posts: 24902

This table contains the full text for all our old WORDPRESS content in html form. The format is a bit odd as it represents a direct copy from wordpress content that includes a lot of wordpress specific comments that carry some meaning in terms of layout instructions etc.. The html in the content column can thus be rendered as is but will not look identical to the way it looks on our website as several post processing steps are not applied yet. The content should work though as a readable approximation for every post. For easy searching etc, a markdown copy of the content is available in the markdown column. If you want to query all posts (both wordpress and gdocs), use the posts_unified table or the posts_unified_with_content view.

This data as json

id	title	slug	type	status	content	archieml	archieml_update_statistics	published_at	updated_at	gdocSuccessorId	authors	excerpt	created_at_in_wordpress	updated_at_in_wordpress	featured_image	formattingOptions	markdown	wpApiSnapshot
24902	12 key metrics to understand the state of the world	12-key-metrics	post	publish	<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Therefore, we present many charts – now <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/charts">more than 3000</a> – across <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/#entries">many topics</a>. All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn’t easy– all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don’t break – if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:<br>(1) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty">Extreme Poverty</a><br>(2) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita">GDP per capita</a><br>(3) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population">Population</a><br>(4) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality">Child Mortality</a><br>(5) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate">Fertility Rate</a><br>(6) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy">Life Expectancy</a><br>(7) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger and Undernourishment</a><br>(8) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy">Education – years of schooling and literacy</a><br>(9) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation">Access to improved water sources and sanitation</a><br>(10) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access">Energy Access</a><br>(11) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use">Energy Use</a><br>(12) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions">CO</a><sub><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions">2</a></sub><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions"> emissions</a></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(1) Extreme Poverty</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Ending <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/poverty">global poverty</a> is surely one of the world’s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover – ranging from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">hunger and malnutrition</a> to health, education, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">access to basic resources</a>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Extreme poverty – indeed a <em>very</em> extreme poverty line – is defined by the ‘International Poverty Line,’ which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line">article here</a>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL">here</a>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low – well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the ‘Relative’ checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.<br><br>You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/poverty">Poverty</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(2) GDP per capita</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lifting people out of poverty – relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds – <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty">relies on economic growth</a> worldwide.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods">most of human history</a>, our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth – particularly over the past few centuries – has <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950">allowed some of the world's population to</a> break out of these conditions.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth">Economic prosperity</a> is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries – it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth">Economic Growth</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(3) Population</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:columns --> <div class="wp-block-columns"><!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The size of the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">population</a> is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics – ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions – in per capita terms and absolute numbers.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>As we describe <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram"><strong>here</strong></a> in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">World Population Growth</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources","className":"is-style-thin"} /--></div> <!-- /wp:column --> <!-- wp:column --> <div class="wp-block-column"><!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":5} --> <h5>Explore population data back to 10,000 BC</h5> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:owid/prominent-link {"title":"Population estimates since 10,000 BC","linkUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population","className":"is-style-thin"} /--></div> <!-- /wp:column --></div> <!-- /wp:columns --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(4) Child Mortality</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn’s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare">healthcare</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">nutrition</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality">maternal health</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease">disease prevention</a>, and treatment. We can think of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality"><strong>child mortality</strong></a> in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (<a href="https://childmortality.org/">UN IGME</a>).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality">Child & Infant Mortality</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(5) Fertility Rate</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate">Fertility rate</a> – the average number of children per woman – is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development">proxy measure</a> of other aspects of progress such as <a href="https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education">education</a>, access to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning">family planning</a> and contraception, and <a href="https://owid.cloud/child-mortality">child mortality</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that <a href="http://www.gapminder.org/">Gapminder</a> has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries – but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate">Fertility Rate</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(6) Life expectancy</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy">Life expectancy</a> is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality">child health and mortality</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available – such as the UK – estimates can extend back to 1543 – click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) – Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537–543, September 2005.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, "Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)", <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53">http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53</a>, IISH Dataverse, V1.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy">Life Expectancy</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(7) Hunger and Undernourishment</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger</a> has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one’s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/famines">Famines</a> were common around the world.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Hunger – also often referred to as <em>undernourishment</em> – is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual’s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person’s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Having <em>enough</em> food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger and Undernourishment</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment" loading="lazy"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(8) Education – years of schooling and literacy</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right – with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment – we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:list --> <ul><li><strong>Mean years of schooling</strong> estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.</li><li>The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/literacy"><strong>here</strong></a>.</li></ul> <!-- /wp:list --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You find more research in our entries on the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education">Global Rise of Education</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/literacy">Literacy</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Access to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation">clean water and sanitation</a> is a basic human need and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation">right</a>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death">risk factors</a> for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group">are attributed to</a> unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to ‘improved’ drinking water and sanitation facilities. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>An ‘improved’ drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). ‘Improved’ sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1"><strong>here</strong></a>, and sanitation <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2"><strong>here</strong></a>). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world – many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on ‘improved’ water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on <em>safe</em> drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation">Water Use and Sanitation</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(10) Energy Access</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution">household air pollution</a> every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity">access to electricity</a>, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking">clean fuels for cooking</a>. The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world. <br><br>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">Energy Access</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(11) Energy Use</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Having <em>access</em> to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn’t tell us a lot about the <em>quantity</em> of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Energy use – the average per capita energy consumption – is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita – from all sources, including biomass – worldwide.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">Energy Access</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2>(12) CO<sub>2</sub> emissions</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions</a>. We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity">tend to increase</a>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>CO<sub>2</sub> emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends">now emit</a> more than 36 billion tonnes each year.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are many indicators we can use to look at CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:html --> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita"></iframe> <!-- /wp:html -->	{ "id": "wp-24902", "slug": "12-key-metrics", "content": { "toc": [], "body": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world\u2019s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Therefore, we present many charts \u2013 now ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/charts", "children": [ { "text": "more than 3000", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " \u2013 across ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/#entries", "children": [ { "text": "many topics", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ". All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn\u2019t easy\u2013 all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don\u2019t break \u2013 if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(1) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty", "children": [ { "text": "Extreme Poverty", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(2) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita", "children": [ { "text": "GDP per capita", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(3) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population", "children": [ { "text": "Population", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(4) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality", "children": [ { "text": "Child Mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(5) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate", "children": [ { "text": "Fertility Rate", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(6) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy", "children": [ { "text": "Life Expectancy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(7) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment", "children": [ { "text": "Hunger and Undernourishment", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(8) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy", "children": [ { "text": "Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(9) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation", "children": [ { "text": "Access to improved water sources and sanitation", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(10) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access", "children": [ { "text": "Energy Access", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(11) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use", "children": [ { "text": "Energy Use", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "(12) ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions", "children": [ { "text": "CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "children": [ { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions", "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions", "children": [ { "text": " emissions", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(1) Extreme Poverty", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Ending ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/poverty", "children": [ { "text": "global poverty", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " is surely one of the world\u2019s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover \u2013 ranging from ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment", "children": [ { "text": "hunger and malnutrition", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " to health, education, and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access", "children": [ { "text": "access to basic resources", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Extreme poverty \u2013 indeed a ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "very", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " extreme poverty line \u2013 is defined by the \u2018International Poverty Line,\u2019 which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians\u00a0adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line", "children": [ { "text": "article here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL", "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low \u2013 well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the \u2018Relative\u2019 checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/poverty", "children": [ { "text": "Poverty", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(2) GDP per capita", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Lifting people out of poverty \u2013 relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds \u2013 ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty", "children": [ { "text": "relies on economic growth", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " worldwide.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "For ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods", "children": [ { "text": "most of human history", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth \u2013 particularly over the past few centuries \u2013 has ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950", "children": [ { "text": "allowed some of the world's population to", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " break out of these conditions.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth", "children": [ { "text": "Economic prosperity", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries \u2013 it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth", "children": [ { "text": "Economic Growth", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(3) Population", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "left": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The size of the ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth", "children": [ { "text": "population", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics \u2013 ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions \u2013 in per capita terms and absolute numbers.