While nearly one in 10 still live on less than $1.90 a day, fifty years ago it was one in two.
Today, every country in the world has constitutionally banned slavery. Three, however, continue to violate the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights by compelling citizens to work for no pay. North Korea is ranked the worst. The Uzbek and Turkmen cotton industries are also dependent on forced labour.
The risk of being murdered has been declining for a quarter of a century. Eastern Europe in particular has seen steep drops, by as much as 75%.
In 2000, as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) the world pledged to half to share of people without access to an improved water source by 2015 from 1990 levels. The world surpassed this target by 2010, increasing access to 91 percent by 2015. Globally, 2.6 billion people gained access over this period — more than a third of the world's population have gained access to improved water since 1990, according to Our World in Data. The progress over this 25-year period is shown by region in the chart below, as the share of the population who have gained access since 1990.
Access to improved water sources is increasing across the world, rising from 76 percent of the global population in 1990 to 91 percent in 2015, according to Our World in Data.
In 1960, the average life span globally was 52.6 years. Today it’s 72 years. The reasons include improvements in child survival, expanded access to healthcare (including widespread vaccination), and people being lifted out of extreme poverty.
The sun beams down enough energy to supply the entire world’s electricity needs more than six times over.
The death rate of babies under the age of one has fallen steeply in the last few decades. It's now probably at its lowest ever rate in human history. That’s thanks to many modern public health victories: better sanitation, more access to clean drinking water, enhanced nutrition, and the improved education of women.
Since 1900 the global average life expectancy has more than doubled and is now approaching 70 years. No country in the world has a lower life expectancy than the the countries with the highest life expectancy in 1800.
40%: The percentage of patients reported to have responded to one of the most advanced CRISPR cancer therapy studies to be tested in China. China is far ahead of the US in CRISPR cancer studies due to its less stringent approval requirements, but the US and Europe are set to see their first human trials of the gene-editing technique this year. With potentially transformative implications across medicine, agriculture, and even chemical products, CB Insights' 5,200-word CRISPR deep dive unpacks the science behind the technology, its applications, controversies it’s stirred up, and where CRISPR may take us next.
It will cost $300 billion to rebuild Syria, according to the UN. Even as the carnage continues, Iran and Russia are already quietly waging an uncivil war to get in on those lucrative construction contracts, argued Eurasia Group in February 2018.
The Berlin Wall stood for a total of 10,316 days, and as of February 2018, had been down for the same length of time. And yet still, more than half of Germans feel that their country hasn’t fully reunified.
Sources: http://brainmail.nowandnext.com/; Signal Media
As many as 48 million of Twitter’s active users — nearly 15 percent of the Twitterverse— are automated accounts designed to simulate real people. The company claims that number is far lower, but the point remains: social media has become a decisive platform for commerce and politics – and its increasingly defined by people who aren’t even people.
By 2025, 1.8 billion people will live in regions that face
"absolute water scarcity".
Ref: United Nations (Switzerland)
In 2016, 19,000 children were admitted to UK hospitals
after self-harming. This represented a rise of 14 per cent
on the previous year.
Ref: Financial Times (UK)
Obesity killed 3 million people globally in 2010.
