Suicide rates are higher in men than women

Fertility rates — which measure the average number of children per woman — have been falling worldwide. Since 1950, global fertility rates have halved, from almost 5 children per woman to 2.2.

As a result, global population growth has slowed dramatically, and many countries' populations are expected to decline by the end of the century.

This is because fertility rates in many countries have fallen below the “replacement level”. This is the level at which a population replaces itself from one generation to the next. It’s generally defined as a rate of 2.1 children per woman.

The map shows which countries had fertility rates above and below this level in 2025. This is based on projections from the UN World Population Prospects.

Most of the world's poorest people still rely on solid fuels — such as crop waste, dung, wood, and charcoal — for cooking and heating.

These fuels generate household air pollution when they’re burned. This has health impacts for those who breathe them in, and can increase the risk of a range of illnesses, including cardiovascular disease, stroke and some cancers.

Estimates from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation suggest that indoor air pollution causes almost three million premature deaths each year. That’s three million people dying earlier than they otherwise would without this pollution.

As shown on the chart, deaths from indoor pollution have fallen as more people get access to cleaner cooking fuels. Improving access to clean energy could prevent many more early deaths.

Cervical cancer death rates among women in the United Kingdom have fallen by around 80% since 1950. You can see this reduction in the chart.

This progress happened for a couple of key reasons.

The first was the introduction of population-level screening programs in 1988. Across the UK, women are invited to get a regular smear test to detect precancerous changes or cervical cancer cases early, when treatment has much better odds of success.

Another, and more recent innovation, which could put the UK on the path to eradicating cervical cancer completely, is the rollout of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. This protects someone from the HPV infection, which can later develop into cervical cancer.

In schools across the country, girls in their early teens are offered the HPV vaccine, effectively offering them long-lasting protection. I was one of the first cohorts of girls in the UK to receive this, and it’s something I’m incredibly grateful for.

The UK is not alone in its progress: a number of countries have managed to reduce cervical cancer death rates in recent decades.

France generates two-thirds of its electricity from nuclear power, making it the country’s dominant power source.

As the chart shows, that’s far more than the average across Europe, which is 20%, and the world as a whole, at 9%.

Nuclear power is a low-carbon electricity source, giving France a very clean electricity mix for decades.

Per unit of electricity, France emits far less greenhouse gas than its neighbors and has some of the lowest-carbon power in the world. The global average, based on lifecycle emissions, is 472 grams of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e) per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated. In France, this figure is 42 grams.

In every region of Africa, hunger is more prevalent than a decade ago.

The chart shows the increase in the share of the population that is undernourished, comparing 2014 and 2024 (the most recent year available). These estimates come from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The situation across Africa is dire. In Middle Africa, where hunger is most acute, almost 1 in 3 people are undernourished. In Eastern Africa, the figure is roughly 1 in 4. Across Africa as a whole, it's 1 in 5.

This marks a reversal of a longer positive trend: over the preceding decades, hunger had been falling across much of the world, including parts of Africa. That progress has now stalled or gone into reverse. Conflict, extreme weather, and the economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic have all contributed.

The concept of “leapfrogging” is popular in development. It suggests that, as they develop, lower-income countries can skip intermediate technologies or systems and go straight to the modern equivalent.

One example of this is the use of landlines and mobile phones.

The landline telephone was invented in 1876 and became a dominant form of communication across Europe and North America. As you can see in the chart, it was increasingly adopted in the United States and the United Kingdom throughout the 20th century.

However, mobile phone adoption increased rapidly in the 1990s, and landlines have declined since the millennium. Mobile phones have become a substitute.

But many countries have almost skipped landline adoption entirely. Ghana and Nigeria are good examples: landline subscriptions have remained extremely low, and instead, mobile phone adoption has exploded.

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.