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "As we describe ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth", "children": [ { "text": "World Population Growth", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources", "type": "prominent-link", "title": "", "description": "", "parseErrors": [] } ], "type": "sticky-right", "right": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "Explore population data back to 10,000 BC", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 5, "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population", "type": "prominent-link", "title": "Population estimates since 10,000 BC", "description": "", "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(4) Child Mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn\u2019s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare", "children": [ { "text": "healthcare", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment", "children": [ { "text": "nutrition", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality", "children": [ { "text": "maternal health", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease", "children": [ { "text": "disease prevention", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", and treatment. We can think of ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "child mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://childmortality.org/", "children": [ { "text": "UN IGME", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ").", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality", "children": [ { "text": "Child & Infant Mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(5) Fertility Rate", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate", "children": [ { "text": "Fertility rate", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " \u2013 the average number of children per woman \u2013 is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development", "children": [ { "text": "proxy measure", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " of other aspects of progress such as ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education", "children": [ { "text": "education", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", access to ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning", "children": [ { "text": "family planning", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " and contraception, and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://owid.cloud/child-mortality", "children": [ { "text": "child mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://www.gapminder.org/", "children": [ { "text": "Gapminder", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries \u2013 but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate", "children": [ { "text": "Fertility Rate", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(6) Life expectancy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy", "children": [ { "text": "Life expectancy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality", "children": [ { "text": "child health and mortality", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available \u2013 such as the UK \u2013 estimates can extend back to 1543 \u2013 click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) \u2013 Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800\u20132001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537\u2013543, September 2005.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, \"Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)\", ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53", "children": [ { "text": "http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", IISH Dataverse, V1.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy", "children": [ { "text": "Life Expectancy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(7) Hunger and Undernourishment", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment", "children": [ { "text": "Hunger", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one\u2019s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/famines", "children": [ { "text": "Famines", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " were common around the world.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Hunger \u2013 also often referred to as ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "undernourishment", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " \u2013 is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual\u2019s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person\u2019s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Having ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "enough", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment", "children": [ { "text": "Hunger and Undernourishment", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(8) Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right \u2013 with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment \u2013 we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "list", "items": [ { "type": "text", "value": [ { "children": [ { "text": "Mean years of schooling", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" }, { "text": " estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/literacy", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You find more research in our entries on the ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education", "children": [ { "text": "Global Rise of Education", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/literacy", "children": [ { "text": "Literacy", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Access to ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation", "children": [ { "text": "clean water and sanitation", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " is a basic human need and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation", "children": [ { "text": "right", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death", "children": [ { "text": "risk factors", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group", "children": [ { "text": "are attributed to", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water and sanitation facilities.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "An \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user\u2019s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). \u2018Improved\u2019 sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", and sanitation ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ").\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world \u2013 many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on \u2018improved\u2019 water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "safe", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation", "children": [ { "text": "Water Use and Sanitation", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(10) Energy Access", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution", "children": [ { "text": "household air pollution", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity", "children": [ { "text": "access to electricity", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ", and ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking", "children": [ { "text": "clean fuels for cooking", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ". The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world.\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "spanType": "span-newline" }, { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access", "children": [ { "text": "Energy Access", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(11) Energy Use", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Having ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "access", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn\u2019t tell us a lot about the ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "quantity", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-italic" }, { "text": " of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Energy use \u2013 the average per capita energy consumption \u2013 is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita \u2013 from all sources, including biomass \u2013 worldwide.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access", "children": [ { "text": "Energy Access", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] }, { "text": [ { "text": "(12) CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": " emissions", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "type": "heading", "level": 2, "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions", "children": [ { "text": "carbon dioxide (CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": ") emissions", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ". We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity", "children": [ { "text": "tend to increase", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".\u00a0", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": " emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends", "children": [ { "text": "now emit", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": " more than 36 billion tonnes each year.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "There are many indicators we can use to look at CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": " emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions", "children": [ { "children": [ { "text": "here", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-bold" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": " emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "type": "text", "value": [ { "text": "You find more research in our entry on ", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions", "children": [ { "text": "CO", "spanType": "span-simple-text" }, { "children": [ { "text": "2", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-subscript" }, { "text": " and Greenhouse Gas Emissions", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "spanType": "span-link" }, { "text": ".", "spanType": "span-simple-text" } ], "parseErrors": [] }, { "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita", "type": "chart", "parseErrors": [] } ], "type": "article", "title": "12 key metrics to understand the state of the world", "authors": [ "Hannah Ritchie" ], "excerpt": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.", "dateline": "September 26, 2019", "subtitle": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.", "sidebar-toc": false, "featured-image": "Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41.png" }, "createdAt": "2019-09-24T15:13:16.000Z", "published": false, "updatedAt": "2024-01-16T11:51:55.000Z", "revisionId": null, "publishedAt": "2019-09-26T09:00:16.000Z", "relatedCharts": [], "publicationContext": "listed" }	{ "errors": [ { "name": "unexpected wp component tag", "details": "Found unhandled wp:comment tag list" } ], "numBlocks": 89, "numErrors": 1, "wpTagCounts": { "html": 18, "list": 1, "column": 2, "columns": 1, "heading": 13, "paragraph": 62, "owid/prominent-link": 2 }, "htmlTagCounts": { "p": 62, "h2": 12, "h5": 1, "ul": 1, "div": 3, "iframe": 18 } }	2019-09-26 09:00:16	2024-02-16 14:22:49	1fgRjX2SecvwWsuIAGuT_kU4AEwtOlkgOIcJvDq4jaHE	[ "Hannah Ritchie" ]	At Our World in Data we present data and research – across more than 3000 charts – on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.	2019-09-24 15:13:16	2024-01-16 11:51:55	https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41.png	{}	At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights. Therefore, we present many charts – now [more than 3000](https://ourworldindata.org/charts) – across [many topics](https://ourworldindata.org/#entries). All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data. We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn’t easy– all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don’t break – if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years. To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place: (1) [Extreme Poverty](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty) (2) [GDP per capita](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita) (3) [Population](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population) (4) [Child Mortality](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality) (5) [Fertility Rate](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate) (6) [Life Expectancy](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy) (7) [Hunger and Undernourishment](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment) (8) [Education – years of schooling and literacy](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy) (9) [Access to improved water sources and sanitation](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation) (10) [Energy Access](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access) (11) [Energy Use](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use) (12) [CO](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions)[2](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions)[ emissions](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions) ## (1) Extreme Poverty Ending [global poverty](https://ourworldindata.org/poverty) is surely one of the world’s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover – ranging from [hunger and malnutrition](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment) to health, education, and [access to basic resources](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). Extreme poverty – indeed a _very_ extreme poverty line – is defined by the ‘International Poverty Line,’ which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our [article here](https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line). The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries [here](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL). As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low – well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the ‘Relative’ checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines. You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on [Poverty](https://ourworldindata.org/poverty). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative"/> ## (2) GDP per capita Lifting people out of poverty – relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds – [relies on economic growth](https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty) worldwide. For [most of human history](https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods), our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth – particularly over the past few centuries – has [allowed some of the world's population to](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950) break out of these conditions. [Economic prosperity](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth) is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries – it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices. The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades. You will find more research in our entry on [Economic Growth](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank"/> ## (3) Population The size of the [population](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth) is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics – ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions – in per capita terms and absolute numbers. As we describe [here](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram) in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing. The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC. You will find more research in our entry on [World Population Growth](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth). ### https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF"/> ##### Explore population data back to 10,000 BC ### Population estimates since 10,000 BC https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population ## (4) Child Mortality One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn’s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: [healthcare](https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare), [nutrition](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment), [maternal health](https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality), [disease prevention](https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease), and treatment. We can think of [child mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality) in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions. Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five. We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data. Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation ([UN IGME](https://childmortality.org/)). You will find more research in our entry on [Child & Infant Mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme"/> ## (5) Fertility Rate [Fertility rate](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate) – the average number of children per woman – is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a [proxy measure](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development) of other aspects of progress such as [education](https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education), access to [family planning](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning) and contraception, and [child mortality](https://owid.cloud/child-mortality). The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that [Gapminder](http://www.gapminder.org/) has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries. In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries – but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found [here](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder). You will find more research in our entry on [Fertility Rate](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman"/> ## (6) Life expectancy [Life expectancy](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy) is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of [child health and mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality). We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail [here](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted). Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available – such as the UK – estimates can extend back to 1543 – click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770. This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) – Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537–543, September 2005. Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, "Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)", [http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53](http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53), IISH Dataverse, V1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref} You will find more research in our entry on [Life Expectancy](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map"/> ## (7) Hunger and Undernourishment [Hunger](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment) has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one’s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and [Famines](https://ourworldindata.org/famines) were common around the world. The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Hunger – also often referred to as _undernourishment_ – is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual’s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person’s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates. Having _enough_ food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic [here](https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency). You find more research in our entry on [Hunger and Undernourishment](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment"/> ## (8) Education – years of schooling and literacy Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes. Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right – with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all. We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment – we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates). The visualizations present these metrics over the long term: * Mean years of schooling estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme. * The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy [here](https://ourworldindata.org/literacy). You find more research in our entries on the [Global Rise of Education](https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education) and [Literacy](https://ourworldindata.org/literacy). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map"/> ## (9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation Access to [clean water and sanitation](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation) is a basic human need and [right](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation). Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading [risk factors](https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death) for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths [are attributed to](https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group) unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene. In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to ‘improved’ drinking water and sanitation facilities. An ‘improved’ drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). ‘Improved’ sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet. One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water [here](https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1), and sanitation [here](https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2)). Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world – many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on ‘improved’ water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on _safe_ drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics. You find more research in our entry on [Water Use and Sanitation](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities"/> ## (10) Energy Access Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks. The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from [household air pollution](https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution) every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia. Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: [access to electricity](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity), and [clean fuels for cooking](https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking). The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world. You will find more research in our entry on [Energy Access](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking"/> ## (11) Energy Use Having _access_ to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn’t tell us a lot about the _quantity_ of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs. Energy use – the average per capita energy consumption – is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita – from all sources, including biomass – worldwide. Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail [here](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources). You will find more research in our entry on [Energy Access](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita"/> ## (12) CO2 emissions Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising [carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions [tend to increase](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity). CO2 emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we [now emit](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends) more than 36 billion tonnes each year. There are many indicators we can use to look at CO2 emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail [here](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO2 emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures. You find more research in our entry on [CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita"/>	{ "id": 24902, "date": "2019-09-26T10:00:16", "guid": { "rendered": "https://owid.cloud/?p=24902" }, "link": "https://owid.cloud/12-key-metrics", "meta": { "owid_publication_context_meta_field": { "latest": true, "homepage": true, "immediate_newsletter": true } }, "slug": "12-key-metrics", "tags": [], "type": "post", "title": { "rendered": "12 key metrics to understand the state of the world" }, "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post" } ], "author": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/users/17", "embeddable": true } ], "curies": [ { "href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}", "name": "wp", "templated": true } ], "replies": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=24902", "embeddable": true } ], "wp:term": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=24902", "taxonomy": "category", "embeddable": true }, { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=24902", "taxonomy": "post_tag", "embeddable": true } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=24902" } ], "version-history": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902/revisions", "count": 24 } ], "wp:featuredmedia": [ { "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media/38004", "embeddable": true } ], "predecessor-version": [ { "id": 58620, "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902/revisions/58620" } ] }, "author": 17, "format": "standard", "status": "publish", "sticky": false, "content": { "rendered": "\n<p>At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world\u2019s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, we present many charts \u2013 now <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/charts\">more than 3000</a> \u2013 across <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/#entries\">many topics</a>. All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn\u2019t easy\u2013 all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don\u2019t break \u2013 if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:<br>(1) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty\">Extreme Poverty</a><br>(2) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita\">GDP per capita</a><br>(3) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population\">Population</a><br>(4) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality\">Child Mortality</a><br>(5) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate\">Fertility Rate</a><br>(6) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy\">Life Expectancy</a><br>(7) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger and Undernourishment</a><br>(8) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy\">Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy</a><br>(9) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation\">Access to improved water sources and sanitation</a><br>(10) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access\">Energy Access</a><br>(11) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use\">Energy Use</a><br>(12) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\">CO</a><sub><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\">2</a></sub><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\"> emissions</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>(1) Extreme Poverty</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ending <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/poverty\">global poverty</a> is surely one of the world\u2019s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover \u2013 ranging from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">hunger and malnutrition</a> to health, education, and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">access to basic resources</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extreme poverty \u2013 indeed a <em>very</em> extreme poverty line \u2013 is defined by the \u2018International Poverty Line,\u2019 which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line\">article here</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL\">here</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low \u2013 well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the \u2018Relative\u2019 checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.<br><br>You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/poverty\">Poverty</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(2) GDP per capita</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lifting people out of poverty \u2013 relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds \u2013 <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty\">relies on economic growth</a> worldwide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods\">most of human history</a>, our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth \u2013 particularly over the past few centuries \u2013 has <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950\">allowed some of the world’s population to</a> break out of these conditions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth\">Economic prosperity</a> is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries \u2013 it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth\">Economic Growth</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(3) Population</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>The size of the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth\">population</a> is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics \u2013 ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions \u2013 in per capita terms and absolute numbers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we describe <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram\"><strong>here</strong></a> in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth\">World Population Growth</a>.</p>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources</link-url>\n <title></title>\n <content></content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h5>Explore population data back to 10,000 BC</h5>\n\n\n <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population</link-url>\n <title>Population estimates since 10,000 BC</title>\n <content></content>\n <figure></figure>\n </block></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>(4) Child Mortality</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn\u2019s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare\">healthcare</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">nutrition</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality\">maternal health</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease\">disease prevention</a>, and treatment. We can think of <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\"><strong>child mortality</strong></a> in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country’s living conditions. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (<a href=\"https://childmortality.org/\">UN IGME</a>).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\">Child & Infant Mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(5) Fertility Rate</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate\">Fertility rate</a> \u2013 the average number of children per woman \u2013 is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development\">proxy measure</a> of other aspects of progress such as <a href=\"https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education\">education</a>, access to <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning\">family planning</a> and contraception, and <a href=\"https://owid.cloud/child-mortality\">child mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that <a href=\"http://www.gapminder.org/\">Gapminder</a> has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries \u2013 but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate\">Fertility Rate</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(6) Life expectancy</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy\">Life expectancy</a> is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\">child health and mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available \u2013 such as the UK \u2013 estimates can extend back to 1543 \u2013 click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) \u2013 Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800\u20132001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537\u2013543, September 2005.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, “Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)”, <a href=\"http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53\">http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53</a>, IISH Dataverse, V1.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy\">Life Expectancy</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(7) Hunger and Undernourishment</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger</a> has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one\u2019s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/famines\">Famines</a> were common around the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hunger \u2013 also often referred to as <em>undernourishment</em> \u2013 is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual\u2019s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person\u2019s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having <em>enough</em> food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger and Undernourishment</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment\" loading=\"lazy\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(8) Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Education has been one of global development’s most integral drivers and outcomes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right \u2013 with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment \u2013 we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Mean years of schooling</strong> estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.</li><li>The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/literacy\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entries on the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education\">Global Rise of Education</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/literacy\">Literacy</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Access to <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation\">clean water and sanitation</a> is a basic human need and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation\">right</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death\">risk factors</a> for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group\">are attributed to</a> unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water and sanitation facilities. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>An \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user\u2019s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). \u2018Improved\u2019 sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water <a href=\"https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1\"><strong>here</strong></a>, and sanitation <a href=\"https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2\"><strong>here</strong></a>). </p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world \u2013 many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on \u2018improved\u2019 water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on <em>safe</em> drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation\">Water Use and Sanitation</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(10) Energy Access</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution\">household air pollution</a> every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity\">access to electricity</a>, and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking\">clean fuels for cooking</a>. The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world. <br><br>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">Energy Access</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(11) Energy Use</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Having <em>access</em> to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn\u2019t tell us a lot about the <em>quantity</em> of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Energy use \u2013 the average per capita energy consumption \u2013 is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita \u2013 from all sources, including biomass \u2013 worldwide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">Energy Access</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(12) CO<sub>2</sub> emissions</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions</a>. We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity\">tend to increase</a>. </p>\n\n\n\n<p>CO<sub>2</sub> emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends\">now emit</a> more than 36 billion tonnes each year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many indicators we can use to look at CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita\"></iframe>\n", "protected": false }, "excerpt": { "rendered": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world’s largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.", "protected": false }, "date_gmt": "2019-09-26T09:00:16", "modified": "2024-01-16T11:51:55", "template": "", "categories": [ 1 ], "ping_status": "closed", "authors_name": [ "Hannah Ritchie" ], "modified_gmt": "2024-01-16T11:51:55", "comment_status": "closed", "featured_media": 38004, "featured_media_paths": { "thumbnail": "/app/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41-150x81.png", "medium_large": "/app/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41-768x416.png" } }

