March 04, 2024
People in richer countries tend to live much longer than those in poorer countries.
We can see this in the cross-country life expectancy statistics shown on the chart. In Japan, life expectancy at birth is about 85 years, while in Chad and Nigeria, life expectancy is about 52 years — a gap of over three decades.
Yesterday
Outside China, the world’s use of coal has barely changed since the late 1980s. It was just over 20,000 terawatt-hours back then, and almost four decades later, it is still the same.
But the change has been very different in China. The country has increased the use of coal enormously, and today, China is burning more coal than the rest of the world combined.
The future of global coal use, and the emissions that come with it, depends heavily on what happens in China.
November 5
In Chile, the annual number of cancer deaths as a share of the total population has been rising for decades. From this, it would be easy to assume that cancer is getting worse. But the chances of dying from cancer at most ages are lower than they used to be. The missing piece is that the country’s population is changing quickly, and older people now make up a much larger share.
That’s what the chart shows. The crude cancer death rate, in red, counts registered cancer deaths per 100,000 people of all ages. This metric has been going up, reflecting the fact that cancer risks increase steeply with age, and the population has grown much older.
The blue line, by contrast, shows the age-adjusted rate. This metric removes the effect of aging by holding the age structure constant.
This line has been falling for decades, which means that Chileans at almost every age are now less likely to die from cancer than people of the same age were in the past.
The pattern we see in Chile is happening in many other countries, too, and is visible in the global estimates.
November 3
The share of electricity produced by solar and wind in Poland more than doubled in just four years. In 2021, these renewable sources produced just 11% of its power; by 2025, this had risen to 25%.
You can see this growth in the chart, based on electricity data from Ember.
Solar and wind output, combined, grew very little in 2025, due to weak wind conditions. Solar output continued to grow, but it was barely enough to offset the decline in wind power.
Poland still has one of the most coal-intensive electricity mixes in Europe, with coal producing 50% of its power. The country has committed to moving away from it in the next few decades; growth in solar and wind generation will play a key role in this.
October 31
One in four people in the world is younger than 15. Just one in ten is 65 or older.
But there are huge differences in this distribution across countries. In the chart, I’ve shown these global figures alongside the country with the largest share of children, the Central African Republic, and the one with the largest share of older people, Japan.
In the Central African Republic, half of the population is under 15. Being over 65 is pretty rare: just 2% of the population.
Japan is the opposite. Being a child or adolescent puts you in the minority. Almost one-third of the population is 65 and older, and that share is growing quickly.
These differences in age distribution matter a lot for a country’s infrastructure, socioeconomic conditions, and public spending — from pensions and healthcare to childcare and education.
October 29
The chart shows the relationship between GDP (gross domestic product) per capita — a measure of average incomes in a country — and people’s living conditions.
Where GDP per capita is higher, living conditions are far better in many ways. Where average incomes are higher, children die less often, fewer of them are born dead, mothers die less often, fewer children suffer from hunger, doctors can focus on fewer patients, people live longer, more people can read, children have better access to education and better learning outcomes, more people have access to electricity and clean drinking water, and people are happier with their lives.
The disparity between countries with a low and a high GDP per capita is enormous. Looking at the first panel, for example, you can see that a child born in one of the poorest countries is more than 20 times as likely to die as a child born in one of the richest.
October 27
China makes and exports more goods than any other country. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, when I think about China’s economy, the first thing that comes to mind is manufacturing — increasingly at the technological frontier in electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels.
China’s position in manufacturing follows decades of economic transformation. The chart shows one aspect of this: the decline in agricultural employment.
At the turn of the 21st century, around half of all Chinese workers were employed in agriculture. One generation later, that share had more than halved, reaching 22% in 2025.
I find it striking how far the share of workers in agriculture has fallen, and just as striking how high it remains. Agriculture employs more than a fifth of China’s workers, while accounting for less than 7% of its GDP.
October 24
If the world is to reduce its carbon emissions and tackle climate change, it needs to move away from fossil fuels to low-carbon power.
There are two key sources of low-carbon electricity: renewables — which include solar, wind, hydropower, and others — and nuclear power.
While rapid growth in solar and wind has increased the amount of electricity coming from renewables, a lack of enthusiasm for nuclear means it’s playing a shrinking role in the global mix.
In the chart, you can see the share of global electricity coming from fossil fuels, renewables, and nuclear since 1985. Since 2000, nuclear and renewables have followed very different trajectories. Back then, both accounted for a similar share of global electricity. But in 2025, renewables made up more than three times as much: 34% compared to 9%.
The total amount of electricity produced by nuclear plants is about the same as it was two decades ago. But because the world produces much more electricity overall, its share of the electricity mix has declined.
