Data Insights
Bite-sized insights on how the world is changing, written by our team.
Primary education in Morocco: from less than half to nearly universal attendance
In the 1970s, less than half of Morocco's primary-age children attended school. Today, nearly every child is in school, with enrolment rates having soared to over 99%, according to data published by UNESCO.
Though this is a remarkable achievement, there's still room for improvement in education quality. Only about a third of these students achieve basic reading comprehension by the end of primary school.
Focusing on getting children into school has been crucial. The next step is to enhance the quality of education to ensure they not only attend but also learn and thrive.
Colombia’s homicide rate has more than halved since the 1990s
Half as many people died from homicides in Colombia in recent years than only a few decades ago.
In the 1990s, more than 60 people per 100,000 were killed in homicides each year, according to data from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Homicide was the cause of 15% of all deaths at the time.
The homicide rate has fallen significantly since then, as the chart shows. In 2021, it was around 27 homicides per 100,000 people.
The country’s rate is now much closer to the regional rate of the Americas, at 15 homicides per 100,000 people.
Still, this means that homicides are almost twice as common in Colombia than in its world region, and more than 13 times as common than in Europe — the safest world region — with only 2 homicides per 100,000 people.
Nearly one in five cars sold in 2023 was electric
The International Energy Agency (IEA) just published its latest annual Global EV Outlook. It provides its final estimates for sales of electric vehicles worldwide in 2023.
The IEA estimates that almost one in five (18%) cars sold in 2023 were electric — double the share from just two years earlier.
There are significant differences in adoption worldwide. This chart shows new sales shares by country. In Norway, more than 90% of new cars were electric. In China, it was almost 40%; in the European Union, 22%; and in the United States, just 10%.
These figures include fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. You can find this data broken down by vehicle type in this chart.
2023 was a population crossroad
China is no longer the most populated country in the world. According to estimates by the UN World Population Prospects, India took over in 2023. That year, both countries had around 1.4 billion inhabitants — as many as the entire African continent.
However, as we can see in the chart, China’s population is expected to decline, and India’s growth is expected to slow down. Meanwhile, Africa’s population is expected to keep growing; the UN estimates it could reach close to 4 billion people by the end of the century.
Investments in waste management are key to ending plastic pollution
Today, April 22, is Earth Day. This year’s theme is ending plastic pollution.
The world produces vast amounts of plastic: more than 450 million tonnes yearly. But when it comes to plastics leaking into our rivers and oceans, it’s the management of plastics — not their production or use — that matters most.
When plastic is not correctly recycled, incinerated, or stored in sealed landfills, it can pollute the environment. According to the OECD Global Plastics Outlook, around one-fifth of the world’s plastic waste is mismanaged in this way.
As this map shows, mismanaged plastic waste per person tends to be higher in low-to-middle-income countries. This is because their plastic use has increased much faster than their investments in waste management infrastructure. (These estimates come from research by Lourens Meijer and colleagues.)
To end plastic pollution, improvements in waste management — alongside more responsible use of plastics — will be critical. Domestic policies will be crucial, but richer countries can also contribute through foreign investments in waste management infrastructure.