March 27, 2024
The first time a nuclear bomb was ever detonated was in the Trinity test, conducted by the United States in July 1945. Less than a month later, nuclear bombs were used against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Nuclear weapons have not been used in combat again. But more than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted by eight countries.
Between 1958 and 1961, the United States and the Soviet Union temporarily suspended nuclear tests. But, as we can see on the chart, their number peaked immediately afterward. In 1962, a total of 178 nuclear bombs were detonated — roughly one test every two days.
Thankfully, the number of nuclear tests has decreased rapidly since the mid-1980s. In the last two decades, only 6 tests have been conducted, all by North Korea. The last test took place in 2017.
Related topic pages:
Today
Cancer is one of the most common causes of death worldwide. In several countries, it is the most common cause of death.
But which cancer types cause the most deaths?
The map presents the most common type of cancer death among men. This is based on the cause listed on death certificates, compiled by the WHO Mortality Database. Unfortunately, many countries are not shown as they lack sufficient death registration.
Lung cancer is the leading cause of male cancer deaths in many countries, primarily driven by smoking.
In parts of Latin America, prostate cancer leads. Although it has high survival rates in richer countries, it is common and can reach late stages before diagnosis, which limits treatment options.
Stomach cancer — shown in purple on the map — is the leading cause in several Central Asian countries. It is primarily caused by H. pylori infections. In wealthier countries, infections have declined thanks to better food safety, hygiene, and antibiotics.
Liver cancer, leading in Mongolia, Thailand, and Egypt, is often the result of inflammation caused by long-term alcohol consumption or hepatitis virus infection.
Learn more about the rates of different cancers and how they have changed over time →
Yesterday
The chart shows the share of children at the end of lower-secondary school age — aged 12 to 15 — who meet the minimum proficiency set by UNESCO in reading comprehension. This means they can connect the main ideas across various texts, understand the author’s intentions, and draw reasoned conclusions.
Only around half of children of this age can read this well. In countries like Ireland and South Korea, more than 8 in 10 children reach this level. But in poorer countries like Senegal, Zambia, and Cambodia, fewer than 1 in 20 do.
These numbers include all children of middle school age, not just those who attend school.
Explore the most recent education data from UNESCO, now available in our updated charts →
December 03
To tackle climate change, the world needs to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. But before we reduce emissions, we need to stop them rising; the world needs to pass the peak.
Globally, total CO2 emissions are still slowly increasing. The Global Carbon Project just released its preliminary estimates for 2024, which suggest another 0.8% increase.
However, while total emissions have not yet peaked, emissions per person have. Globally, per capita CO2 emissions from fossil fuels peaked in 2012. When land use emissions — which are more uncertain and noisier — are included, they peaked in the 1970s and have fluctuated since then. You can see both trends in the chart.
This suggests that, globally, lifestyles are slowly decarbonizing. However, to come closer to our global climate targets, economies must decarbonize much faster to push total emissions into decline.
Explore the latest CO2 emissions data in our updated charts →
December 02
Measles vaccination has saved 94 million lives globally since 1974. Of those, 92 million were children.
The chart shows the number of lives saved by different childhood vaccines in the last 50 years. These estimates come from Andrew Shattock and colleagues and are based on global data on diseases, causes of death, vaccination rates, and vaccine efficacy.
Measles vaccines rank the highest in the total number of lives saved.
Measles is especially contagious and deadly. The virus depletes immune cells, making it harder to fight off measles and making other infections much more life-threatening. It can also erase immune memory to infections and vaccines that children have already encountered.
Before vaccines, almost all children caught measles, and it was a common cause of disability and death. With high measles vaccination rates, millions of lives are saved globally each year.
Read more in our article about the impact of global vaccination →
November 29
Today, Africa is home to 1.5 billion people. By 2070, the UN expects this number to more than double. Its estimates range from 2.7 billion to 3.7 billion, with the most likely scenario placing the African population around 3.2 billion.
This region is where most of the growth in the world population will occur in the next 50 years.
Europe’s population is already shrinking, with Asia and Latin America expected to follow from the 2050s onwards. The UN expects North America’s population to grow, although much slower than Africa's.
Read more about population growth →
November 28
Economic growth is most important for the world's poorest people, and most of the world’s poorest live on the African continent. Are Africa’s economies growing?
The picture is mixed. In some countries, incomes have unfortunately declined in the last decades. This includes Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Burundi. I have written about this in my brief explainer on extreme poverty.
In today’s Daily Data Insight, I want to focus on the other side: I want to highlight the African countries that are achieving economic growth. Nine of them are shown in the chart above.
In all nine countries, people’s average incomes have more than doubled since 1990.
This made substantial improvements in living standards possible: the share of people in extreme poverty and the rate of child mortality declined in all nine countries.
If you want to know more about the importance of growth and how it can be measured, you could read my article: What is economic growth? And why is it so important? →
November 27
The US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, was established in 2003 to fight the global HIV epidemic.
Since its launch, PEPFAR has provided millions of people with antiretroviral therapy (ART) worldwide, especially in Africa.
The chart shows the number of people who received therapy through PEPFAR in a given year. In 2023, it was 20.5 million people.
ART is highly effective: it helps keep people with HIV healthy and reduces the risk of spreading the virus to others, saving more than one million lives each year.
But, after months of legislative delay, PEPFAR was recently renewed for only one year, raising concerns about the program's future after March 2025.
Explore data on other aid success stories →
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