Bertha Rohenkohl

Slavery and forced labor have become less common over the last 250 years. Line chart of the number of countries that had not yet abolished large-scale forced labor. In 1789, 165 of the 174 countries covered had not yet abolished large-scale forced labor. In 2024, it was 9 countries. Annotations on important cases, such as China, the Soviet Union, and the United States, say more about the history of slavery and forced labor.

✍️ New article: Tracking historical progress against slavery and forced labor: a long-run data view

For much of history, forced labor was widespread and brutal. Tens of millions of people were made to work under the threat of violence or punishment. The situation today is very different.

Extreme poverty fell sharply worldwide – even excluding China. Line chart of global extreme poverty rate, 1990 to 2025. Extreme poverty is defined as living below the international poverty line of $3 per day; data are adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries. The chart shows global extreme poverty reduced from 43% to 10%, and the series excluding China reduced from 33% to 12%, with the two lines converging by around the mid-2000s and continuing to decline toward 2025. Y axis runs from 0% to 50%; x axis runs from 1990 to 2025. Data source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (2025); OurWorldInData.org/poverty. License: CC BY.

Was the global decline of extreme poverty only due to China?

The share of the world population living in extreme poverty has never declined as rapidly as in the past three decades.

Line chart of national GDP from 1990 to 2024, adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs (purchasing power parity). Key insight: China’s GDP rises steeply and overtakes the United States around the mid-2010s, reaching about $35 trillion by 2024; the United States grows more gradually to about $25 trillion by 2024. India shows strong growth to about $15 trillion by 2024. Russia, Japan, Germany, and Brazil remain much lower, roughly in the $2 trillion to $6 trillion range with small fluctuations. Data sources: Eurostat, OECD, IMF, and World Bank (2026). Note: values expressed in international dollars at 2021 prices. The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

📊 Explore updated data on global development from the World Bank—

How are countries around the world developing — in terms of their economies, infrastructure, technology, energy use, healthcare, education, food production, and much more?

Share of population living in multidimensional poverty. A choropleth world map showing country-level shares of people deprived across health, education, and living-standards indicators. Caption below the title: "Multidimensional poverty is defined as being deprived in a range of health, education and living standards indicators." Key pattern: high shares are concentrated across much of sub-Saharan Africa, with many countries above 50% and some above 80%; parts of South Asia and a few Pacific countries also show substantial shares, while many higher-income countries are hatched for no data or show low shares. Data source: Alkire et al. (2025) - The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2025. Note: Estimates based on the most recent household survey data (between 2013 and 2023). A separate dataset is produced to monitor trends over time. CC BY.

📊 Data update: Track measures of poverty beyond income: health, education, and living standards—

The experience of poverty goes far beyond having no or low income.

Chart titled "the many costs of the Syrian civil war". It consists of eight small line charts of deaths due to fighting, all deaths, deaths of children under 5, internally displaced people, international refugees, GDP per capita, the share in extreme poverty, and the share undernourished between 2004 and 2024. It shows that the civil war didn't just kill hundreds of thousands due to fighting, but also increased deaths overall (especially those of young children), displaced millions, halved average living standards, and created extreme poverty and widespread undernourishment. Data sources include UCDP, the UN, Eurostat, OECD, IMF, World Bank, and FAO. The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

The Syrian civil war has killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, and caused poor health and widespread poverty—

Most of our work on war and peace focuses on the people killed directly in the fighting.

This is a very nice new short series from @voxdev.bsky.social

First episode on conditional cash transfers - looking forward to the next ones 🎬

How much energy can be produced on global land currently used for liquid biofuels? Bar comparison showing energy per year from land currently used for liquid biofuels: Biofuels for transport — 1,400 TWh per year; Solar panels on the same land — 32,000 TWh per year. Side annotations: 31,000 TWh shown for context as the amount of electricity the world generated in 2024; 7,000 TWh per year shown as the amount of electricity the world would need to power all of its cars and trucks if they were electric. Note: This assumes the world uses 32 million hectares of land to grow crops for liquid biofuels, based on net land use which subtracts land allocated to co-products such as animal feed, and assumes solar PV uses 1 hectare of land per GWh. Data source: Energy Institute; Cerulogy; Ember; and author calculations. Chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

The world dedicates a Poland-sized area of land to producing liquid biofuels such as bioethanol & biodiesel. Is there a more efficient way to generate energy?