title

slug

type

status

content

archieml

archieml_update_statistics

published_at

updated_at

gdocSuccessorId

authors

excerpt

created_at_in_wordpress

updated_at_in_wordpress

featured_image

formattingOptions

markdown

wpApiSnapshot

24902

12 key metrics to understand the state of the world

12-key-metrics

post

publish

<p>At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.</p>   <p>Therefore, we present many charts – now <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/charts">more than 3000</a> – across <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/#entries">many topics</a>. All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.</p>   <p>We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn’t easy– all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don’t break – if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.</p>   <p>To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:<br>(1) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty">Extreme Poverty</a><br>(2) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita">GDP per capita</a><br>(3) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population">Population</a><br>(4) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality">Child Mortality</a><br>(5) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate">Fertility Rate</a><br>(6) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy">Life Expectancy</a><br>(7) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger and Undernourishment</a><br>(8) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy">Education – years of schooling and literacy</a><br>(9) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation">Access to improved water sources and sanitation</a><br>(10) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access">Energy Access</a><br>(11) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use">Energy Use</a><br>(12) <a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions">CO</a><sub><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions">2</a></sub><a href="http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions"> emissions</a></p>   <h2>(1) Extreme Poverty</h2>   <p>Ending <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/poverty">global poverty</a> is surely one of the world’s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover – ranging from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">hunger and malnutrition</a> to health, education, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">access to basic resources</a>. </p>   <p>Extreme poverty – indeed a <em>very</em> extreme poverty line – is defined by the ‘International Poverty Line,’ which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line">article here</a>. </p>   <p>The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL">here</a>. </p>   <p>As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low – well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the ‘Relative’ checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.<br><br>You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/poverty">Poverty</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative"></iframe>   <h2>(2) GDP per capita</h2>   <p>Lifting people out of poverty – relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds – <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty">relies on economic growth</a> worldwide.</p>   <p>For <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods">most of human history</a>, our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth – particularly over the past few centuries – has <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950">allowed some of the world's population to</a> break out of these conditions.</p>   <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth">Economic prosperity</a> is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries – it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.</p>   <p>The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth">Economic Growth</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank"></iframe>   <h2>(3) Population</h2>   <div class="wp-block-columns"> <div class="wp-block-column"> <p>The size of the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">population</a> is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics – ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions – in per capita terms and absolute numbers.</p>   <p>As we describe <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram"><strong>here</strong></a> in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.</p>   <p>The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth">World Population Growth</a>.</p>  </div>   <div class="wp-block-column"> <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF" loading="lazy" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>   <h5>Explore population data back to 10,000 BC</h5>  </div> </div>   <h2>(4) Child Mortality</h2>   <p>One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn’s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare">healthcare</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">nutrition</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality">maternal health</a>, <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease">disease prevention</a>, and treatment. We can think of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality"><strong>child mortality</strong></a> in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions. </p>   <p>Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five. </p>   <p>We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data. </p>   <p>Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (<a href="https://childmortality.org/">UN IGME</a>).</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality">Child & Infant Mortality</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme"></iframe>   <h2>(5) Fertility Rate</h2>   <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate">Fertility rate</a> – the average number of children per woman – is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development">proxy measure</a> of other aspects of progress such as <a href="https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education">education</a>, access to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning">family planning</a> and contraception, and <a href="https://owid.cloud/child-mortality">child mortality</a>.</p>   <p>The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that <a href="http://www.gapminder.org/">Gapminder</a> has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.</p>   <p>In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries – but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate">Fertility Rate</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman"></iframe>   <h2>(6) Life expectancy</h2>   <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy">Life expectancy</a> is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality">child health and mortality</a>.</p>   <p>We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>   <p>Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available – such as the UK – estimates can extend back to 1543 – click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.</p>   <p>This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) – Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537–543, September 2005.</p>   <p>Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, "Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)", <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53">http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53</a>, IISH Dataverse, V1.</p>   <p>United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy">Life Expectancy</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map"></iframe>   <h2>(7) Hunger and Undernourishment</h2>   <p><a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger</a> has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one’s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/famines">Famines</a> were common around the world.</p>   <p>The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). </p>   <p>Hunger – also often referred to as <em>undernourishment</em> – is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual’s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person’s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.</p>   <p>Having <em>enough</em> food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>   <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment">Hunger and Undernourishment</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment" loading="lazy"></iframe>   <h2>(8) Education – years of schooling and literacy</h2>   <p>Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes.</p>   <p>Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right – with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.</p>   <p>We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment – we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).</p>   <p>The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:</p>   <ul><li><strong>Mean years of schooling</strong> estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.</li><li>The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/literacy"><strong>here</strong></a>.</li></ul>   <p>You find more research in our entries on the <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education">Global Rise of Education</a> and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/literacy">Literacy</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map"></iframe>   <h2>(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation</h2>   <p>Access to <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation">clean water and sanitation</a> is a basic human need and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation">right</a>. </p>   <p>Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death">risk factors</a> for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group">are attributed to</a> unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.</p>   <p>In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to ‘improved’ drinking water and sanitation facilities. </p>   <p>An ‘improved’ drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). ‘Improved’ sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.</p>   <p>One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1"><strong>here</strong></a>, and sanitation <a href="https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2"><strong>here</strong></a>). </p>   <p>Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world – many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on ‘improved’ water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on <em>safe</em> drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.</p>   <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation">Water Use and Sanitation</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities"></iframe>   <h2>(10) Energy Access</h2>   <p>Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.</p>   <p>The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution">household air pollution</a> every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.</p>   <p>Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity">access to electricity</a>, and <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking">clean fuels for cooking</a>. The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world. <br><br>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">Energy Access</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity" style="width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"></iframe>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking"></iframe>   <h2>(11) Energy Use</h2>   <p>Having <em>access</em> to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn’t tell us a lot about the <em>quantity</em> of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.</p>   <p>Energy use – the average per capita energy consumption – is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita – from all sources, including biomass – worldwide.</p>   <p>Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>   <p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access">Energy Access</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita"></iframe>   <h2>(12) CO<sub>2</sub> emissions</h2>   <p>Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions</a>. We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity">tend to increase</a>. </p>   <p>CO<sub>2</sub> emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends">now emit</a> more than 36 billion tonnes each year.</p>   <p>There are many indicators we can use to look at CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>   <p>The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.</p>   <p>You find more research in our entry on <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions">CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a>.</p>   <iframe src="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita"></iframe>

