Newsletter · Sep 10, 2026

A terabyte of storage cost $88 billion in 1956. Today it costs $10. — and 8 more charts

Logarithmic line chart of the inflation-adjusted price of one terabyte of storage from 1956 to 2023, spanning fifteen powers of ten from ten dollars to ten quadrillion dollars. A red line for memory falls from about $3.8 quadrillion per terabyte in 1957 to $1,088 in 2023. A gold line for hard disks falls from $87.5 billion in 1956 to $10.62 in 2023. Shorter blue and green lines show flash memory ending at $153 in 2017 and solid-state drives at $25.91 in 2023. Both long lines descend in an almost straight diagonal across the whole chart.

Technology

A terabyte of storage cost $88 billion in 1956. Today it costs $10.

Disk storage has become about 8 billion times cheaper since 1956 — and that is after adjusting for inflation, in constant 2020 dollars. Computer memory fell even further, by a factor of about three and a half trillion.

Chartive EditorialSep 10, 2026

Line chart of global childhood vaccination coverage from 1980 to 2024 on a 0 to 100 percent axis. Three gold lines for measles, DTP and polio rise steeply from about 16 to 21 percent in 1980 to roughly 85 percent by 2010, then flatten, dip to about 81 percent in 2021 and recover to 84 to 85 percent by 2024. Three blue lines for rubella, pneumococcal and rotavirus start later and are still climbing, reaching 73, 67 and 59 percent. Annotations mark one child in six in 1980, five in six in 2024, and the pandemic dip back to the 2008 level.

Health

In 1980 one child in six got the measles vaccine. Now it is five in six.

Global measles coverage among one-year-olds rose from 16% in 1980 to 84% in 2024 — one of the largest public health gains ever recorded. But the climb stopped around 2010, and coverage has still not regained its 86% peak of 2018.

Chartive EditorialSep 9, 2026

Stacked area chart of shares of world GDP from 1960 to 2025, summing to 100%. The United States band at the bottom narrows from 39.6% to 26.0%. The China band above it is thin until about 2000, then widens sharply to 16.5%. The Japan band swells through the 1980s to a peak of 18.2% in 1994, marked by a vertical line, then narrows steadily to 3.7%. Germany falls from 6.2% to 4.3% and India ends at 3.3%. The rest of the world occupies the top 46.2%.

Economy

America's share of the world economy has shrunk. So has Japan's — all the way back.

In 1960 the United States produced 40% of everything the world made; today it is 26%. China went from 3.6% in 2000 to 16.5%. Japan climbed to 18.2% by 1994 and then fell back to 3.7% — almost exactly where it started.

Chartive EditorialSep 8, 2026

Two stacked panels covering 1990 to 2024. The upper panel is a bar chart of international migrants in millions, rising from 154 million in 1990 to 303 million in 2024. The lower panel is a line chart of the same population as a share of world population, on a zero to five percent scale, which is nearly flat: 2.88% in 1990, dipping slightly to 2.83% in 2000, then rising gently to 3.73% in 2024.

Society

The number of migrants has doubled. Their share of humanity has barely moved.

There were 154 million people living outside their country of birth in 1990. By 2024 there were 303 million — almost exactly double. But because the world's population grew too, the share living abroad rose only from 2.88% to 3.73%.

Chartive EditorialSep 7, 2026

Range chart of annual hours worked per worker from 1870 to 2023 across 14 rich countries. A shaded band runs from the lowest to the highest country each year, descending from 2,755–3,483 hours in 1870 to 1,335–1,789 in 2023, and narrowing as it falls. A gold median line runs through it from 3,138 to 1,561 hours, with rings marking the eight observations before 1950. A dashed reference line at 2,080 hours marks a 40-hour week all year; the entire band sits below it from the 1970s on. A dip at 2020 is labelled. The United States ends highest at 1,789 hours and Germany lowest at 1,335.

Economy

Your great-great-great-grandparents worked twice the hours you do

Across the 14 rich countries with records back to 1870, the median worker put in 3,138 hours a year. Today it is 1,561 — almost exactly half. Every one of them now works less than a 40-hour week all year would imply.

Chartive EditorialSep 6, 2026

Scatter plot of male against female life expectancy at birth for 217 countries and territories in 2024, both axes running from 50 to 90 years. A dashed diagonal marks equal life expectancy. Every dot lies above it, so women outlive men everywhere; the lower half of the chart is empty and labelled accordingly. Dots are coloured by the size of the gap, from pale blue at zero to deep pink at eleven years. Russia is furthest above the line at 10.6 years, Togo closest at 0.5 and Nigeria at 0.6. Japan sits top right at 81.1 years for men and 87.1 for women. An inset below shows Pakistan's gap crossing from negative to positive in 1971.

Health

There is no country on earth where men outlive women

Each dot is one of 193 sovereign states or 24 territories with data. Every single one of the 217 sits above the line where the two sexes would live equally long — but the gap runs from five months in Togo to more than ten years in Russia.

Chartive EditorialSep 6, 2026

Bar chart of objects launched into space each year from 1957 to 2025. Bars stay low and roughly flat between about 100 and 200 a year for five decades, drawn in blue. From 2020 the bars turn gold and rise sharply: 1,274 in 2020, 1,814 in 2021, 2,479 in 2022, 2,903 in 2023, 2,849 in 2024 and 4,510 in 2025, the highest on record. A shaded panel marks the 2020 to 2025 period.

Technology

Most of what humanity has ever put into space went up in the last six years

24,865 objects have been launched into orbit since Sputnik in 1957. Nearly two thirds of them went up after 2019, and 2025 alone accounted for 4,510 — more than the entire first 36 years of spaceflight combined.

Chartive EditorialSep 6, 2026

Band chart of Arctic sea ice extent from 1979 to 2026 in million square kilometres. An upper blue line traces the winter maximum, falling from 16.2 in 1979 to 14.1 in 2026, with the lowest winter peak on record, 13.7, in 2025. A lower gold line traces the summer minimum, falling from 7.1 in 1979 to 4.7 in 2025, with a record low of 3.57 in 2012 marked in red. The shaded band between the two lines is the ice that melts and refreezes each year.

Climate

The Arctic has lost a third of its summer sea ice

At its yearly minimum in 1979, Arctic sea ice covered 7.1 million square kilometres. In 2025 it was 4.7 — a fall of 33%, and a loss roughly the area of Greenland.

Chartive EditorialSep 5, 2026

A slope chart comparing the share of adults using tobacco in 2000 and 2024. Most lines fall steeply and are drawn in blue: India from 55.7% to 22.6%, Norway 45.3% to 12.9%, the United States 38.6% to 15.8%, the United Kingdom 38.2% to 12.8%, Japan 33.4% to 17.5%, China 27.1% to 22.8% and Brazil 23.2% to 11.9%. France is almost flat at 34.5% to 33.6% and Indonesia 34.7% to 31.0%. Two red lines rise: Egypt from 19.7% to 25.0% and Lebanon from 34.3% to 46.9%. A thick white line shows the world average falling from 34.8% to 20.3%.

Health

The world quit smoking faster than almost anyone expected — but not evenly

The share of adults using tobacco fell from 34.8% in 2000 to 20.3% in 2024 — a drop of 42% in a single generation. India more than halved, Norway and Britain cut theirs by two thirds, while France barely moved and smoking rose in Egypt and Lebanon.

Chartive EditorialSep 4, 2026

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