It has become received wisdom in Brussels and Washington that there is a new “euro-sclerosis”: that the EU economy is lagging the US This view is wrong A little primer on the measurement of productivity – and why reports of the economic death of Europe are greatly exaggerated🧵

"The problems are immense, but the solutions are immense too." I loved this short documentary about botanist Hugh Wilson, who spent thirty years protecting and growing a forest in New Zealand. www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VZS...

Over the last months, we’ve entirely rebuilt search on Our World in Data — we just launched it: ourworldindata.org/introducing-... Let me know what you think. Does it work for you?

A big shift in technology. The purple bars show the sales of cars powered by combustion engines in China. In green, you see the rise of electric cars in recent years.

What we die from vs. what we hear in the news. Terrorism and homicides account for less than 1% of deaths, but for more than half of all media stories about death in the US — whether in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or Fox News.

💡New feature: hovering over links to charts shows a preview! Look out for the little chart icon next to a link to know when you can see a preview. Our colleague Ike Saunders had this idea just a couple days ago and he already built it and made it live on our site — thanks, Ike!

Imagine all cars were electric, and then one Volkswagen engineer comes up with another idea … #EMobility

It is September 18. Today, @hannahritchie.bsky.social's book is out! www.penguin.co.uk/books/462676...

"A refreshingly pragmatic and undoomy book." The Guardian just published a great review of @hannahritchie.bsky.social's new book 'Clearing the Air'. The book will be out in 2 days. If you are unsure whether you want to read it, the review gives a good overview: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/s...

Our @ourworldindata.org we visualise weekly updates of wildfire data from the Global Wildfire Information System. Spain was having a pretty low/average year until the past few weeks when it went roaring past previous years. You can track this data here: ourworldindata.org/wildfires

My colleague @hannahritchie.bsky.social wrote a new book! For an author, pre-orders make a huge difference — as they convince bookstores to stock it. If you are interested in Hannah's writing, you can order it here: penguin.co.uk/books/462676...

At Our World in Data, we spend much of our time counting deaths. But it’s just as important to know the number of lives saved — even though it is harder to estimate and involves much larger uncertainty. My Data Insight today includes this chart of some estimates.

Duolingo came out fully embracing AI in April, and it’s hard not to read their latest revenue growth numbers alongside this new report on the state of formal language learning in the UK

Most electricity in the Netherlands now comes from renewables. This is today's @ourworldindata.org Data Insight from my colleague @simonvanteutem.bsky.social. All our Data Insights are here: ourworldindata.org/data-insights

Every third car in Norway is now an electric car.

At least since the mid-20th century, England has left mass hunger behind. How was this possible? How did English farmers prove Malthus wrong? My 'Data Insight' on @ourworldindata.org today is about rising yields and falling hunger. → ourworldindata.org/data-insights

No, it's not the case that only China is responsible for the large decline in extreme poverty over the past decades. We wrote about it recently: ourworldindata.org/data-insights/was-the-global-decline-of-extreme-poverty-only-due-to-china

My latest Data Insight is about extreme poverty in South East Africa. In Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, extreme poverty is not declining.

In 2014, half of Greece's electricity was generated by coal. A decade later, that share has fallen to just 6%.

Two billion people don’t have safe drinking water. I really like the article of my colleague @hannahritchie.bsky.social, in which she shows what this concretely means for these people, by relying on the portraits of families in Gapminder's Dollar Street project. ourworldindata.org/what-no-safe...

If you are interested in our work at Our World in Data, you can subscribe to our newsletters — in recent months we made them much better. Here is what we offer and how you can subsribe: ourworldindata.org/newsletters

My chart on the history of three infectious diseases — smallpox, polio, and measles — before and after a vaccine was available.

For the first time ever, China's CO₂ emissions are falling due to clean energy growth, rather than reduced power demand.

A single dose cuts the chances of measles by about 95% — a second dose reduces the risk further. How effective and safe are measles vaccines? In her new article, my colleague @scientificdiscovery.dev summarized the findings of a Cochrane meta-analysis. ourworldindata.org/measles-vacc...

I don't doubt that a lot of people are considering leaving, but perhaps someone could tell Nature how to write survey questions

In 2004, it took the world a year to add one gigawatt of solar power — now it takes a day.

"Statistics allows us to tell everyone's story." 📊📖 💡 An insightful lecture yesterday afternoon from Prof @maxroser.bsky.social on why we need good data to make good policy.