{
    "id": "wp-24902",
    "slug": "12-key-metrics",
    "content": {
        "toc": [],
        "body": [
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world\u2019s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Therefore, we present many charts \u2013 now ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/charts",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "more than 3000",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " \u2013 across ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/#entries",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "many topics",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ". All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn\u2019t easy\u2013 all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don\u2019t break \u2013 if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(1) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Extreme Poverty",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(2) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "GDP per capita",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(3) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Population",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(4) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Child Mortality",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(5) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Fertility Rate",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(6) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Life Expectancy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(7) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Hunger and Undernourishment",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(8) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(9) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Access to improved water sources and sanitation",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(10) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Energy Access",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(11) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Energy Use",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "(12) ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": " emissions",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(1) Extreme Poverty",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Ending ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/poverty",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "global poverty",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " is surely one of the world\u2019s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover \u2013 ranging from ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "hunger and malnutrition",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " to health, education, and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "access to basic resources",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Extreme poverty \u2013 indeed a ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "very",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " extreme poverty line \u2013 is defined by the \u2018International Poverty Line,\u2019 which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians\u00a0adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "article here",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "here",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low \u2013 well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the \u2018Relative\u2019 checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/poverty",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Poverty",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(2) GDP per capita",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Lifting people out of poverty \u2013 relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds \u2013 ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "relies on economic growth",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " worldwide.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "For ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "most of human history",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth \u2013 particularly over the past few centuries \u2013 has ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "allowed some of the world's population to",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " break out of these conditions.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Economic prosperity",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries \u2013 it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Economic Growth",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(3) Population",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "left": [
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "The size of the ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "population",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics \u2013 ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions \u2013 in per capita terms and absolute numbers.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "As we describe ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "here",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "World Population Growth",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources",
                        "type": "prominent-link",
                        "title": "",
                        "description": "",
                        "parseErrors": []
                    }
                ],
                "type": "sticky-right",
                "right": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF",
                        "type": "chart",
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "text": [
                            {
                                "text": "Explore population data back to 10,000 BC",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "type": "heading",
                        "level": 5,
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population",
                        "type": "prominent-link",
                        "title": "Population estimates since 10,000 BC",
                        "description": "",
                        "parseErrors": []
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(4) Child Mortality",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn\u2019s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "healthcare",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "nutrition",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "maternal health",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "disease prevention",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", and treatment. We can think of ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "child mortality",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions.\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five.\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data.\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://childmortality.org/",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "UN IGME",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ").",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Child & Infant Mortality",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(5) Fertility Rate",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Fertility rate",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " \u2013 the average number of children per woman \u2013 is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "proxy measure",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " of other aspects of progress such as ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "education",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", access to ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "family planning",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " and contraception, and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://owid.cloud/child-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "child mortality",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://www.gapminder.org/",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Gapminder",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries \u2013 but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Fertility Rate",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(6) Life expectancy",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Life expectancy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "child health and mortality",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available \u2013 such as the UK \u2013 estimates can extend back to 1543 \u2013 click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) \u2013 Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800\u20132001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537\u2013543, September 2005.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, \"Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)\", ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", IISH Dataverse, V1.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Life Expectancy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(7) Hunger and Undernourishment",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Hunger",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one\u2019s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/famines",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Famines",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " were common around the world.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Hunger \u2013 also often referred to as ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "undernourishment",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " \u2013 is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual\u2019s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person\u2019s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Having ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "enough",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Hunger and Undernourishment",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(8) Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right \u2013 with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment \u2013 we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "list",
                "items": [
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "Mean years of schooling",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    },
                    {
                        "type": "text",
                        "value": [
                            {
                                "text": "The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy ",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/literacy",
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "children": [
                                            {
                                                "text": "here",
                                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                            }
                                        ],
                                        "spanType": "span-bold"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-link"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ".",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "parseErrors": []
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You find more research in our entries on the ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Global Rise of Education",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/literacy",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Literacy",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Access to ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "clean water and sanitation",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " is a basic human need and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "right",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "risk factors",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "are attributed to",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water and sanitation facilities.\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "An \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user\u2019s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). \u2018Improved\u2019 sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", and sanitation ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ").\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world \u2013 many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on \u2018improved\u2019 water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "safe",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Water Use and Sanitation",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(10) Energy Access",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "household air pollution",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "access to electricity",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ", and ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "clean fuels for cooking",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ". The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world.\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "spanType": "span-newline"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Energy Access",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(11) Energy Use",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Having ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "access",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn\u2019t tell us a lot about the ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "quantity",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-italic"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Energy use \u2013 the average per capita energy consumption \u2013 is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita \u2013 from all sources, including biomass \u2013 worldwide.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You will find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "Energy Access",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "text": [
                    {
                        "text": "(12) CO",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " emissions",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "type": "heading",
                "level": 2,
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "carbon dioxide (CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-subscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": ") emissions",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ". We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "tend to increase",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".\u00a0",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "CO",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "now emit",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " more than 36 billion tonnes each year.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "There are many indicators we can use to look at CO",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "here",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-bold"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "2",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-subscript"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": " emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "type": "text",
                "value": [
                    {
                        "text": "You find more research in our entry on ",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    },
                    {
                        "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions",
                        "children": [
                            {
                                "text": "CO",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            },
                            {
                                "children": [
                                    {
                                        "text": "2",
                                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                                    }
                                ],
                                "spanType": "span-subscript"
                            },
                            {
                                "text": " and Greenhouse Gas Emissions",
                                "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                            }
                        ],
                        "spanType": "span-link"
                    },
                    {
                        "text": ".",
                        "spanType": "span-simple-text"
                    }
                ],
                "parseErrors": []
            },
            {
                "url": "https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita",
                "type": "chart",
                "parseErrors": []
            }
        ],
        "type": "article",
        "title": "12 key metrics to understand the state of the world",
        "authors": [
            "Hannah Ritchie"
        ],
        "excerpt": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.",
        "dateline": "September 26, 2019",
        "subtitle": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.",
        "sidebar-toc": false,
        "featured-image": "Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41.png"
    },
    "createdAt": "2019-09-24T15:13:16.000Z",
    "published": false,
    "updatedAt": "2024-01-16T11:51:55.000Z",
    "revisionId": null,
    "publishedAt": "2019-09-26T09:00:16.000Z",
    "relatedCharts": [],
    "publicationContext": "listed"
}

{
    "errors": [
        {
            "name": "unexpected wp component tag",
            "details": "Found unhandled wp:comment tag list"
        }
    ],
    "numBlocks": 89,
    "numErrors": 1,
    "wpTagCounts": {
        "html": 18,
        "list": 1,
        "column": 2,
        "columns": 1,
        "heading": 13,
        "paragraph": 62,
        "owid/prominent-link": 2
    },
    "htmlTagCounts": {
        "p": 62,
        "h2": 12,
        "h5": 1,
        "ul": 1,
        "div": 3,
        "iframe": 18
    }
}

2019-09-26 09:00:16

2024-02-16 14:22:49

1fgRjX2SecvwWsuIAGuT_kU4AEwtOlkgOIcJvDq4jaHE

[
    "Hannah Ritchie"
]

At Our World in Data we present data and research – across more than 3000 charts – on the world's largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.

