May 17, 2024
The Netherlands was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage in 2001. Since then, more than 30 other countries have followed suit.
You can see this in the chart, based on data from Pew Research. By 2022, same-sex marriage was legal in 32 countries.
Since then, 3 more countries have joined this group: Andorra, Estonia, and Greece — bringing the total to 35. Last year, Nepal also registered its first same-sex wedding, but it’s not yet clear whether these rights are available across the country.
Today
According to the latest trade statistics from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, the sum of exports and imports across countries amounted to 63% of global GDP in 2022, the most recent year available.
This metric, also known as the trade openness index, represents the ratio of total trade (exports plus imports) to global output. The higher this ratio, the greater the influence of international trade transactions on global economic activity.
The chart shows the trade openness trend since 1970. After a decade of ups and downs, with a noticeable dip in 2020, trade rebounded above pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
In fact, from a long-run perspective, the 63% observed in 2022 was historically unprecedented.
Economic historians estimate that in 1912, at the peak of the “first wave of globalization���, the trade openness index reached 30%. Global trade declined substantially during the First and Second World Wars, then increased again with the onset of the “second wave of globalization”, exceeding 50% of GDP at the beginning of the 21st century.
The fact that global trade openness was higher in 2022 than ever before may seem surprising, given that several countries that followed different trajectories received considerable attention in the media. For example, imports and exports peaked at 65% of GDP in China in 2006 but have since declined to 38% in 2022.
Read more about the first and second waves of globalization →
Yesterday
This chart shows death rates across the first year of a baby’s life and how they have been reduced over time.
The data spans 1921 to 2021 and comes from the Office for National Statistics in England & Wales.
On the left-hand side of the chart, you can see that death rates are much higher on the first day of life. They then drop sharply over the following days and continue declining gradually over the rest of the year.
But you can also see that over decades, the entire curve has shifted downwards. This means that every day of infancy is safer than in the past.
Read more about the decline in child mortality →
July 30
The chart shows the global number of children and adolescents who are not in school across primary and secondary education.
According to the most recent UNESCO data, this number has fallen from 390 million in 2000 to 244 million in 2023. That’s nearly a 40% reduction. The global population of children has grown during this time, making the decrease in out-of-school children even more significant.
Many more children are getting an opportunity to learn now than 20 years ago, but progress has stagnated in the last five years.
Historically, more girls than boys were out of school, but this gap has nearly closed. Unfortunately, the global aggregate data split by gender has not been updated by UNESCO since 2019. This makes it hard to track recent progress between boys and girls.
Explore the number of children out of school in other countries →
July 29
In 1820, only 1 in 10 people over the age of 15 could read. Today, the corresponding global literacy rate — the share of adults aged 15 and older who can read and write — is 87%. That means more than 5 billion people can read and write today, compared to fewer than 100 million two centuries ago.
The chart shows the rising global literacy rate over time. The data combines historical estimates from academic historians with more recent statistics from UNESCO.
As we can see, widespread literacy is a recent achievement. This trend underlines a huge achievement, but it’s important to remember that there’s still much progress ahead of us. In many schools, children learn very little, and many still do not attend school.
Read more about how literacy is measured, and learn about the research that identifies low-cost ways to improve learning outcomes →
July 26
Romania tops the list of countries with the highest alcohol consumption per person, with Georgia, Czechia, Latvia, and Germany rounding out the top five. This is according to the global estimates made available by the World Health Organization (WHO), the latest data referring to 2019.
Alcohol consumption is measured here in liters of pure alcohol to account for beer, wine, and spirits having different alcohol content, ranging from around 5% by volume for a typical beer to 12% for wine to 40% or more for spirits.
To make this more concrete, the average Romanian drinks an estimated 17 liters of pure alcohol per year — roughly equivalent to a weekly consumption of 18 bottles of beer (355 mL each) or 3.6 bottles of wine (750 mL each).
In contrast, alcohol consumption is very low in some countries, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.
See how much alcohol people drink in your country →
July 25
Cases of guinea worm disease have fallen dramatically in recent decades. According to the WHO, over 890,000 cases were recorded worldwide in 1989. As you can see on the chart — which we just updated with the latest data — only 14 human cases were reported in 2023.
Guinea worm disease is caused by the parasitic guinea worm, which mainly spreads through stagnant water sources like ponds. The worm’s larvae enter the human body when a person drinks contaminated water, after which they penetrate the digestive tract to mature and reproduce within the body.
Around a year after the initial infection, the adult female breaks through the skin's surface, creating a painful blister through which it gradually emerges over several weeks. When it comes into contact with water, it releases new larvae and continues its life cycle.
The disease was previously endemic in over 20 countries in South Asia and Africa. An international eradication campaign has substantially decreased the number of cases by improving access to clean drinking water and actively monitoring and containing cases in endemic regions.
Learn more about the effort to eradicate guinea worm disease →
July 24
Since 2020, 14 countries have consistently generated over 95% renewable electricity, according to Ember’s Yearly electricity data. In eight of these countries, electricity has been almost entirely renewable-based for over 20 years.
Renewable sources include hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, tidal, and wave power. In all these countries, the largest source of electricity was hydropower.
Sub-Saharan countries, however, use significantly less electricity in their energy mix compared to countries in Europe or North America.
Read more on renewable energy →
