Manufacturing accounts for a relatively small and declining share of total employment in rich countries

Three billion people worldwide cannot afford a healthy diet that gives them all the nutrients they need.

Most of these people live in low- to middle-income countries, where people have less money to spend on food. You might rightly guess that people in richer countries tend to spend more on food — but they also spend a smaller share of overall spending on food. You can see this in the chart, where each dot represents one country in 2022.

The average budget in Switzerland for food consumed at home was more than four times that of Kenya (when measured in US dollars). But food made up less than 10% of Swiss consumer spending, compared to almost 60% in Kenya.

This means people in richer countries don’t only have more money to spend on food; they also have far more left to spend on other important resources, like housing, education, clothing, and health.

Read more in my article “Engel's Law: Richer people spend more money on food, but it makes up a smaller share of their income” →

Every twelfth person in the world still lives in extreme poverty. That means surviving on less than $2.15 per day (adjusted for differences in living costs between countries).

For many, that means struggling to afford nutritious food, not being able to afford basic healthcare, safe sanitation, or electricity.

So, where do most people in extreme poverty live? The chart shows that Sub-Saharan Africa, which is home to just 16% of the global population, now accounts for 67% of people living in extreme poverty.

This distribution is very different from 25 years ago. In 2000, Asia was home to most of the world’s population living in extreme poverty. However, strong economic growth in recent decades has led to steep reductions in poverty. Progress in Sub-Saharan Africa has been much slower.

If we're serious about ending extreme poverty worldwide, supporting economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa has to be a top priority. The recent progress achieved by some African countries reminds us that meaningful change is within reach.

Explore more data on extreme poverty →

Many people are interested in how they can eat in a more climate-friendly way. I’m often asked about the most effective way to do so.

While we might intuitively think that “food miles” — how far our food has traveled to reach us — play a big role, transport accounts for just 5% of the global emissions from our food system.

This is because most of the world’s food comes by boat, and shipping is a relatively low-carbon mode of transport. The chart shows that transporting a kilogram of food by boat emits 50 times less carbon than by plane and about 20 times less than trucks on the road.

So, food transport would be a much bigger emitter if all our food were flown across the world — but that’s only the case for highly perishable foods, like asparagus, green beans, some types of fish, and berries.

This means that what you eat and how it is produced usually matters more than how far it’s traveled to reach you.

Read my article “You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local” →

For many readers in high-income countries, the Internet might no longer feel revolutionary. But when I was born in 1997, only 2% of the world's population used the Internet. By 2019, that number had risen to over 50%; today, two-thirds of the global population is online.

It’s worth taking a moment to appreciate the novelty and speed of this change for two reasons. First, much of the potential progress enabled by the Internet is still unfolding, from expanding educational opportunities through free online resources to reducing the cost of sending money home for migrants.

Second, it’s good to remember that in 2023, a third of people still didn’t use the Internet. Accelerating connectivity could give these individuals greater freedom and access to new opportunities. The United Nations aims to get more than 90% of people online by 2030. Some regions are still far from universal access, with just 43% of South Asia and 37% of Sub-Saharan Africa connected.

Explore more data on Internet use, country by country →

Describing someone as “young” or “old” is rather arbitrary. However, something we can quantify is whether a given person is “young” or “old” compared to the rest of the world.

Imagine we sorted all 8 billion people alive today from youngest to oldest. The person standing right in the middle would be about 30 years old; that's the median age today. The chart shows the global median age and the UN’s projection to 2100.

In 2025, if you are over 30, you are older than most people in the world.

The chart also shows that if you were born in 1950, you stopped being “young” when you passed 20, as that was the median age in 1970.

As birth rates decline and life expectancy increases, the median age is expected to keep rising until the end of the century.

Whether you’re younger or older than most, the world is still relatively young, and this matters for many aspects of society, from the demand for resources and jobs to long-term planning for healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

If you want to dig deeper into this data, have a look at our Population & Demography Data Explorer →

Fifty years ago, almost half the adults in Great Britain smoked cigarettes, but this has become much less common.

In the 1970s, half of men and 40% of women over the age of 16 reported smoking cigarettes. Since then, smoking rates have steadily fallen. By 2023, this was just 12% of men and 10% of women.

This dramatic decline is the result of decades of public health efforts such as clear warnings on cigarette packs, bans on tobacco advertising, indoor smoking restrictions, and support to help people quit. Newer technologies — including vaping products, nicotine patches, and medications — have also helped many people quit.

Despite this, smoking remains the leading risk factor for preventable death in the UK, raising the risk of many cancers, heart attacks, and strokes. Fewer smokers means fewer people suffering from these serious diseases.

Read more about the global problem of smoking in an article by my colleague Max →

A recent report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) highlights the high concentration of poverty in Latin America. Across the region, around 89 million people — more than one in seven — live on less than $3.65 a day.

Poverty can be measured using various poverty lines; here, we’re looking at the $3.65 line, which the World Bank uses to define poverty in lower-middle-income countries.

The chart shows that 52.2 million people living under this line are in just three countries — Brazil, Venezuela, and Mexico — representing 59% of the region’s total.

As the report explains, while Brazil and Mexico don’t have the highest poverty rates, their large populations mean they have the largest number of people living below this line. Venezuela, in contrast, has a smaller population but one of the region’s highest poverty rates.

Identifying where poverty is most concentrated can help target efforts to reduce and eliminate it.

You can explore more data on poverty, including different poverty lines and world regions, in our Poverty Data Explorer →