The world often feels like it’s falling apart, but the data tells a different story. Here are 32 charts showing measurable human progress across health, education, technology, environment, and human rights.
Last updated: 2025-08-17
16 Bad Things That Are Decreasing
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Legal Slavery
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Number of countries where slavery is legal
Child Mortality
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Children dying before age 5, percent
Battle Deaths
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Deaths in state conflicts per 100,000 people
CO₂ Intensity
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Carbon emissions per dollar of GDP
Plane Crash Deaths
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Aviation fatalities per million passengers
Disaster Deaths
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Natural disaster deaths, thousands per year
Nuclear Warheads
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Global nuclear weapons, thousands
Air Pollution
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Sulfur dioxide emissions, kg per person
Ozone Depletion
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Ozone-depleting substances, thousands of tons
Hunger
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Population undernourished, percent
Extreme Poverty
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Population in extreme poverty, percent
Smoking
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Share of adults who smoke
Homicide Rate
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Intentional homicides per 100,000 people
16 Good Things That Are Increasing
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Scientific Research
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Scholarly articles published per year
Food Production
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Cereal crop yield, tonnes per hectare
Adult Literacy
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Population that can read and write, percent
Democracy
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Countries that are electoral + liberal democracies (count)
Electricity Access
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Population with electrical power, percent
Mobile Communications
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Mobile phone subscriptions, percent
Clean Water
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Population with safe water access, percent
Internet Access
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Population using the internet, percent
Life Expectancy
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Average lifespan at birth, years
Clean Energy
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Renewable electricity generation, percent
Improved Sanitation
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Share of the population using safely managed sanitation facilities
Protected Land
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Share of land under legal protection
Women’s Right to Vote
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Number of countries where women can vote
Monitored Species
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Number of species evaluated for conservation status
Comprehensive Vaccination
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Share of one-year-olds with all six basic vaccines
Child Cancer Survival
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5-year survival rate for childhood cancer
The Big Picture
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These charts represent decades of human effort, innovation, and cooperation. While challenges remain, the trajectory is clear: by most measures that matter for human wellbeing, we are making remarkable progress.
The data comes primarily from Our World in Data, with additional sources including Gapminder, WHO, IMDb, and Discogs.
This post is automatically updated monthly with the latest available data.