2019-09-24 15:13:16

2024-01-16 11:51:55

https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41.png

{}

At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world’s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights. Therefore, we present many charts – now [more than 3000](https://ourworldindata.org/charts) – across [many topics](https://ourworldindata.org/#entries). All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data. We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn’t easy– all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don’t break – if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years. To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place: (1) [Extreme Poverty](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty) (2) [GDP per capita](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita) (3) [Population](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population) (4) [Child Mortality](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality) (5) [Fertility Rate](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate) (6) [Life Expectancy](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy) (7) [Hunger and Undernourishment](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment) (8) [Education – years of schooling and literacy](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy) (9) [Access to improved water sources and sanitation](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation) (10) [Energy Access](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access) (11) [Energy Use](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use) (12) [CO](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions)[2](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions)[ emissions](http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions) ## (1) Extreme Poverty Ending [global poverty](https://ourworldindata.org/poverty) is surely one of the world’s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover – ranging from [hunger and malnutrition](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment) to health, education, and [access to basic resources](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). Extreme poverty – indeed a _very_ extreme poverty line – is defined by the ‘International Poverty Line,’ which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our [article here](https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line). The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries [here](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL). As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low – well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the ‘Relative’ checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines. You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on [Poverty](https://ourworldindata.org/poverty). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative"/> ## (2) GDP per capita Lifting people out of poverty – relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds – [relies on economic growth](https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty) worldwide. For [most of human history](https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods), our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth – particularly over the past few centuries – has [allowed some of the world's population to](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950) break out of these conditions. [Economic prosperity](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth) is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries – it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices. The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades. You will find more research in our entry on [Economic Growth](https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank"/> ## (3) Population The size of the [population](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth) is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics – ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions – in per capita terms and absolute numbers. As we describe [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram) in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing. The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC. You will find more research in our entry on [World Population Growth](https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth). ### https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF"/> ##### Explore population data back to 10,000 BC ### Population estimates since 10,000 BC https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population ## (4) Child Mortality One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn’s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: [healthcare](https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare), [nutrition](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment), [maternal health](https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality), [disease prevention](https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease), and treatment. We can think of [**child mortality**](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality) in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country's living conditions. Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five. We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data. Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation ([UN IGME](https://childmortality.org/)). You will find more research in our entry on [Child & Infant Mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme"/> ## (5) Fertility Rate [Fertility rate](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate) – the average number of children per woman – is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a [proxy measure](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development) of other aspects of progress such as [education](https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education), access to [family planning](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning) and contraception, and [child mortality](https://owid.cloud/child-mortality). The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that [Gapminder](http://www.gapminder.org/) has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries. In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries – but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder). You will find more research in our entry on [Fertility Rate](https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman"/> ## (6) Life expectancy [Life expectancy](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy) is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of [child health and mortality](https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality). We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted). Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available – such as the UK – estimates can extend back to 1543 – click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770. This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) – Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800–2001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537–543, September 2005. Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, "Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)", [http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53](http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53), IISH Dataverse, V1. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref} You will find more research in our entry on [Life Expectancy](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map"/> ## (7) Hunger and Undernourishment [Hunger](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment) has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one’s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and [Famines](https://ourworldindata.org/famines) were common around the world. The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Hunger – also often referred to as _undernourishment_ – is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual’s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person’s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates. Having _enough_ food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency). You find more research in our entry on [Hunger and Undernourishment](https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment"/> ## (8) Education – years of schooling and literacy Education has been one of global development's most integral drivers and outcomes. Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right – with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all. We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment – we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates). The visualizations present these metrics over the long term: * **Mean years of schooling** estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme. * The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/literacy). You find more research in our entries on the [Global Rise of Education](https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education) and [Literacy](https://ourworldindata.org/literacy). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map"/> ## (9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation Access to [clean water and sanitation](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation) is a basic human need and [right](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation). Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading [risk factors](https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death) for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths [are attributed to](https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group) unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene. In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to ‘improved’ drinking water and sanitation facilities. An ‘improved’ drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user’s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). ‘Improved’ sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet. One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water [**here**](https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1), and sanitation [**here**](https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2)). Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world – many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on ‘improved’ water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on _safe_ drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics. You find more research in our entry on [Water Use and Sanitation](https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities"/> ## (10) Energy Access Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks. The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from [household air pollution](https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution) every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia. Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: [access to electricity](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity), and [clean fuels for cooking](https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking). The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world. You will find more research in our entry on [Energy Access](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity"/> <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking"/> ## (11) Energy Use Having _access_ to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn’t tell us a lot about the _quantity_ of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs. Energy use – the average per capita energy consumption – is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita – from all sources, including biomass – worldwide. Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources). You will find more research in our entry on [Energy Access](https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita"/> ## (12) CO2 emissions Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising [carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions [tend to increase](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity). CO2 emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we [now emit](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends) more than 36 billion tonnes each year. There are many indicators we can use to look at CO2 emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail [**here**](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO2 emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures. You find more research in our entry on [CO2 and Greenhouse Gas Emissions](https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions). <Chart url="https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita"/>

