 15 — who meet the minimum proficiency set by UNESCO in reading comprehension. This means they can connect the main ideas across various texts, understand the author’s intentions, and draw reasoned conclusions. Only around half of children of this age can read this well. In countries like Ireland and South Korea, more than 8 in 10 children reach this level. But in poorer countries like Senegal, Zambia, and Cambodia, fewer than 1 in 20 do. These numbers include all children of middle school age, not just those who attend school. (This Daily Data Insight was written by Veronika Samborska.)

In most places in the world, power from new renewables is now cheaper than power from new fossil fuels. Why did renewables become so cheap so fast? The answer: learning curves. For renewables and other technologies that follow learning curves, with each doubling of the cumulative installed capacity their price declines by the same fraction. The price of electricity from fossil fuels, however, does not follow learning curves. This means we should expect that the price difference between expensive fossil fuels and cheap renewables will become even larger in the future.

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In these nine African countries, average incomes have more than doubled since 1990— (This Daily Data Insight was written by Max Roser.) Economic growth is most important for the world's poorest people, and most of the world’s poorest live on the African continent. Are Africa’s economies growing? The picture is mixed. In some countries, incomes have unfortunately declined in the last decades. This includes Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Burundi. I have written about this in my brief explainer on extreme poverty (link in the comments). In this Daily Data Insight, I want to focus on the other side: I want to highlight the African countries that are achieving economic growth. Nine of them are shown in the chart here. In all nine countries, people’s average incomes have more than doubled since 1990. This made substantial improvements in living standards possible: the share of people in extreme poverty and the rate of child mortality declined in all nine countries.

Sometimes, the most important news is when something *isn’t* happening: Since the last plane crash by a US airline, they have transported passengers for more than two *light-years*

This Thanksgiving, if you’re thankful for our work and want to help us do more, please consider supporting us with a donation today. → https://lnkd.in/ehbQmKsh Reader donations are essential to our work at Our World in Data. They provide us with the stability and independence to expand our work and increase our impact — delivering more data, charts, and insights on an increasing number of pressing topics, all free and open to the world.