October 18, 2024
The average area burned by wildfires each year has fallen in the last few decades. This is due mainly to changes in land practices, including the intensification of agriculture and less savanna burning.
This chart shows the estimated area burnt by wildfires each year, broken down by land cover type. This data comes from the Global Wildfire Information System.
The area of shrublands and savannas burned each year has decreased since the early 2000s, while the area of forest burned has remained very similar.
Much of this decline has occurred in Africa and, to a lesser extent, in Oceania.
This doesn't mean that weather-related risks of wildfires have declined: warmer and drier conditions increase these risks. And despite a global reduction, countries can experience very large and anomalous years. Last year’s large burn in Canada is a clear example.
This year also looks to be on-track to be the largest wildfire year this century.
Today
Even after years of working with global health data, one statistic that I’m always struck by is the number of people who die by suicide every year. In 2023, it was estimated to be around three-quarters of a million.
That means suicides account for more than 1 in every 100 deaths in the world.
But a world where so many die from suicide is not inevitable. We know this because global suicide rates have fallen by an estimated 40% since the 1990s.
You can see this in the chart: rates have fallen from 15 to 9 deaths per 100,000 people over the last thirty years.
The large differences between countries also suggest that there are things that can be done to reduce this number even further.
April 7
Some technologies central to the clean energy transition depend on rare earth elements. The permanent magnets found in many electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators rely on them. They are also used in some military hardware.
China dominates global production of rare earths; in 2024, it accounted for nearly 70% of the global total.
But the picture is not as concentrated when you examine which countries have rare-earth reserves. That is what the chart shows, plotting production and reserve shares side by side. China still holds the most known reserves, but at 49%, this is substantially lower than its production share.
Brazil holds 23% of reserves and is barely mining them. India, Vietnam, and Russia also hold significant reserves, but only a small fraction of current output.
The large gap between where reserves are located and where mining occurs partly reflects China's early investment in mining infrastructure and processing capacity, which other producers have not yet matched. Other countries hold the geological potential but have not yet developed the infrastructure to convert it into production at scale.
April 4
Child mortality rates in China have fallen from more than 20% in 1950 to less than 1% today.
But this steady progress was interrupted in the late 1950s during the “Great Leap Forward”. This was China’s national plan to industrialize rapidly, but it resulted in widespread famine and economic turmoil.
As the chart shows, child mortality rates spiked in China over this period, with up to one in three children dying before reaching the age of five. This change was so dramatic that it is also clearly visible in the global trend.
This data comes from the UN’s World Population Prospects.
April 2
Around 4 in 10 women worldwide live in countries where abortion is illegal or highly restricted. But these bans do not stop abortions completely; many women still get them, but in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.
A study published in The Lancet estimated that 45% of abortions globally are unsafe. In some regions, the share is estimated to be around three-quarters. You can see this in the chart.
This data is around ten years old, but represents the latest estimates available (suggesting that this topic gets very little attention).
Unsafe abortions dramatically increase the health risks for women. Safe abortions have very low mortality rates, typically below 1 death per 100,000 abortions.
In regions where the majority of abortions are unsafe, mortality rates can be several hundred times higher; in Western and Middle Africa, around 1 in 200 abortions result in the woman dying.
It’s estimated that approximately 8% of maternal deaths in the world are caused by unsafe abortions. That’s 23,000 women every year.
March 31
Depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems are common everywhere. They are not confined to any particular income level.
But access to care is rare. In much of the world, people who struggle with their mental health have almost no psychologists or psychiatrists to turn to.
Mental health care is scarce in all places, but it is much scarcer in poor countries. Governments in high-income countries spend about $66 per person per year on mental health care, as the chart shows. In low-income countries, that figure is $0.04.
This gap in spending reflects a gap in people. As the WHO’s latest Mental Health Atlas highlights, there is roughly one psychiatrist per million people in low-income countries. High-income countries have 70 times more.
A recent study in the Lancet Psychiatry estimated that globally, only 9% of people with major depressive disorder receive a “minimally adequate treatment”. In high-income countries, it is 27%; in Sub-Saharan Africa, just 2%.
Hundreds of millions of people in poorer countries live with treatable conditions and have no access to a psychologist or psychiatrist. It is one of the largest gaps in global health — and one that receives remarkably little attention or funding.
There are efforts to close this gap without waiting for the workforce to catch up. One approach is to train lay counsellors — people without formal clinical qualifications who learn to provide psychological support. Randomized trials in India and Zimbabwe have shown this can be effective for depression.
Another approach is to use technology: apps and, increasingly, AI-based tools that can extend the reach of limited clinical expertise. These are not substitutes for a functioning mental health system, but in places where that system barely exists, they offer a starting point.
March 28
There are two ways to produce seafood: catch fish in the wild or farm your own. Seafood farming is often called “aquaculture”. Aquaculture is dominated by the farming of fish, but also includes other organisms, such as crustaceans and aquatic plants.
Aquaculture has grown rapidly over the last few decades. In fact, as the chart shows, it has overtaken wild catch since 2013.
This has relieved some pressure on wild fish stocks: if this increased demand for fish had been satisfied by wild catch, then many more would be severely overexploited.
March 26
Last year, three-quarters of the world’s countries had unemployment rates below 10%, according to data from the International Labour Organization. Colombia, where I come from, is in that group.
I initially found Colombia’s relatively low unemployment rate surprising, because it didn’t match what I could see around me: many people doing extremely precarious work.
This chart offers an explanation. It shows, for a selection of countries of different income levels, what share of workers hold informal jobs, meaning work that lacks social protection and basic employment rights (no guaranteed benefits, no formal safety net).
As the chart shows, in Colombia, that share is almost 57%. In many lower-income countries, the share is far higher.
The reality is that low unemployment and widespread informal work can, and often do, happen at the same time. The reason this isn't paradoxical comes down to how these statistics are defined.
To count as employed in labor statistics, a person only needs to have worked for at least one hour during the survey’s reference period, often the past week. The definition is broad and includes self-employment, selling things on the street, and unpaid work in a family farm or family business. Both formal and informal jobs are included.
This means the unemployment rate can remain relatively low in poor countries, not because most workers have found stable, protected jobs, but because many have been absorbed into informal employment.
