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Research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems.

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Daily Data Insights

Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every weekday.

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Line chart showing annual patent applications from 1980 to 2021 for China, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and India. China shows a sharp increase starting around 2010, surpassing all other countries and reaching over 1.4 million applications by 2021. Other countries remain below 400,000 applications, with Japan’s applications declining since 2000.

China is the largest contributor to global patent applications, substantially ahead of other countries

China’s patent applications have grown rapidly in recent decades, as shown in the chart. Chinese applications surpassed US applications in 2010, reaching over 1.4 million in 2021. According to this data from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), China’s applications accounted for more than half of the global total in 2021.

In contrast, patent applications in the US have seen little growth in recent years, while in Japan, filings have steadily declined since 2000.

Innovations are patented due to economic incentives. A patent protects the invention to the owner for a limited period, often 20 years. This is why policymakers and researchers frequently compare annual patent filings across countries — new patents are considered a proxy for the pace of innovation.

However, patents are just one aspect of innovation. A country’s innovation system is shaped by a complex network of research, development, and commercialization, and patent applications are just one part of this broader process.

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Most immigrants in high-income countries have legal status

Immigrants without legal status are only a small fraction of the total immigrant population in most rich countries.

For example, just 7% of immigrants in the United Kingdom lack legal status. It’s 4% in Germany and less than 2% in the Netherlands. The United States stands out, with 22% of its immigrant population lacking legal status — that’s about one in five.

The estimates of immigrants without legal status come from the Measuring Irregular Migration (MIrreM) project and are for one specific year between 2017 and 2023. The total immigrant numbers are from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2020).

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Stacked area chart showing the share of the world's fish stocks that are overexploited or biologically sustainable. Around one-third are overexploited.

One-third of the world’s assessed fish stocks are overexploited

Fish stocks have a “maximum sustainable yield” — this is the point at which you can catch the largest amount of fish without affecting their total population over the long term. In other words, it means catching as many fish as possible without shrinking the population.

A fish is defined as “overexploited” if it is caught faster than the maximum sustainable yield.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations estimates that around one-third of the world’s assessed fish stocks are overexploited. This chart shows that this share has increased over time.

Many regions have formal assessments of fish stocks and catch rates to provide updated estimates of overfishing. However, many fish stocks across Africa, Asia, and South America are not frequently and rigorously assessed. To get global estimates, the UN FAO combines these formal assessments with expert opinion and extrapolations based on what national and regional-level data is available.

The UN FAO’s report — The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 — provides more detailed breakdowns of which species are overexploited or fished sustainably.

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The UK spends about £74 per person on overseas aid

When asked where public spending should be reduced most, around 60% of people in the UK suggest cutting foreign aid.

However, people overestimate how much the UK spends on aid: last year’s UK Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses show that overseas aid amounted to £5.1 billion — just about 74 pounds per person.

As the chart shows, this is a tiny part of public spending, making up only 0.5% of the total budget.

To put this in perspective, the UK spends much more on other areas: over eight times as much on public order and safety, ten times more on defense, and forty times more on each of the two biggest expenses: health and welfare.

Spending is not much higher if we also consider funds dedicated to supporting refugees in the UK itself.

This situation is not specific to 2023: the UK’s foreign aid spending has been at similar levels for decades and is in line with what other wealthy countries spend. Compared to the size of its budget and economy, foreign aid is a relatively small expense.

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A world map titled "Forms of homelessness included in available statistics, 2024," displaying different forms of homelessness coverage by country. The map uses various colors to indicate the type of accommodation data available. Categories include: No accommodation (red), Temporary and crisis accommodation (yellow), Severely inadequate accommodation (blue), None or temporary (orange), None or inadequate (purple), Temporary or inadequate (green), None, temporary or inadequate (brown), Not enough information (gray), and No data (striped pattern).

Different definitions of homelessness make international comparisons difficult

Homelessness is defined differently around the world, making it difficult to compare the issue across countries.

The map shows the forms of homelessness included in country statistics, as recorded by the Institute of Global Homelessness.

Sources distinguish three broad forms of homelessness: people with no accommodation who sleep in the streets or public spaces; people in temporary accommodation, such as emergency shelters; and people in severely inadequate housing, such as tents or slums.

Country statistics vary in which forms they include, with some countries focusing on just one type while others cover multiple combinations. Many sources do not provide enough details to know which forms of homelessness they refer to.

Despite these challenges, the data on homelessness has recently improved. The Institute of Global Homelessness has collected data on the completeness of national statistics, and the OECD has worked on making the statistics of their members comparable by using the same definitions of homelessness across them.

Learn more about the challenges of measuring homelessness →

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A line chart showing the population growth of high-income countries with and without migration, from 1950–2023. Without migration, the population of these countries would have declined since 2020.

Without migration, the population of high-income countries would shrink

In recent years, migration has prevented population decline among high-income countries.

The World Bank defines high-income countries as those with a gross national income (GNI) per capita of over $14,000 in 2023. It includes countries like the United States, Chile, and Poland.

The chart shows annual population growth with and without migration in these countries.

The green line, which includes migration, shows that populations in high-income countries are still growing.

What would this have looked like without migration? The blue line gives you the answer — it shows the annual population growth only considering births and deaths in the country. It has been falling for decades and went negative in 2020.

Note that these figures apply to high-income countries as a group; in some countries, such as Italy or Japan, the total population is shrinking, even when considering migration. This data comes from the World Population Prospects dataset published by the United Nations.

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Life expectancy is returning to pre-pandemic levels

Life expectancy at birth dropped significantly across the world in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, rates are now returning to pre-pandemic levels. The chart shows this rebound, based on the latest estimates from the UN’s World Population Prospects.

Global life expectancy in 2022 matched the 2019 figure at 72.6 years. And it increased again in 2023, to 73.2 years.

Explore more insights from the latest revision of the UN’s population statistics →

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What share of children die before their fifth birthday?

What could be more tragic than the death of a young child? Child mortality, the death of children under the age of five, is still extremely common in our world today.

The historical data makes clear that it doesn’t have to be this way: it is possible for societies to protect their children and reduce child mortality to very low rates. For child mortality to reach low levels, many things have to go right at the same time: good healthcare, good nutrition, clean water and sanitation, maternal health, and high living standards. We can, therefore, think of child mortality as a proxy indicator of a country’s living conditions.

The chart shows our long-run data on child mortality, which allows you to see how child mortality has changed in countries around the world.

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Share of population living in extreme povertyWorld Bank

Life expectancy at birthLong-run estimates collated from multiple sources by Our World in Data

Per capita CO₂ emissionsLong-run estimates from the Global Carbon Budget

GDP per capitaLong-run estimates from the Maddison Project Database

Share of people that are undernourishedFAO

Literacy rateLong-run estimates collated from multiple sources by Our World in Data

Share of the population with access to electricityWorld Bank

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