The risk of death from influenza has declined over time, but globally, hundreds of thousands of people still die from the disease each year.

We’ve just published a major redesign of our topic pages. Explore this redesign with our new work on poverty.

Explore data on poverty across the world, and how this is changing over time.

Putting a price on carbon helps us account for the real costs of fossil fuels in the market. Which countries have a carbon tax or trading system?

The Living Planet Index is the biodiversity metric that always claims the headlines. It’s often misinterpreted. How should we understand it?

Many countries ship plastic waste overseas. How much of the world’s waste is traded, and how big is its role in the pollution of our oceans?

Which countries produce the most plastic waste, and how is waste traded across the world?

Hunting and habitat loss drove many large mammals in Europe close to extinction. New data shows us that many of the continent’s mammal populations are flourishing again.

Many more people have democratic rights than in the past. Some of this progress has recently been reversed.

Explore the environmental impacts of hundreds of specific food products.

Explore historical and recent emissions of air pollutants across the world.

It is wrong to think that these three statements contradict each other. We need to see that they are all true to see that a better world is possible.

How democratic have countries been across the world? And how big are the differences between them?

Explore the key highlights from the UN’s latest release of its world population estimates.

Explore data on population, fertility rates, life expectancy, deaths and other demographic data across the world.

In the late 1980s, there were near a million new cases of guinea worm disease recorded worldwide. In 2021, there were only 15. How was this achieved?

Explore the world’s political systems with the leading approaches of measuring democracy.

All energy production takes up land – whether it’s for a power plant, or to dig minerals out of the ground. Which sources use the most land, and which use it most efficiently?

The world is close to eradicating polio, but has been set back in the last few years. To achieve the goal of global eradication, it’s crucial to improve testing.

Research suggests that many children – especially in the world’s poorest countries – learn only very little in school. What can we do to improve this?

The world produces more food than ever, but the amount of land we use is now falling. This means we can feed more people while restoring wild habitat.