Putting solar panels on the land used for biofuels, e.g., would produce enough electricity for all cars and trucks worldwide to go electric.

Global Education Education has expanded widely, but large gaps in learning quality still trap many children in poverty and inequality. Explore our writing and data on global education.

ourworldindata.org/global-educa...

Interested in more data like this?

My colleagues have just updated many charts and the main page on Global Education! ✨👇

An image with 6 charts showing the world as 100 people over the last two centuries. The charts cover poverty, basic education, literacy, democracy, vaccination, and child mortality. As one example, 79 out of 100 people globally were living in extreme poverty in 1820. By 2018, that had decreased to 9 people. Data sources: Poverty: Michailis Moatsos (2021). - Education: Wittgenstein Center (2023), World Bank (2023), van Zanden, J. et al. (2014). - Literacy: van Zanden, J. et al. (2014) and UNESCO. - Democracy: regime classification by Skaaning et al. - Vaccination: WHO - Child mortality: up to 1960 own calculations based on Gapminder; UN-IGME thereafter. - Credit: OurWorldInData.org, licensed under CC-BY-SA, author Max Roser.

The world as 100 people over the last two centuries

Government spending by function Share of total government spending by purpose of government activity. Categories are based on the Classification of the Functions of Government (COFOG).

Explore how other OECD countries spend their budgets: ourworldindata.org/grapher/gove...

A timeline titled "The Golden Age of Antibiotics" shows when each antibiotic drug class was first available for medical use, with example antibiotics labeled. Classes are color-coded by their source: actinomycetes, other bacteria, fungi, or synthetic. Milestones include the first antibiotics (arsphenamines in 1910), as well as the discovery of many actinomycetes-derived antibiotics, such as streptomycin, and sulfonamides, penicillins, and tetracyclines. Data: Hutchings, Truman, Wilkinson (2019). Created by Saloni Dattani for Our World in Data.

✍️We published a new topic page on medicine and biotechnology—

For much of human history, people relied on trial and error to find cures for diseases and health conditions using natural plants and remedies, with little idea of which ingredients worked or why.

World choropleth map showing the value of merchandise imports from China divided by gross domestic product, expressed as a percentage for 2024 (services are not included). A shaded scale runs from 0% to 10% with legend ticks at 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8%, and 10%; darker shading indicates a larger share. China is marked with a distinct fill and some countries are hatched to indicate no data. Overall pattern: higher shares are concentrated in parts of Southeast Asia, Mongolia and nearby economies, several countries in Africa, and parts of Central and Eastern Europe; North America, much of South America, and Australia show relatively low shares. Data source shown in the footer: IMF (2025); World Bank and OECD national accounts (2025). Licensed CC BY.

In most countries, imports from China account for less than 10% of GDP, even where China is the top partner—

China is the top source of imports for many countries.

🎯 Our Sustainable Development Goals tracker is now up to date!

Stacked area chart showing the share of the total value of merchandise imports from each partner region, expressed as a percentage of total import value, from 1949 to 2024. X axis spans years 1949 to 2024 with decade markers; Y axis runs 0% to 100% with ticks at 20% increments. Legend shows regions: North America, Europe, Oceania, Africa, South America, Asia (excl. China), and China. Data source shown in the footer: International Monetary Fund (2025). Chart credit: Our World in Data. License noted as CC BY.

Ethiopia imports much more from China than it used to, as do many other African countries—

China’s central role in merchandise trade is the result of a large change that has taken place in just a few decades. This change has been especially large in Africa and South America.

📍This is a very nice round up:

10 key insights on development economics in 2025, by Oliver at @voxdev.bsky.social

Choropleth world map showing each country shaded by China’s rank as a source of merchandise imports in 2024. Key insight: China is the top import source for many countries across Asia, large parts of Africa, much of South America, and Australia and nearby islands. Legend categories shown are 1st (top source), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, Not in top 5, and No data; shading intensity corresponds to the rank. Data source: International Monetary Fund (2025). License: CC BY.

China is the top import partner for most countries in the world—

Over the past two decades, China’s role in global trade has expanded substantially. It has become a central hub, particularly through growing relationships with many lower and middle-income countries.

