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 OWID, we believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the

This Data Insight was written by @MaxCRoser. The data source is Science Heroes: . Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who invented synthetic fertilizers, are at the top of this list. Our colleague Hannah Ritchie wrote an article about the difference their work has.

Financial innovation doesn’t just happen on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley. Every state has a role to play. Find out how all 50 states are engaging with blockchain ↓.

Counting lives saved is difficult, but it can show us the great difference some people have made—. Scientists can make an enormous difference in the world. Take the researcher Sarah Gilbert, who has dedicated her career to developing vaccines. Over the last two decades, she has

This Data Insight was written by @EOrtizOspina. Our Minerals Data Explorer has more data on metals, minerals, and mining: This United Nations report provides more information about illegal mining and its environmental effects:

Gold export data suggests that Peru, one of the world’s largest producers, mines nearly as much informally as it does formally—. According to official mining output records, Peru mined about 90 tonnes of gold in 2023, far ahead of any other South American country. That puts it

Read @_HannahRitchie's full article: "The world has lost one-third of its forests, but an end to deforestation is possible"

Shortly after the end of the last great ice age — 10,000 years ago — 57% of the world’s habitable land was covered by forest. In the millennia since then, a growing demand for agricultural land means we’ve lost one-third of global forests — an area twice the size of the United

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What types of cancers cause the most deaths in each country?.How does this compare between women and men?. Our senior data scientist, Fiona Spooner, just updated these maps and many other charts on our site, with the latest data from the WHO's World Mortality Database.

This Data Insight was written by Simon van Teutem. Explore responses to this question in more than a hundred countries:

Hostility toward homosexuality remains common in many of the world’s largest countries—. This chart shows the share of people who say homosexuality cannot be justified across five of the world’s most populous countries. Together, these countries are home to nearly half of the

Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in public health. They have saved hundreds of millions of lives by preventing deadly diseases like measles, polio, and smallpox. Before vaccines, these infections were common, and surviving them often meant facing severe complications

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We’ve just updated our charts on oil spills; explore the latest data:

Oil spills from tankers have fallen to less than one-thirtieth of the levels seen in the 1970s—. We’ve all seen the dramatic images of vast parts of the ocean caked in oil; birds and other wildlife stuck in the thick, dark liquid. These spills are both environmentally damaging

RT @PardonMyTake: Tuesday night max woke Big Cat up with a flashlight at 2am because he thought we were going to get sued. @forthepeople ht….

Explore the updated data for many more countries and for specific causes of death here on our page:

📊 Data update: We've just updated to the 2025 release of the WHO Mortality Database. The release features data on causes of death, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, homicide, suicide, and many more. It has data through 2023 for many indicators, and 2022 for others.

Explore the updated data for many more countries here:

📊 Data update: We’ve just updated to the 2025 release of the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy. The release features data on total energy as well as broken down by different sources, such as coal & other fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewables. This update

Explore data on who gives foreign aid, who receives it, and how this has changed over time:

Foreign aid can be a large share of a country’s income during times of conflict or humanitarian crisis—. Many countries receive some foreign aid, but it typically accounts for just a few percent of their income. But during periods of conflict, crisis, or natural disaster, foreign