{
    "id": 24902,
    "date": "2019-09-26T10:00:16",
    "guid": {
        "rendered": "https://owid.cloud/?p=24902"
    },
    "link": "https://owid.cloud/12-key-metrics",
    "meta": {
        "owid_publication_context_meta_field": {
            "latest": true,
            "homepage": true,
            "immediate_newsletter": true
        }
    },
    "slug": "12-key-metrics",
    "tags": [],
    "type": "post",
    "title": {
        "rendered": "12 key metrics to understand the state of the world"
    },
    "_links": {
        "self": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902"
            }
        ],
        "about": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/types/post"
            }
        ],
        "author": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/users/17",
                "embeddable": true
            }
        ],
        "curies": [
            {
                "href": "https://api.w.org/{rel}",
                "name": "wp",
                "templated": true
            }
        ],
        "replies": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=24902",
                "embeddable": true
            }
        ],
        "wp:term": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/categories?post=24902",
                "taxonomy": "category",
                "embeddable": true
            },
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/tags?post=24902",
                "taxonomy": "post_tag",
                "embeddable": true
            }
        ],
        "collection": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts"
            }
        ],
        "wp:attachment": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media?parent=24902"
            }
        ],
        "version-history": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902/revisions",
                "count": 24
            }
        ],
        "wp:featuredmedia": [
            {
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/media/38004",
                "embeddable": true
            }
        ],
        "predecessor-version": [
            {
                "id": 58620,
                "href": "https://owid.cloud/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/24902/revisions/58620"
            }
        ]
    },
    "author": 17,
    "format": "standard",
    "status": "publish",
    "sticky": false,
    "content": {
        "rendered": "\n<p>At Our World in Data, our mission is to present research and data to make progress against the world\u2019s largest problems. These problems are broad and varied, ranging from poverty to health, education, environment, conflict, and human rights.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Therefore, we present many charts \u2013 now <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/charts\">more than 3000</a> \u2013 across <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/#entries\">many topics</a>. All of these represent a piece in the jigsaw that gives us a perspective on the state of the world and how to make progress against the problems we face. But some metrics stand out: they are core to our work and understanding of the world. You will find them appearing again and again throughout Our World in Data.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have tried to distill this list down to 12 core metrics. Making these choices isn\u2019t easy\u2013 all the indicators we cover matter to understanding global development. As with everything else on Our World in Data, we update our content as new data becomes available so you can keep coming back and seeing how the world is changing. It is also worth mentioning that we make sure that links to us don\u2019t break \u2013 if you embed one of these visualizations, you can be sure it will remain available for many years.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make them more easily findable, we have gathered them together here in a single place:<br>(1) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#1-extreme-poverty\">Extreme Poverty</a><br>(2) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#2-gdp-per-capita\">GDP per capita</a><br>(3) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#3-population\">Population</a><br>(4) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#4-child-mortality\">Child Mortality</a><br>(5) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#5-fertility-rate\">Fertility Rate</a><br>(6) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#6-life-expectancy\">Life Expectancy</a><br>(7) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#7-hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger and Undernourishment</a><br>(8) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#8-education-years-of-schooling-and-literacy\">Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy</a><br>(9) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#9-access-to-improved-water-sources-and-sanitation\">Access to improved water sources and sanitation</a><br>(10) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#10-energy-access\">Energy Access</a><br>(11) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#11-energy-use\">Energy Use</a><br>(12) <a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\">CO</a><sub><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\">2</a></sub><a href=\"http://ourworldindata.org/12-key-metrics#12-co2-emissions\"> emissions</a></p>\n\n\n\n<h2>(1) Extreme Poverty</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ending <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/poverty\">global poverty</a> is surely one of the world\u2019s most pressing problems. Leaving the worst poverty behind is critical to so many other aspects of development we cover \u2013 ranging from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">hunger and malnutrition</a> to health, education, and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">access to basic resources</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extreme poverty \u2013 indeed a <em>very</em> extreme poverty line \u2013 is defined by the \u2018International Poverty Line,\u2019 which is living on less than $2.15 per day. This line is set by the World Bank and used by the UN to monitor extreme poverty worldwide. In these measurements, statisticians&nbsp;adjust for inflation and price differences between countries. You can read more about this adjustment in our <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/from-1-90-to-2-15-a-day-the-updated-international-poverty-line\">article here</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows the share of people living in extreme poverty in recent decades. This provides the most up-to-date estimates of extreme poverty from the World Bank. You can find estimates of global extreme poverty over the past two centuries <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-between-different-poverty-thresholds-historical?country=~OWID_WRL\">here</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we emphasize, the international poverty line is very low \u2013 well below what would be required to live a healthy and comfortable life. In the following chart, we also show data on the share (or you can switch to absolute numbers using the \u2018Relative\u2019 checkbox) of the population living above or below higher poverty lines.<br><br>You can find more data, research, and writing on our topic page on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/poverty\">Poverty</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-living-in-extreme-poverty\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/distribution-of-population-poverty-thresholds?stackMode=relative\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(2) GDP per capita</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Lifting people out of poverty \u2013 relative to the most extreme poverty line and higher thresholds \u2013 <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty#the-link-between-economic-growth-and-poverty\">relies on economic growth</a> worldwide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>For <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-history-methods\">most of human history</a>, our ancestors were stuck in a world of poor health, hunger, and little access to formal education. Economic growth \u2013 particularly over the past few centuries \u2013 has <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth-since-1950\">allowed some of the world&#8217;s population to</a> break out of these conditions.</p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth\">Economic prosperity</a> is measured as the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. Just as the poverty measure above, this metric is adjusted for price changes over time and price differences between countries \u2013 it is measured in international-$ in 2011 prices.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualizations show our long-run (dating back to year 1, extending to 2018) dataset on GDP per capita from the Maddison Project Database; and the World Bank that we rely on when focussing on the development over the last three decades.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/economic-growth\">Economic Growth</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/maddison-data-gdp-per-capita-in-2011us\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(3) Population</h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<p>The size of the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth\">population</a> is our most commonly used metric, either directly or indirectly. You will find that throughout Our World in Data, we present many metrics \u2013 ranging from poverty and income in the above examples to child mortality (below), electricity access, and CO2 emissions \u2013 in per capita terms and absolute numbers.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we describe <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-cartogram\"><strong>here</strong></a> in our post on the global population cartogram, knowing how people are distributed worldwide is key to understanding how living conditions are changing.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows our long-run dataset on population. This provides data on global and regional populations dating back to 1800. In the related chart, you can find these estimates dating back to 10,000 BC.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth\">World Population Growth</a>.</p>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources</link-url>\n        <title></title>\n        <content></content>\n        <figure></figure>\n    </block></div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population?time=1800..latest&amp;country=CHN~IND~USA~BRA~NGA~IRN~ZAF\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h5>Explore population data back to 10,000 BC</h5>\n\n\n    <block type=\"prominent-link\" style=\"is-style-thin\">\n        <link-url>https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/population</link-url>\n        <title>Population estimates since 10,000 BC</title>\n        <content></content>\n        <figure></figure>\n    </block></div>\n</div>\n\n\n\n<h2>(4) Child Mortality</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One of the best indicators of how a country is doing is a newborn\u2019s chances of surviving childhood. How able societies are to protect their children from dying is a crucial benchmark, one that reflects many aspects of development: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/financing-healthcare\">healthcare</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">nutrition</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/maternal-mortality\">maternal health</a>, <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/burden-of-disease\">disease prevention</a>, and treatment. We can think of <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\"><strong>child mortality</strong></a> in some sense as an aggregate indicator of a country&#8217;s living conditions.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Child mortality is measured as the share of newborns that die before age five.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We present our long- and short-run datasets on child mortality worldwide in the visualizations. The long-run estimates come from Gapminder and the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME) data.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our short-run and most up-to-date dataset on child mortality comes from the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (<a href=\"https://childmortality.org/\">UN IGME</a>).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\">Child &amp; Infant Mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/child-mortality-igme\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(5) Fertility Rate</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate\">Fertility rate</a> \u2013 the average number of children per woman \u2013 is an important development indicator, not only in its impact on population and demographics but also as a <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#fertility-is-first-falling-with-development-and-then-rising-with-development\">proxy measure</a> of other aspects of progress such as <a href=\"https://owid.cloud/global-rise-of-education\">education</a>, access to <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#family-planning\">family planning</a> and contraception, and <a href=\"https://owid.cloud/child-mortality\">child mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following visualization shows the long-run dataset on fertility rates based on estimates published by the UN Population Division and historical estimates that <a href=\"http://www.gapminder.org/\">Gapminder</a> has assembled. These historical estimates go back to the year 1541 for some countries.