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Almost all the growth in global coal use since the late 1980s has come from China.
Outside China, the world’s use of coal has barely changed since the late 1980s. It was just over 20,000 terawatt-hours back then, and almost four decades later, it is still the same.
But the change has been very different in China. The country has increased the use of coal enormously, and today, China is burning more coal than the rest of the world combined.
The future of global coal use, and the emissions that come with it, depends heavily on what happens in China.
(written by @MaxCRoser)
Outside China, the world’s use of coal has barely changed since the late 1980s. It was just over 20,000 terawatt-hours back then, and almost four decades later, it is still the same.
But the change has been very different in China. The country has increased the use of coal enormously, and today, China is burning more coal than the rest of the world combined.
The future of global coal use, and the emissions that come with it, depends heavily on what happens in China.
(written by @MaxCRoser)
Much of the economic data we use to understand the world, such as the incomes people receive, is recorded in the local currencies of each country. On their own, numbers in local currencies tell us nothing about how they compare. One obvious approach would be to convert them into a common currency using market exchange rates. But this doesn’t give us the comparison we often look for: what money can actually buy in different countries. This is because the cost of living varies a lot across countries.
International dollars are a hypothetical currency that aims to have the same purchasing power everywhere. They are adjusted for differences in living costs across countries and price changes over time. Wherever it is “spent”, one international dollar buys the same goods and services as one US dollar would in the United States.
Making incomes comparable across countries matters especially for our understanding of global inequality. Using market dollars — local currencies converted to US dollars using market exchange rates — to compare incomes across countries understates people’s real income in countries where local prices are often much lower than in the US.
Take India, for example. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is almost 30 times lower than that of the US in market dollars. But when we adjust for differences in living costs, the gap shrinks to about eight times lower. For Burkina Faso, the difference is even starker: its GDP per capita is 83 times lower than that of the US in market dollars, and 30 times lower after adjusting for differences in living costs. Global inequality remains large, even after accounting for what people can buy locally.
International dollars are a hypothetical currency that aims to have the same purchasing power everywhere. They are adjusted for differences in living costs across countries and price changes over time. Wherever it is “spent”, one international dollar buys the same goods and services as one US dollar would in the United States.
Making incomes comparable across countries matters especially for our understanding of global inequality. Using market dollars — local currencies converted to US dollars using market exchange rates — to compare incomes across countries understates people’s real income in countries where local prices are often much lower than in the US.
Take India, for example. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is almost 30 times lower than that of the US in market dollars. But when we adjust for differences in living costs, the gap shrinks to about eight times lower. For Burkina Faso, the difference is even starker: its GDP per capita is 83 times lower than that of the US in market dollars, and 30 times lower after adjusting for differences in living costs. Global inequality remains large, even after accounting for what people can buy locally.
Population aging is pushing up Chile’s crude cancer death rate, even as age-adjusted rates are falling.
In Chile, the annual number of cancer deaths as a share of the total population has been rising for decades. From this, it would be easy to assume that cancer is getting worse. But the chances of dying from cancer at most ages are lower than they used to be. The missing piece is that the country’s population is changing quickly, and older people now make up a much larger share.
That’s what the chart shows. The crude cancer death rate, in red, counts registered cancer deaths per 100,000 people of all ages. This metric has been going up, reflecting the fact that cancer risks increase steeply with age, and the population has grown much older.
The blue line, by contrast, shows the age-adjusted rate. This metric removes the effect of aging by holding the age structure constant.
This line has been falling for decades, which means that Chileans at almost every age are now less likely to die from cancer than people of the same age were in the past.
The pattern we see in Chile is happening in many other countries, too, and is visible in the global estimates.
(written by @EOrtizOspina)
In Chile, the annual number of cancer deaths as a share of the total population has been rising for decades. From this, it would be easy to assume that cancer is getting worse. But the chances of dying from cancer at most ages are lower than they used to be. The missing piece is that the country’s population is changing quickly, and older people now make up a much larger share.
That’s what the chart shows. The crude cancer death rate, in red, counts registered cancer deaths per 100,000 people of all ages. This metric has been going up, reflecting the fact that cancer risks increase steeply with age, and the population has grown much older.
The blue line, by contrast, shows the age-adjusted rate. This metric removes the effect of aging by holding the age structure constant.
This line has been falling for decades, which means that Chileans at almost every age are now less likely to die from cancer than people of the same age were in the past.
The pattern we see in Chile is happening in many other countries, too, and is visible in the global estimates.
(written by @EOrtizOspina)
Which vaccines do children around the world receive?
Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF estimate what share of children in each country get each routine vaccine. Their Estimates of National Immunization Coverage cover vaccines against 13 diseases, from measles to rotavirus, in 195 countries since 1980.
They start from the doses that health services report and check them against household surveys. For the small share of countries that haven’t reported any data for the most recent year, WHO and UNICEF estimate coverage from the years before.
The chart shown here is about the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes nearly all cervical cancers. It shows the share of girls who had their last dose between the ages of 9 and 14, measured when they turn 15. Coverage varies a lot from country to country, even within the same world region.
We recently updated our charts with the July 2026 release, which adds 2025 estimates for every country. For HPV, we now have data for 160 countries and territories in 2025, compared with 146 a year earlier.
(This data update was led by Tuna Acisu.)
Every year, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF estimate what share of children in each country get each routine vaccine. Their Estimates of National Immunization Coverage cover vaccines against 13 diseases, from measles to rotavirus, in 195 countries since 1980.
They start from the doses that health services report and check them against household surveys. For the small share of countries that haven’t reported any data for the most recent year, WHO and UNICEF estimate coverage from the years before.
The chart shown here is about the vaccine against human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes nearly all cervical cancers. It shows the share of girls who had their last dose between the ages of 9 and 14, measured when they turn 15. Coverage varies a lot from country to country, even within the same world region.
We recently updated our charts with the July 2026 release, which adds 2025 estimates for every country. For HPV, we now have data for 160 countries and territories in 2025, compared with 146 a year earlier.
(This data update was led by Tuna Acisu.)
