May 16, 2025
Over 100 million infants are vaccinated against measles every year, which means more than 80% of one-year-olds are protected from this potentially life-threatening disease. This global effort has saved millions of lives.
That scale should be reassuring. Measles vaccines are safe and reduce the risk of infection by over 95%, making them one of our most powerful tools to prevent childhood deaths. Outbreaks have become increasingly rare in many countries, global infant mortality has fallen, and measles vaccination alone is estimated to have saved more than 94 million lives.
But that progress is under threat: vaccination rates have fallen in recent years, as the chart shows, and fewer children are getting the protection they need. When coverage slips, measles spreads rapidly; more children suffer and die from a disease we can easily prevent.
Read my colleague Hannah’s article on the number of lives saved by childhood vaccinations →
Yesterday
In 1796, Edward Jenner developed the world’s first vaccine against smallpox. As it was refined and widely adopted, many countries in Europe and North America, the Soviet Union, and island nations eliminated smallpox through national vaccination programs.
But in the mid-20th century, the disease remained widespread across Africa and Asia, infecting tens of millions every year.
Before the World Health Organization (WHO) committed to eradication in 1959, few believed it was possible, given the failures of other eradication efforts like malaria. But smallpox had no animal reservoir, clear symptoms, and there was an effective, low-cost vaccine.
By 1967, the WHO intensified the eradication campaign with more funding. The strategy focused on “ring vaccination” — containing outbreaks by vaccinating people around each case — and embedding the work within local health programs.
As the chart shows, this approach worked swiftly: within a decade, the number of endemic countries fell to zero. Smallpox was officially declared eradicated in 1980, two centuries after Jenner’s discovery. It’s a lasting triumph of science and cooperation.
Read more on our page on smallpox →
June 09
Thirty years ago, Portugal had some of the most fatal roads in Europe. It was second only to Latvia in terms of death rates from road injuries.
But since then, death rates have fallen by 84%.
The chart shows road deaths per 100,000 people compared to other European countries. This metric is age-standardized, so it keeps the population's age distribution constant over time.
Portugal still has slightly higher death rates than many of its neighbors in Western Europe, but the gap is much smaller than in the 1990s.
Portugal’s roads have become much safer for many reasons, including seatbelt laws, speed limits, stricter drink-driving enforcement, better road design and pedestrian zones, and improvements in the safety and resilience of cars themselves.
While it made dramatic improvements over the 1990s and early 2000s, this progress has slowed in the last five to ten years.
Explore road death rates across other countries →
June 06
Losing a child is one of the worst things that can happen to a parent.
Imagine living in a world where there was a one-in-three chance your child would die. This wasn't just the reality for your children; it could just as well happen to your siblings, friends, or neighbors.
Such a world seems unimaginable today, but it wasn’t too far from reality two centuries ago, even in some economically advanced countries.
The chart shows the share of newborns who died before age five in the Netherlands since 1840. These historical estimates are more uncertain than recent data, but it's likely that before the 1870s, about one-in-three newborns died. Each birth carried odds no parent today could contemplate facing.
But a huge amount of progress has been made since then. Today, one in 250 Dutch children dies. This progress was driven by many factors, including improvements in nutrition, access to clean water, sanitation, vaccines, and reductions in poverty.
To learn more, read my colleague Hannah’s recent article: “Children in rich countries are much less likely to die than a few decades ago, but we rarely hear about this progress” →
June 04
You might be surprised to learn that a common stomach infection can lead to cancer. That infection is caused by Helicobacter pylori — H. pylori for short — a bacterium that can live in the stomach lining for decades.
The infection often begins in childhood and may not cause symptoms right away. But over time, it can damage the stomach’s protective lining, causing inflammation and ulcers. In some people, it eventually leads to cancer.
The map shows that in parts of Asia and South America, H. pylori is responsible for about 10% of all new cancer cases. The International Agency for Research on Cancer estimates that it causes around 800,000 cancer cases globally each year, making it one of the top infectious causes of cancer.
The good news is that the infection can be detected with a simple test and eliminated with antibiotics. If caught early, the risk of stomach cancer can be dramatically reduced. Since the bacterium is often transmitted through contaminated food and water, better sanitation and food safety also make a difference.
Read more about infections that cause cancers, and how they can be prevented or treated →
June 02
To tackle climate change, the world must transition away from fossil fuels and towards low-carbon power sources.
Greece is almost there when it comes to coal. Coal became the dominant source of electricity in the second half of the 20th century, but it has fallen out of favor in the 21st.
The chart shows that just over a decade ago, almost half of the country’s power came from coal. This has now fallen to 6%.
Solar and wind have replaced it; their share has tripled in the last decade; when combined, they’ve become the largest source.
As a result, the country’s CO2 emissions from coal have fallen by nearly 90% from their peak, and national emissions as a whole have halved.
Solar and wind are growing rapidly in many countries; explore this data in our energy data explorer →
May 30
Young Americans spend much more time alone than they did in the past. According to data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, people aged 15–29 spent about 45% more time alone in 2023 than in 2010.
The survey classifies all time spent without anybody physically present as “time spent alone”. This can include time spent talking on the phone or video calls.
Time spent alone among young people increased slowly in the second half of the 2010s and then rose sharply during the COVID-19 pandemic. It hasn’t fallen back to earlier levels since then.
In absolute terms, young people spent around four hours alone per day in 2010. By 2023, that number had grown to six hours per day.
Although all Americans spend more time alone, the increase is much smaller for older age groups. Those aged 30 to 44 spend about 20% more time alone now than in 2010, while for people 45 and older, the increase is about 10%.
While time alone can help with rest and personal reflection, it can also lead to loneliness and declining well-being. As time spent alone has increased, young people’s time with family, and even more so with friends, has decreased.
Explore more research and data on how people spend their time →
May 28
In May 2004, ten countries joined the European Union in its largest expansion. These new members entered the EU’s internal market, allowing the free movement of goods, services, capital, and people.
Poland was one of these countries. At the time, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita stood at $21,200 per year, around half the EU average.
Since then, this gap has narrowed. As the chart shows, Poland’s GDP per capita has more than doubled.
While many factors contributed to this growth, integration into the EU played a role. Since 2004, Poland’s inflation-adjusted exports have more than tripled, with around three-quarters going to other EU countries. This boost to growth is sometimes described as an “EU accession bonus”.
Poland has also been a major beneficiary of EU funding, receiving over €163 billion (net of its own contributions). Most of this money has supported areas such as transport infrastructure, research and development, and energy.
Compare levels of GDP per capita across other countries →
