April 09, 2024
What's the leading cause of death in each country?
In most countries, it's cardiovascular disease or cancer, as shown on the map.
However, in Africa, infectious diseases are much more common. In several West African countries, the leading cause of death is diarrheal disease, malaria, or neonatal causes. In southern Africa, it's HIV/AIDS.
What’s tragic is how many still die from these causes despite being preventable with public health efforts and treatment. With greater access to clean water and sanitation, malaria bed nets, vaccines, neonatal healthcare, and antiretroviral therapy, many of these deaths could be prevented.
Yesterday
The chart shows net migration trends for Venezuela, Peru, Chile, and Colombia from 1950 to 2023. This is the net difference between immigrants coming into a country and emigrants leaving. This data published by the UN World Population Prospects shows how significant this demographic event is in the region’s recent history.
Starting around 2015, Venezuela's net migration dropped sharply, with a record 1.36 million people emigrating in 2018. The timing of this shift, accelerating from 2015 onwards, coincides with Venezuela's worsening economic and political instability.
At the same time, wealthier countries like Peru, Chile, and Colombia experienced significant increases in net migration, which suggests they have become major destinations for Venezuelan migrants. This trend is even clearer when visualizing where immigrants from Venezuela moved to.
Explore net migration patterns in other countries →
September 11
Unsafe sanitation is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. It increases the risk of many fatal diseases, including cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and polio.
Unfortunately, over 40% of the world does not have access to safe sanitation facilities. This is based on estimates from the WHO/UNICEF’s Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene.
The chart shows the share of the global population that has access to safe sanitation over time. While rates have increased, particularly over the last decade, they still fall far short of the UN’s target of universal access in 2030.
Increasing access to safe sanitation would save many lives from preventable infectious diseases.
Explore the data →
September 10
The chart shows that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, governments’ social spending amounted to very little. Countries spent, at most, 1 to 2% of their national income on public social services.
This changed significantly over the 20th century: public social spending in wealthy countries now amounts to between 15% and 30% of national income.
The biggest reasons for this increase are higher expenditure on healthcare and education.
This data comes from the OECD and Peter Lindert’s history of social spending.
Read more about the history of government spending →
September 09
The chart shows the death rates from respiratory infections in countries since 1950.
Data comes from the WHO Mortality Database, which compiles data reported by each country. The data typically comes with a few years of delay since it needs to be standardized.
It helps us to look back and see the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic from a historical perspective.
As you can see, there has been a long-run decline in respiratory infection death rates. This is due to improved sanitation, healthcare, and vaccination against diseases such as influenza, tuberculosis, and pertussis.
But during the pandemic, death rates from respiratory infections surged massively due to COVID-19 and reached levels not seen in many decades.
Explore the data on respiratory infection death rates for other countries →
September 06
The chart shows how much people rely on rail versus road transport in 2021. The data comes from the OECD, and we recently updated our charts with the latest release.
Japan stands out with 28% of passenger kilometers traveled by rail. This contrasts sharply with New Zealand and the United States, where rail accounts for only 1.4% and 0.25% of passenger kilometers, respectively.
In Western European countries, rail transport is still in the minority, but less so. In France, 10% of passenger kilometers are traveled by rail, 6.4% in Germany, and 5% in the United Kingdom.
Countries with well-developed rail networks and high usage also tend to have lower domestic transport-related CO2 emissions.
Explore passenger kilometers traveled by road and rail in other countries →
September 05
Infant mortality rates have plummeted over the last 50 years. Globally, they’ve fallen by over two-thirds, from around 10% in 1974 to less than 3% today.
A recent study — published in The Lancet by Andrew Shattock and an international team of researchers — estimates that increased access to crucial vaccines has reduced infant mortality by 40%.
The chart shows the actual reduction in infant mortality rates with vaccination (in blue) and the researchers’ estimates for a hypothetical scenario in which vaccines wouldn’t have been rolled out (in red).
Based on these figures, vaccines are estimated to have saved 150 million children over the last 50 years.
Read our article on the role of vaccination in reducing infant mortality →
September 04
The chart shows that the average worker in wealthy countries now works only about half as many hours per year as in the late 19th century.
Based on data from economic historians Michael Huberman and Chris Minns, the average worker used to work between 2,700 and 3,500 hours per year, which is about 50 to 70 hours each week.
Recently, using data from the Penn World Table, workers worked about half that amount, between 1,300 and 1,800 hours a year, or about 25 to 35 hours a week.
This decrease has come from working fewer hours each day, fewer days each week, and fewer weeks each year.
Read more in our article on whether we are working more than ever →
