Latest

July 20

Article

Our history is a battle against the microbes: we lost terribly before science, public health, and vaccines allowed us to protect ourselves

For most of history, we were losing the battle against microbes. Vaccines were one of the breakthroughs that turned it around.

Max Roser

June 29

Article

A pandemic primer on excess mortality statistics and their comparability across countries

Excess mortality has become a key metric to understand the true impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. How is excess mortality measured; and what can we learn from cross-country comparisons?

Janine Aron, John Muellbauer, Charlie Giattino, and Hannah Ritchie

June 22

Article

We teamed up with Kurzgesagt to make a video about climate change: 'Who Is Responsible For Climate Change? – Who Needs To Fix It?'

A video about the contributors to climate change, and how countries can work together.

Hannah Ritchie

June 03

Article

Best practices for governments reporting COVID-19 testing data

Not all countries report their data in a helpful way. To help official providers of testing data, we set out some simple recommendations based the best reporting practices across the countries included in our testing dataset.

Joe Hasell, Edouard Mathieu, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Max Roser

June 02

Article

Google Mobility Trends: How has the pandemic changed the movement of people around the world?

Data tracking public mobility trends over the pandemic

Hannah Ritchie

May 14

Article

How to read the famous coronavirus trajectory chart — video explainer

What we can and can’t learn from COVID-19 charts.

Hannah Ritchie

May 14

Article

How do the carbon footprints of foods compare? Our article as a video.

Which foods have the highest and lowest carbon footprint?

Hannah Ritchie

March 23

Article

We teamed up with Kurzgesagt to make a video about the COVID-19 pandemic

We worked with the Youtube channel, Kurzgesagt, to make a video on the COVID-19 pandemic and what to do about it.

Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie

March 18

Article

Food waste is responsible for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions

Food waste accounts for around one-quarter of greenhouse gas emissions from food. That's 6% of total global emissions.

Hannah Ritchie

March 10

Article

The carbon footprint of foods: are differences explained by the impacts of methane?

How we treat the climate impacts of methane matters a lot for the carbon footprint of foods. But even if we exclude methane, meat and dairy products emit the most.

Hannah Ritchie

March 04

Article

The Spanish flu: the global impact of the largest influenza pandemic in history

The Spanish flu pandemic had a devastating impact on the global population.

Max Roser

February 10

Article

What are the safest and cleanest sources of energy?

Fossil fuels are the dirtiest and most dangerous energy sources, while nuclear and modern renewable energy sources are vastly safer and cleaner.

Hannah Ritchie

February 04

Article

Less meat is nearly always better than sustainable meat, to reduce your carbon footprint

Plant-based protein sources still have a lower footprint than the lowest-impact meat products.

Hannah Ritchie

January 28

Article

Very little of global food is transported by air; this greatly reduces the climate benefits of eating local

Transporting food by plane can come with a large carbon footprint. But very little of our food travels this way – just 0.16% of food miles are from air travel.

Hannah Ritchie

January 24

Article

You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local

“Eat local” is a common recommendation to reduce your diet's carbon footprint. How does the impact of what you eat compare to where it comes from?

Hannah Ritchie

December 11

Article

Is there a loneliness epidemic?

The media claims we are experiencing a ‘loneliness epidemic’. What is the evidence for this?

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

December 11

Article

Are people more likely to be lonely in so-called 'individualistic' societies?

In countries such as Denmark and Switzerland, it is very common for people to live alone; but contrary to what many believe, this does not translate into higher loneliness. Loneliness and aloneness are not the same.

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

December 01

Article

Antiretroviral therapy has saved millions of lives from AIDS and could save more

Since the late 1980s, antiretroviral therapy has already saved millions of lives from HIV/AIDS. But millions of people with HIV still aren’t getting this life-saving treatment.

Bernadeta Dadonaite

November 15

Article

The importance of personal relations for economic outcomes

Social connections matter for economic outcomes. Personal relations, even those that we maintain for non-economic reasons, often give us access to information and provide us with social collateral for economic transactions.

Esteban Ortiz-Ospina

November 12

Article

Pneumonia — no child should die from a disease we can prevent

How many children die from pneumonia? How has this changed over time, and how can we prevent it?

Bernadeta Dadonaite

November 11

Article

Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture

More than three-quarters of global agricultural land is used for livestock, despite meat and dairy making up a much smaller share of the world's protein and calories.

Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser