Data Insights
Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every few days.
March 14, 2025
Global cereal yields have increased a lot, but millet and sorghum lag behind
Global average yields of cereal crops have tripled over the past 60 years. This has been crucial to feeding a growing population while sparing natural habitat from expanding agricultural land.
However, some cereal crops have seen much larger gains in efficiency. Maize (corn) and rice achieve the highest yields and have seen huge gains in recent decades. Wheat and barley have also performed well.
As the chart shows, crops like sorghum and millet have lagged behind. A hectare of land could yield 5 to 6 tonnes of corn or rice but only 1 to 1.5 tonnes of millet and sorghum.
It’s not just that yields for these crops are much lower today; growth over the past 60 years has been much more modest, increasing by less than 50%.
This is a huge challenge since these are key staple crops across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, where hunger rates are the highest and farmer incomes are the lowest.
Read more in my article on increasing yields in Sub-Saharan Africa →
March 13, 2025
Health spending has been rising across rich countries with different systems
Government spending on health has grown substantially across rich nations since 1990, with particularly steep increases in the United States. The chart shows healthcare spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) in four countries.
Japan and the UK saw their share more than double, while it more than tripled in the United States, from 4.5% to 16% of GDP. The rising costs partly reflect demographic change, as older populations typically need more medical care, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Each country organizes healthcare differently. Germany requires everyone to buy insurance from regulated providers, while Japan gives everyone government insurance. The United Kingdom provides healthcare directly through its national health service, while the US combines private insurance with government coverage for the elderly and those on low incomes.
March 12, 2025
Sierra Leone has reduced maternal death rates by almost 75% since 2000
In 2000, Sierra Leone had the highest rate of maternal mortality in the world (alongside South Sudan). Around 1,800 pregnant women died for every 100,000 live births.
Since then, risks for mothers have plummeted. The country has focused on expanding healthcare, increasing the retention of skilled medical staff, and improving access to crucial medicines and treatments. In 2010, it rolled out free healthcare to pregnant women and children.
The results are shown in the chart. Maternal mortality rates have fallen by 74% in two decades.
While these rates are still extremely high — rates in the safest countries are around 100 times lower — Sierra Leone has made massive strides in saving both women and children.
Explore more global data on maternal deaths and declines over time →
March 11, 2025
Most OECD countries fail to reach the UN’s target for aid to the poorest countries
In 1981, the major foreign aid donor countries, also known as the Development Assistance Committee, made a promise at the UN: to aim for at least 0.15% of their national income to assist the world's least developed countries — about 1 dollar out of 700.
Over the years, they repeated this pledge. But by 2022, most countries failed to honor this promise. The chart shows the 20 OECD countries giving the most aid, as a percentage of their national income, to the world’s poorest nations.
Only three countries met the target: Luxembourg, Sweden, and Norway.
Some countries are so wealthy that even a rounding error in their budgets could mean the difference between life and death for people in the poorest parts of the world.
Explore foreign aid given to least-developed countries for all donor countries →
March 10, 2025
Patients in the United Kingdom are less likely to survive cancer five years after diagnosis than in Australia
Patients diagnosed with cancer in 2014 were more likely to survive in Australia than in the UK across multiple types of cancer. This is despite both countries having similar socio-economic conditions, allocating a comparable amount per person to healthcare, and having a similar share of their populations living with cancer.
For colorectal cancer, 71% of Australian patients survived five years after diagnosis, compared to 60% in the UK.
Lung, liver, and pancreatic cancers, which are among the most aggressive, also had lower survival rates in the UK.
The survival gap was most dramatic for pancreatic cancer patients, where Australia's 14% five-year survival rate was nearly double the UK's 8%.
These survival rates only account for diagnosed patients, meaning early detection and prompt treatment access significantly impact outcomes. Differences in healthcare systems, screening coverage, treatment approaches, and other health risk factors may contribute to the gap.
Explore how cancer survival rates compare across other countries →
March 07, 2025
The number of children in South Korea has fallen by 60% since its peak
South Korea is undergoing one of the world’s most rapid demographic transitions. Fertility rates — the number of children a woman has over her lifetime — have fallen rapidly over the last 50 years, and this is reflected in a rapidly aging population.
One of the clearest signs is the total number of children living in South Korea. In the chart, you can see that the number of children and adolescents under 15 years old is shrinking quickly.
The number of under-15s peaked around a decade later but has now fallen by 60%, from 14 million to less than 6 million.
This is a pattern we see in other countries such as Japan, China, and even Thailand — albeit at different rates.
March 06, 2025
The United States spends a lot more on healthcare per person than other G7 nations
The chart shows health expenditure per person for G7 countries; the data is adjusted for differences in living costs between countries.
The US spends much more on healthcare per person than any other G7 nation: $12,000 in 2021. This is more than 50% higher than Germany, the next-highest spender.
Japan and Italy spend just $4,700 and $4,400 per person at the lowest end — slightly over one-third of US spending.
Despite spending much more on healthcare, the United States has the lowest life expectancy in the G7. This is due to a combination of higher death rates from smoking, obesity, homicides, opioid overdoses, road accidents, and infant mortality.
March 05, 2025
More than 80% of countries vote, but less than 40% do so freely and fairly
People might associate democracy with having the right to vote. But meaningful democracy is much more than that.
In 2022, nearly every country granted its citizens the right to vote. 85% of them had an elected parliament and government. In 82%, elections were multi-party, meaning that people had more than one option on the ballot. You can see this in the chart.
But, fewer than two-thirds of these elections were genuinely competitive. In others, voters were systematically pressured or intimidated, the timing of elections was violated, or election fraud influenced the results.
Even more concerning, in only 39% of countries were people able to express their political opinions and associate freely.
As a result, just over one-third of countries recently held elections that met all of these democratic criteria and can be considered truly free and fair.
Find out which countries have all democratic criteria and which don't →
March 04, 2025
What share of births involve assisted reproductive technologies like IVF?
In 1978, Louise Brown became the first baby born through in vitro fertilization (IVF). In this technique, eggs are fertilized with sperm in a lab before the resulting embryos are transferred to the uterus.
Assisted reproductive technologies have advanced further and now become widely available.
These innovations have helped many people who might otherwise struggle to conceive — supporting individuals and couples facing infertility, allowing older parents to preserve fertility, and enabling same-sex couples to have children.
The chart shows the share of births in 2019 that involved assisted reproductive technologies across various European countries. This can include cross-border treatment.
Spain had the highest share, with nearly 9% of births resulting from assisted reproductive technology, followed by Greece, Denmark, and Czechia. In contrast, countries like Ireland, Lithuania, Serbia, and Turkey had much lower rates, with less than 2% of all births.
Explore more data on fertility rates and reproductive technology →
March 03, 2025
Fewer marriages in England and Wales are ending in divorce within the first ten years
Since 2000, fewer couples in England and Wales have divorced within the first ten years of marriage, reversing the trend of the late 20th century.
The chart shows the percentage of marriages ending in divorce within a decade, based on the year of marriage. For those married in 1965, one in ten divorced within ten years.
By 1975, this had nearly doubled to 18% as legal reforms made separation easier and less stigmatized. Divorce rates peaked for couples married in 1995, with one in four divorcing by their tenth anniversary.
But, as you can see, this trend has started to reverse. Of the couples that married in 2012, only 17% had divorced by 2022. That’s well below the peak in the 1990s.
Explore our data on marriages and divorces in other countries →
February 28, 2025
Bangladesh has been urbanizing much faster than its neighbors
The biggest migration story of the past few centuries has not been from country to country but from rural areas to cities.
In 1960, one-third of the world’s population lived in urban areas. This share is now closing in on 60%. By contrast, less than 4% of the global population are international migrants.
But some countries are urbanizing much more quickly than others. Bangladesh is one example of a country that has experienced much faster internal migration than its South Asian neighbors. You can see this on the chart.
In 1972, just 8% of people in Bangladesh lived in towns and cities. This share has more than quadrupled to 40%.
Explore more data on the global movement of populations from rural areas to cities →
February 27, 2025
Many Europeans say their nations are on the wrong track with housing
The Ipsos Housing Monitor 2025 surveyed people across 30 countries, asking: “In general, do you think that your country is on the right track or the wrong track when it comes to housing?”.
The chart shows results for European countries, where housing prices dipped after the 2008 global financial crisis, before starting to rise again around 2013, with particularly large increases since 2015.
The Netherlands and Spain stand out, with nearly 80% believing their country is on the wrong track.
People in Poland and Sweden are less concerned than in other countries. But even in these nations, the majority feels like their country is on the wrong track.
Explore more data on optimism and pessimism about the future →
February 26, 2025
What share of women reach the end of their childbearing years without having children?
This chart focuses on the share of women who had no births by the end of their childbearing years. The horizontal axis shows the woman’s birth year.