Top of the Charts: our most popular work in 2025 A look back at the most popular charts, articles, data insights, and more from Our World in Data in 2025.

ourworldindata.org/top-of-the-c...

Just out: ✨ 2025 OWID top of the charts ✨

What is the most viewed, read, shared, downloaded content on @ourworldindata.org ? (link below)

Is there any data, topic, or chart you'd like to see featured on OWID next year? Let us know!

Annual GDP growth, 2000 to 2030. Small-multiple line chart of annual percent change in real GDP, inflation adjusted, with four panels for United States, China, Germany, and Japan. A solid line shows observed annual growth from 1980 to about 2023 and a dotted line shows projected growth to 2030. Y-axis ranges roughly from -5% to 15% with a horizontal zero line. Key patterns: United States shows modest positive growth with dips around 2009 and 2020 and modest projected growth near zero to low single digits; China shows higher growth in the 2000s that declines over time with a sharp dip around 2020 and projections trending downward toward lower single digits; Germany and Japan show generally low growth with occasional negative years and projections remaining near zero to low single digits. Data source text at the bottom reads: "Data source: International Monetary Fund (2025)". A CC BY license mark and the Our World in Data logo appear in the image.

📊 Data update: We now show the latest GDP growth projections from the IMF

In the spring and fall each year, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) publishes its World Economic Outlook. The latest report was published this past October.

A line chart showing productivity, defined as gross domestic product (GDP) per hour of work, for a selection of 10 countries from 1950 to 2023. The data is adjusted for inflation and differences in living costs between countries. At the top of the chart is Denmark, with a productivity of 88.7 $ per hour. At the bottom is Ethiopia, at 4.5 $ per hour. The data source is the Penn World Table (2025). The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

📊 Data update: The Penn World Table is an extensive database that helps us understand long-run, global trends in economic growth, working hours, productivity, and living standards.

We’ve updated 17 of our charts using the latest release.

A stacked area chart showing the total population (split by World Bank region) living in extreme poverty, defined as living below the International Poverty Line of $3 per day. Shown from 1990 to 2025, with World Bank projections from 2026–2040. The data is adjusted for inflation and cost of living differences. Rapid progress against extreme poverty in recent decades has slowed and is projected to end. In 1990, 2.3 billion people lived in extreme poverty. Since then, the number of extremely poor people has declined by 1.5 billion people. The number of people in extreme poverty is projected to decline, from 831 million people in 2025 to 793 million people in 2030. After 2030, the number of extremely poor people is expected to increase. The data source is Lakner et al (2024), updated using the World Bank PIP (2025). The chart is licensded CC BY to Our World in Data.

In the last decades, the world has made fantastic progress against extreme poverty. In 1990, 2.3 billion people lived in extreme poverty. Since then, the number of extremely poor people has declined by 1.5 *billion* people. 🧵

NBER grants to fund research into economic measurement - I find this agenda very compelling and important #linkoftheday
www.nber.org/news/nber-la...

Great to see the new search tool on Our World in Data!

It is now *much* easier to find what you want among the thousands of charts and hundreds of datasets we host

Really amazed by the colleagues who made this happen ✨

Really cool!

Economics Literature Search Full-text search across 15,000+ papers from top economics journals and NBER working papers. Track how empirical methods have evolved over time.

Dropping a beta version of this page while everyone is up and processing baseball!

This tool lets you search the full text of papers from the American Economic Review, American Economic Journal series, and over 30,000 NBER working papers.

paulgp.com/econlit-pipe...

Interested in bite-sized, data-driven insights on the world and how it’s changing?

Check out our growing catalog of over 350 Data Insights (DIs) — which we’ve just made easier to explore and discover what matters to you!

How over- and underrepresented are different causes of death in the media?

Another way to visualize this data is to measure how over- or underrepresented each cause is.

To do this, we calculate the ratio between a cause’s share of deaths and its share of news articles.

How Wolbachia bacteria could help us tackle some of the world’s most neglected tropical diseases A common bacterium can dramatically reduce the spread of dengue fever and other tropical diseases.

In a new article, @hannahritchie.bsky.social explains the Wolbachia method and how it promises to finally give humanity an effective tool against several neglected tropical diseases: ourworldindata.org/wolbachia-ne...

A fun chart game that primarily sources its data from Our World in Data!