Daily Data Insights
Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, published every weekday.
Today
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.
Yesterday
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 →
October 25, 2024
Japan closed nearly all of its nuclear plants after Fukushima, but some are coming back online
Japan closed down most of its nuclear plants after the Fukushima Daiichi disaster in 2011, and nuclear production dropped dramatically.
You can see this in the chart above, which shows the electricity mix of Japan since 1985. It’s based on data from the Energy Institute.
Fossil fuel plants — notably coal — were ramped up to keep the lights on. But some nuclear plants have come back online, which is why you see nuclear production start to rise again.
Read our article on the death toll of the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters →
October 24, 2024
Many people overestimate the percentage of immigrants in their country
People tend to think there are more immigrants in their country than there really are.
In the United States, for example, the average person believes that 33% of people were not born there. However, official estimates from government agencies show that the figure is just 15% — less than half as many.
In Japan, people guess that 10% of the population are immigrants, but the accurate figure is around 2%. For every 5 immigrants people think exist, there is only one in reality.
As the chart shows, this mismatch is common everywhere. The data comes from the 2023 Ipsos Perils of Perception report.
October 23, 2024
Haiti and Dominican Republic: one island, two diverging economies
Haiti and the Dominican Republic are two Caribbean countries that share the same island, Hispaniola. However, despite sharing the same island, the two nations have developed very differently in recent decades. In 1990, Dominicans had twice the GDP per capita of Haitians. 32 years later, they are seven times richer than Haitians.
The chart shows both trajectories. While the Dominican Republic experienced sustained growth during the three decades, Haiti’s GDP per capita has barely grown and, at times, even slightly decreased. To allow for comparisons, all incomes are shown in international dollars, which account for differences in cost of living across countries.
Today, Haiti is the poorest country in the Americas.
October 22, 2024
British women are having fewer children in their twenties, more in their thirties
At what age do women have children?
The chart shows the number of births in the United Kingdom since 1950, broken down by the mother's age. This is based on estimates from the latest UN World Population Prospects report.
You can see that, over time, fewer children are born to women in their teens and twenties. This number has been falling since the 1960s.
Instead, we see a rise in the number of births to women in their thirties.
October 21, 2024
Less than 4% of the world's population are international migrants
The vast majority of people in the world — over 96% — live in the country where they were born. Only a small minority are international migrants.
International migrants are people who have lived in a country other than where they were born for more than one year. In contrast, natives live in the country where they were born.
Since 1990, the absolute number of international migrants has risen sharply, but their share of the global population has remained relatively unchanged due to population growth.
This data comes from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).