One thing I admired Americans for was they provided efficient and effective aid for people around the world. I thought this made America great. The PEPFAR program saved plausibly about 25 million lives and prevented at least 5.5 million babies from being born with HIV. See: pepfarreport.org

I am so very grateful to everyone at KU Leuven and UCLouvain for this extraordinary honour. Receiving an honorary doctorate is something I never would have imagined. A huge thank you to all of the students and faculty at the two universities. I will never forget these days in Leuven.

Earlier this week I did a long interview with the Belgian newspaper DeMorgen. It’s out today. I just arrived in Belgium and found it at the newsstand. They illustrated it really nicely with some Our World in Data charts.

KU Leuven and UC Louvain are celebrating their 600th anniversary and will award five honorary doctorates as part of this celebration. I still can't quite believe it, but they decided to award one to me. If you want to join the celebration, I'll give a public lecture next Tuesday.

📊 Bringing data to life can spark global impact. @maxroser.bsky.social @ourworldindata.org started as a small project - now it reaches 100M+ users annually, empowering policymakers, educators & researchers worldwide. Max shares his story here: 📺 www.socsci.ox.ac.uk/our-world-in... #InnovationStories

'We Need a New Global Measure for Poverty' Four months ago, I made this proposal in the New York Times. I think with this 'gift article' link you can read it without being a subscriber: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Last year, we did an extensive search for new members of our Board of Trustees. Now we are excited that Claire Melamed (@clairemelamed.bsky.social here) and Michael Blastland have now joined our board. Welcome, Claire & Michael! You can read more about them here ourworldindata.org/new-trustees...

Our Daily Data Insight today — the world has passed “peak child.”

Who would have won the 'Simon-Ehrlich bet' over different decades — and what do long-term prices tell us about resource scarcity? The new Our World in Data article by my colleague Hannah Ritchie. ourworldindata.org/simon-ehrlic...

What is an important fact about the world that you wish more people would know? Here is my answer: If we rely on the best data, many of us can save a child's life. And here is my article about it. ourworldindata.org/cost-effecti...

For most people, international migration means crossing a nearby border, not an ocean

A highly recommended long read by @maxroser.bsky.social - not everyone has to gift/skill to dispensate knowledge in a factual, precise but also very enjoyable way ourworldindata.org/what-is-econ...

I believe such technical work is key to achieving our mission — making data easier for everyone to access and use. But it is extremely hard to find funding for technical work. If you’d like to support us, we would very much appreciate if you support our non-profit work: ourworldindata.org/donate

New @cgdev.org policy paper: *MALARIA VACCINES* are a huge scientific breakthrough. But the world is dragging its feet on rolling them out. We examine why, and how to go faster. 🧵

The world is awful. The world is much better. The world can be much better. All three statements are true at the same time. Understanding this is key to solving big global problems. We believe data & research can help us understand both the problems we face & the progress that’s possible. 🧵

Americans are now one-third less likely to die from cancer at the same ages as Americans in 1990

We have just updated our long-term data on life expectancy around the world. 👇 The data by continent shows that life expectancy has more than doubled in every world region. (Here is all our work on life expectancy: ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy)

How many children’s lives has the measles vaccine saved in 50 years? Around 90 million. Important to remind ourselves that vaccines save lives ourworldindata.org/data-insight... @ourworldindata.org

If you don't regularly consult @ourworldindata.org, you're missing out. I stumbled upon it a few yrs ago when I was trying to find reliable comparative statistics abt education. But it's got health, environmental, econ, demographic, more. Founded by @maxroser.bsky.social. ourworldindata.org/about

Sometimes, the most important news is when something isn’t happening. In my new @OurWorldInData article, I highlight that US airlines have transported passengers for more than two light-years since the last plane crash. ourworldindata.org/us-airline-t...

My new, very brief article is about economic growth — highlighting nine countries in Africa where incomes have more than doubled since 1990.

Few people even know about this; when people are asked in surveys how child mortality has changed the majority says it has stagnated or increased. If you consider that many don't know about humanity's biggest achievement, then it's not surprising that many are so pessimistic about our future.

The world population grew fast over the last 60 years, but farmers grew fruits and vegetables even faster This is my @ourworldindata.org Data Insight today: ourworldindata.org/data-insight...