Around 18% of those born in the 1910s in the United States had no children. For the following generations who grew up during the “baby boom”, the share with no children dropped to 5%. Since then, this figure has risen and fallen again.
In Sweden, the share of women without any children has remained relatively stable at around 12% for women born between the 1950s and 1970s.
The trend in Japan and Spain has been different: the share of women with no children has grown steeply over recent generations. In Spain, the figure nearly doubled in a decade: from 10% for women born in 1960 to almost 20% for those born in 1970. In Japan, it almost tripled in twenty years.
February 25, 2025
Solo living has become the most common arrangement for households in the United States
Households in the United States have changed significantly over the last 60 years. In 1960, 43% of households were couples with children, but this had dropped to 24% by 2015.
Once a minority, single individuals living alone are now the most common composition, making up 28% of households in 2015.
Several factors may explain this shift. Since 2000, most population growth has occurred among those over 60, who are more likely to live alone after widowhood or once children leave home. Declining birth rates have further reduced the share of households with children.
At the same time, rising incomes among women, in particular, have made independent living more accessible, likely contributing to the increase in single-person households alongside the trend of marrying later or not at all.
Explore how household types compare across different countries →
February 24, 2025
Women live longer than men in every country in the world
In every country in the world, women tend to live longer than men.
You can see this in the chart, which shows the average life expectancy of women on the vertical axis and the life expectancy of men on the horizontal axis, both for 2023. Each dot is one country.
As you can see, all countries lie above the middle line, which means that women's life expectancy was higher than men's.
There are various reasons why this gap in life expectancy exists, which my colleagues Saloni Dattani and Lucas Rodés-Guirao explain in their article. Typically, births are skewed in favor of males, with around 105 boys being born for every 100 girls. However, throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, mortality rates tend to be higher in males.
This data comes from the United Nations’ World Population Prospects.
February 21, 2025
Many African countries are heavily dependent on oil production
Oil production plays an important role in the economy of many African countries. The chart shows oil rents as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) for the nine African nations most reliant on it.
Libya ranks first, with oil rents equivalent to 56% of its GDP in 2021, followed by Congo at 34% and Angola at 28%. Despite being Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria’s oil rents are just 6.2% of its GDP.
Despite this, these countries’ oil production is relatively modest on a global scale. In 2021, their combined output was less than half of what the United States, the world’s top producer, extracted.
February 20, 2025
Internet use has grown rapidly but unevenly across Asia's largest countries
Since the turn of the millennium, Internet access has grown quickly but at different rates across Asia’s most populous nations.
Four countries, home to more than 40% of the world's population, tell this story in the chart: China, India, Indonesia, and Pakistan.
Internet users in China rose from 2% in 2000 to 77% in 2023, while Indonesia’s users grew from 1% to 69%. The pace has been slower in South Asia, with India reaching 43% by 2020 and Pakistan 33% by 2022.
February 19, 2025
In some countries, more than one in three mothers have lost a child younger than five
There are few experiences, if any, that are more painful for a parent than losing a child.
In the past, child deaths were much more common than they are today. But even when these deaths were not unusual, historical diary entries show us that most parents still found them heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, in many countries today, a large share of parents still experience the loss of a child. The map here shows the share of mothers who lost a child before they reached the age of five.
In most of Europe and North America, this share is less than 1%. But in some of the world’s poorest countries — like Cameroon, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic — more than one in three mothers have experienced this tragedy.
These figures come from a research article by Emily Smith-Greenaway and colleagues, based on reported or estimated data from 2010 to 2018 for mothers aged 20 to 44.
Read my colleague Max Roser’s article for more historical context around this data →
February 18, 2025
More land animals than ever before are slaughtered for meat
Global livestock numbers — tracked by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization since 1961 — have surged, with particularly large increases in the number of chickens, pigs, sheep, goats, and cows.
For many land animals, life is short and painful. Recent estimates indicate that globally, most animals are raised on factory farms. In the US, where better data and research are available, 99% of livestock is factory-farmed.
Explore many more interactive charts and articles on animal welfare →
February 17, 2025
Global sales of combustion engine cars have peaked
To decarbonize road transport, the world must move away from petrol and diesel cars and towards electric vehicles and other forms of low-carbon transport.
This transition has already started. In fact, global sales of combustion engine cars are well past the peak and are now falling.
As you can see in the chart, global sales peaked in 2018. This is calculated based on data from the International Energy Agency. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates this peak occurred one year earlier, in 2017.
Sales of electric cars, on the other hand, are growing quickly.