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this dataset, we show only data backed up with published estimates within the academic literature or United Nations Population Division. Gapminder also publishes long-run estimates for all countries \u2013 but stresses that these estimates come with high uncertainty. The full dataset can be found <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fertility-rate-complete-gapminder\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate\">Fertility Rate</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/children-born-per-woman\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(6) Life expectancy</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy\">Life expectancy</a> is one of the most indicative metrics to evaluate our progress in improving health worldwide. It is not only reflective of increasing longevity and maximum lifespans but is also a strong reflection of <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality\">child health and mortality</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We describe how life expectancy is measured in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Long-run estimates of life expectancy across the world are shown in the visualization. For countries where historical records are much more readily available \u2013 such as the UK \u2013 estimates can extend back to 1543 \u2013 click on the UK to see this long-run perspective. Global and regional estimates extend back to the year 1770.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>This dataset is based on data from the Clio Infra project, the UN Population Division, and global estimates for world regions from James Riley (2005).{ref}James C. Riley (2005) \u2013 Estimates of Regional and Global Life Expectancy, 1800\u20132001. Issue Population and Development Review. Population and Development Review. Volume 31, Issue 3, pages 537\u2013543, September 2005.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zijdeman, Richard; Ribeira da Silva, Filipa, 2015, &#8220;Life Expectancy at Birth (Total)&#8221;, <a href=\"http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53\">http://hdl.handle.net/10622/LKYT53</a>, IISH Dataverse, V1.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2017). World Population Prospects: The 2019 Revision, DVD Edition.{/ref}</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy\">Life Expectancy</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy?tab=map\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(7) Hunger and Undernourishment</h2>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger</a> has been a severe problem for humanity throughout most of our history. Growing enough food to feed one\u2019s family was a constant struggle in daily life. Malnutrition and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/famines\">Famines</a> were common around the world.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualization shows our dataset on hunger across the world. This data is sourced from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hunger \u2013 also often referred to as <em>undernourishment</em> \u2013 is defined as having a calorie (i.e. energy) intake which is below an individual\u2019s minimum requirements to lead a healthy life. Energy requirements of course, vary depending on a person\u2019s sex, weight, height, and activity levels, which is considered in national and global estimates.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having <em>enough</em> food to eat in energy terms is not the only requirement for good nutrition and health. The quality and diversity of diets in terms of protein and micronutrient intake are also important. We cover micronutrient deficiencies across the world in our entry on that topic <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/micronutrient-deficiency\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/hunger-and-undernourishment\">Hunger and Undernourishment</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment\" loading=\"lazy\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(8) Education \u2013 years of schooling and literacy</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Education has been one of global development&#8217;s most integral drivers and outcomes.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Education provision is now viewed in most parts of the world as a basic right \u2013 with pressure on governments to ensure high-quality education for all.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can use many metrics to assess education access, quality, and attainment \u2013 we cover many of them throughout our work on education. In this list of the most important metrics, we include two encompassing indicators: one as an educational input (the time adults over 25 have been in formal education) and an output variable (literacy rates).</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The visualizations present these metrics over the long term:</p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li><strong>Mean years of schooling</strong> estimate the average number of years of total schooling adults aged 25 years and older have received. This data extends back to the year 1870 and is based on the combination of data from Lee and Lee (2016); Barro-Lee (2018); and the UN Development Programme.</li><li>The literacy rate measures the share of the population older than 14 years who can read and write. It is based on a combination of sources from the World Bank, CIA Factbook, and additional academic sources. You can find more information on literacy <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/literacy\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</li></ul>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entries on the <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/global-rise-of-education\">Global Rise of Education</a> and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/literacy\">Literacy</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/mean-years-of-schooling-long-run\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cross-country-literacy-rates?tab=map\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(9) Access to improved water sources and sanitation</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Access to <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation\">clean water and sanitation</a> is a basic human need and <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_right_to_water_and_sanitation\">right</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unsafe water and poor sanitation are leading <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#comparisons-of-risk-factors-of-death\">risk factors</a> for death, particularly in low-income countries. This is especially true for children: around one million annual child deaths <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/causes-of-death#risk-factors-of-death-by-age-group\">are attributed to</a> unsafe water, sanitation, and poor hygiene.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the visualizations, we present our datasets on the share of populations worldwide that have access to \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water and sanitation facilities.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>An \u2018improved\u2019 drinking water source is defined as piped water on premises (piped household water connection located inside the user\u2019s dwelling, plot, or yard), or other improved drinking water sources (public taps or standpipes, tube wells or boreholes, protected dug wells, protected springs, and rainwater collection). \u2018Improved\u2019 sanitation facilities include flush/pour flush (to a piped sewer system, septic tank, pit latrine), ventilated improved pit (VIP) latrine, pit latrine with slab, and composting toilet.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>One caveat to these definitions is that they make it much more likely that the source is clean and safe, but do not guarantee it. Additional metrics are being developed which aim to assess more directly the availability of clean water and safe sanitation. These metrics are the basis of two Sustainable Development Goal targets, and we present this data in our SDG-Tracker (for water <a href=\"https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.1\"><strong>here</strong></a>, and sanitation <a href=\"https://sdg-tracker.org/water-and-sanitation#6.2\"><strong>here</strong></a>).&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unfortunately, there are still large gaps in data availability for these direct metrics for clean water and safe sanitation across the world \u2013 many countries have no estimates currently available. For this reason, we continue to present data on \u2018improved\u2019 water sources and sanitation to provide a complete global picture. Once much wider data on <em>safe</em> drinking water and sanitation is available, we will adopt these as our core metrics.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/water-use-sanitation\">Water Use and Sanitation</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-improved-drinking-water\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-population-with-improved-sanitation-faciltities\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(10) Energy Access</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Access to energy is a critical aspect of global development. It is enormously important to improve living conditions: through the freeing of time from household chores (for example, washing clothes or cooking); increased productivity; improved healthcare; and digital connections to local and global networks.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lack of access to clean fuels for cooking is one of the most pressing environmental health problems: an estimated 1.6 million die from <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#deaths-from-indoor-air-pollution\">household air pollution</a> every year because they do not have access to clean fuels for cooking and heating. Particularly in Africa and parts of Asia.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Basic energy access is measured through two indicators: <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access#access-to-electricity\">access to electricity</a>, and <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/indoor-air-pollution#access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking\">clean fuels for cooking</a>. The visualizations show the data on these two metrics across the world.&nbsp;<br><br>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">Energy Access</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-access-to-electricity\" style=\"width: 100%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/access-to-clean-fuels-and-technologies-for-cooking\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(11) Energy Use</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Having <em>access</em> to electricity and clean cooking and heating fuels (as we look at above) is a basic requirement to having sufficient energy to live a productive and healthy life. But this doesn\u2019t tell us a lot about the <em>quantity</em> of energy people use. Some households may have access to electricity but can afford to use only very little. This could be insufficient to meet their needs.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Energy use \u2013 the average per capita energy consumption \u2013 is, therefore, another important metric to monitor to understand global development. The visualization provides coverage of energy use per capita \u2013 from all sources, including biomass \u2013 worldwide.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>Total energy consumption (and the sources of this energy mix) are also important to resource and environmental concerns. We cover these metrics in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-production-and-changing-energy-sources\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You will find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/energy-access\">Energy Access</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/energy-use-per-capita\"></iframe>\n\n\n\n<h2>(12) CO<sub>2</sub> emissions</h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Economic growth and improving living standards have come at the cost of environmental degradation. One of the key trade-offs between human development and the environment is rising <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) emissions</a>. We know that as people get richer, their CO2 emissions <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-and-prosperity\">tend to increase</a>.&nbsp;</p>\n\n\n\n<p>CO<sub>2</sub> emissions have increased rapidly in recent decades; globally we <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions#co2-emissions-global-and-regional-trends\">now emit</a> more than 36 billion tonnes each year.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many indicators we can use to look at CO<sub>2</sub> emissions across the world: cumulative, annual, per capita, production vs. consumption-based, carbon intensity, sectorial or emissions embedded in trade. All of these metrics you can find in detail <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two core datasets we present are production-based per capita CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. This is shown in the visualization. This data is sourced from the Global Carbon Project and the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Centre (CDIAC), with population from Gapminder and the UN Population Division used to calculate per capita figures.</p>\n\n\n\n<p>You find more research in our entry on <a href=\"https://ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions\">CO<sub>2</sub> and Greenhouse Gas Emissions</a>.</p>\n\n\n\n<iframe src=\"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-per-capita\"></iframe>\n",
        "protected": false
    },
    "excerpt": {
        "rendered": "At Our World in Data we present data and research \u2013 across more than 3000 charts \u2013 on the world&#8217;s largest problems. But some metrics are core to our work: here we present 12 that are key to understanding the state of the world.",
        "protected": false
    },
    "date_gmt": "2019-09-26T09:00:16",
    "modified": "2024-01-16T11:51:55",
    "template": "",
    "categories": [
        1
    ],
    "ping_status": "closed",
    "authors_name": [
        "Hannah Ritchie"
    ],
    "modified_gmt": "2024-01-16T11:51:55",
    "comment_status": "closed",
    "featured_media": 38004,
    "featured_media_paths": {
        "thumbnail": "/app/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41-150x81.png",
        "medium_large": "/app/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2020-12-02-at-10.47.41-768x416.png"
    }
}

Links from other tables

0 rows from post_id in post_tags
75 rows from sourceId in posts_links
0 rows from wordpressId in posts_unified
77 rows from postId in post_links
21 rows from postId in post_charts
0 rows from postId in post_broken_chart_links