Introducing our updated work on Poverty: a new design for our content
At Our World in Data, we present data and research in a number of ways: as individual charts, data explorers, and articles that explain the data and what it tells us about the world, to make progress.
One of our biggest challenges has been bringing all of this data and research together in a way that users can navigate easily. People should be able to quickly find exactly what they're looking for - and be able to find it again when they come back.
To help solve this challenge, over the past year our product and engineering teams have been working on the design of a new format for collecting and presenting all our data, research, and writing on particular topics.
â We've now published the first example of this redesign for one topic: Poverty. Alongside this, we've also published a new data explorer on poverty.
We plan to roll out this design across the other topics on our site in the next year.
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How many people die from the flu?
The global death toll from seasonal influenza is in the hundreds of thousands, each year. During large flu pandemics, when new influenza strains evolved, the death toll was even higher.
Fortunately, the risk of dying from flu has declined substantially over time, thanks to improvements in sanitation, healthcare, and vaccination. For example, in the United States, people born in the year 1900 had six times the risk of dying from flu as people born in 1980, after accounting for their older age.
But the burden of influenza remains high, because many countries have an aging population and lack access to healthcare and sanitation.
In this article, we look into these developments in detail: how many people die from seasonal influenza around the world, how this has changed over time, and why.
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Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste overseas?
Of the plastic that enters the oceans from land, more than 80% comes from rivers in Asia.
Only a small amount comes from rivers across Europe and North America - just 5% of the global total. This would suggest that the world's richest countries don't contribute much to the problem of plastic pollution.
But, these numbers only look at the plastic that is emitted domestically. They don't consider the fact that many countries export plastic waste overseas, which could lead to a large indirect impact on ocean pollution.
In this article, we use global data to understand the scale of the plastic waste trade and where this waste ends up. We estimate that a few percent - possibly up to 5% - of the world's ocean plastics could come from rich countries exporting their waste overseas.
â Alongside this article, we've also published a new data explorer on plastic waste and pollution.
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Which countries have put a price on carbon?
People often compare the monetary price of fossil fuels to low-carbon alternatives such as renewables or nuclear energy. But these comparisons don't capture each option's social impact, even in a purely economic sense. The true cost of burning fossil fuels is not reflected in their market price.
Burning fossil fuels drives climate change, which has very costly impacts that we're already seeing. Fossil fuels also cause local air pollution, which kills millions every year and has negative health impacts for many more.
One way to capture some of these external costs in the market is to put a price on carbon. This makes fuels, products, and services that emit more pollution more expensive. It also means it's those who emit greenhouse gasses that pay for it.
There are a few policies through which countries can put a price on carbon, including a carbon tax and an emissions trading system (sometimes called a "cap and trade" system). Many countries have adopted such carbon pricing policies.
In this article, we provide an overview of which countries have carbon prices, and how the price of carbon has changed over time.
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Living Planet Index: what does an average decline of 69% really mean?
The Living Planet Index is the biodiversity metric that always claims the headlines. Unfortunately many of these headlines are wrong. The index is very easy to misinterpret.
The Living Planet Index reports an average decline of 69% across tens of thousands of wildlife populations since 1970. This does not tell us anything about the number of individuals, species or populations lost, or even the share of populations that are shrinking.
Before reporting on the Living Planet Index we should understand what it actually tells us about the world's wildlife. We should also be aware of the misconceptions and pitfalls of using this index to capture the changes in more than 30,000 of the world's animal populations.
In this article, we describe what an average decline of 69% across wildlife populations really means.
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Smallholders produce one-third of the world's food, less than half of what many headlines claim
It is often claimed that smallholder farmers produce 70% or even 80% of the world's food. This claim has even been made by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO), and has been a linchpin for agricultural and development policies.
But it is wrong. In this article from August 2021, we show that this figure is too high: studies suggest smallholder farmers produce around one-third of the world's food, less than half of what these headlines claim.
We explain that a key point of confusion is using the terms 'family farms' and 'smallholder farms' interchangeably. Family farms do produce around 80% of the world's food, but these farms can be of any size and should not be confused with smallholders.
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