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A 100% stacked area chart of the share of United States household wealth held by each generation, quarterly from 1989 to 2026. In 1989 the Silent generation and earlier hold about 80% and shrink steadily to 11.3% by 2026. Baby Boomers rise from 19.5% to a peak of about 57% in 2016 and stand at 51.6% in 2026. Generation X grows from almost nothing to 26.1%. Millennials and later appear after 2002 and reach 11.0%. Beneath the chart, three figures compare each generation's share when its oldest members turned 45: Baby Boomers 20.9% in 1991, Generation X 9.0% in 2010, Millennials 11.0% in 2026.

Economy

At the same age, Boomers owned nearly twice as much of the country

When the oldest Baby Boomers turned 45, in 1991, their generation held 20.9% of all US household wealth. When the oldest Millennials turned 45, in 2026, theirs held 11.0%.

Chartive EditorialSep 12, 2026

Area chart of the change in United States annual electricity demand against its 2007 level, from 2000 to 2025. The area rises from −424 terawatt-hours in 2001 to the zero line by 2007, then stays within roughly 100 TWh of it for fourteen years, marked as fourteen flat years with a note that the total change from 2007 to 2021 was 19 TWh. From 2021 the line turns sharply upward in red, filling a wedge that reaches +362 TWh in 2025. Below, three bars compare the 343 TWh the United States added since 2021 with the United Kingdom's whole-year demand of 321 TWh and Italy's 312 TWh.

Climate

Fourteen years of nothing. Then this.

From 2007 to 2021 the United States added 19 terawatt-hours of annual electricity demand — half a percent in fourteen years. Since 2021 it has added 343, more than Britain uses in a year.

Chartive EditorialSep 11, 2026

Line chart of the urban share of population from 1960 to 2025 for the world and six regions, on a 0 to 100 percent axis. A thick gold world line rises from 34% to 58% and crosses a dashed line marked half of humanity in 2007, where a dot and annotation mark the crossing. Latin America rises from 49% to 82%, North America from 70% to 80%, Europe and Central Asia from 55% to 74%, and East Asia and the Pacific climbs steeply from 25% to 65%. Sub-Saharan Africa reaches 45% and South Asia 36%, both still below half.

Demographics

For all of human history most people lived off the land. That ended in 2007.

In 1960 about a third of humanity lived in towns and cities. In 2007 the share passed half for the first time, and it is now 58%. It is a threshold our species crosses only once.

Chartive EditorialSep 11, 2026

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

Line chart of the U.S. union membership rate from 1983 to 2025 on a 0 to 40 percent scale. The private-sector line falls steadily from 16.8% to 5.9%. The public-sector line stays high, drifting only from 36.7% to 32.9%. The shaded gap between them widens from 20 percentage points in 1983 to 27 today. A dashed line for all workers falls from 20.1% to 10.0%.

Economy

One in six private-sector workers was in a union. Now it is one in seventeen.

In 1983, 16.8% of American private-sector workers belonged to a union. By 2025 that had fallen to 5.9% — the lowest on record — while the rate among government workers barely moved.

Chartive EditorialSep 3, 2026

A pictogram of one hundred squares representing one dollar of U.S. federal revenue, with 18.5 squares shaded red for interest. Below, a filled line chart shows net interest as a share of federal revenue for every fiscal year from 1940 to 2025. The line falls to about 5% in the 1940s, hovers near 7% through the 1950s and 1960s, climbs through the 1970s and 1980s to a peak of 18.4% in 1991, falls back to a low of 6.9% in 2015, then rises steeply to 18.5% in 2025.

Economy

Nearly 19 cents of every dollar the U.S. collects now goes to interest

In the 2025 fiscal year the federal government paid $970 billion in net interest on its debt, against $5.24 trillion in revenue — 18.5% of everything it took in, the highest share in records going back to 1940.

Chartive EditorialSep 2, 2026

A grid of twelve small line charts showing the share of adults with obesity from 1980 to 2024, all on the same 0 to 45 percent scale, each with the world average as a dashed reference line. The world panel rises from 5.0% to 16.4%. Egypt reaches 42.8%, the United States 41.8%, Mexico 37.4%, Australia 32.4%, South Africa 31.3%, Brazil 30.9%, the United Kingdom 29.2% and Germany 24.5% — all above the world average and drawn in gold. France (12.5%), China (9.1%) and Japan (5.2%) sit below it and are drawn in blue.

Health

In 1980, one in twenty adults had obesity. Today it is one in six.

The share of adults worldwide with a body mass index of 30 or more rose from 5.0% in 1980 to 16.4% in 2024. Every country has risen — but by wildly different amounts.

Chartive EditorialSep 1, 2026

Line chart of children per woman from 1960 to 2024. South Korea's line falls steeply from 6.0 in 1960 to 0.72 in 2023, crossing below the dashed 2.1 replacement line in the mid-1980s, then ticks up to 0.75 in 2024. Context lines end at 2.19 for the world, 1.63 for the United States and 1.15 for Japan. An inset panel magnifies the 2010s, marking the 0.721 low point in 2023 and the rise to 0.748 in 2024.

Demographics

South Korea went from six children per woman to fewer than one — then turned

In 1960 the average South Korean woman had 6.0 children. By 2023 the figure had fallen 88% to 0.72 — the lowest rate ever recorded for a country. In 2024 it rose for the first time in nine years.

Chartive EditorialAug 31, 2026

Line chart of monthly atmospheric CO₂ at Mauna Loa from 1958 to 2026, rising with a seasonal saw-tooth pattern from about 315 to 429 parts per million.

Climate

Carbon dioxide keeps climbing

Monthly CO₂ in the atmosphere, measured at Mauna Loa, Hawaii — the famous “Keeling Curve.” It has risen from about 315 parts per million in 1958 to around 430 today, climbing in every single decade.

Daniel OkaforAug 31, 2026

World map on an Equal Earth projection showing women per 100 men enrolled in higher education. Most of the world is shaded pink, meaning women outnumber men: Brazil at 136, the United States 132, Germany 110, India 107. Blue areas where men outnumber women are concentrated in the Sahel and Afghanistan, at 38 women per 100 men, and include Japan at 97 and South Korea at 89. Grey marks countries with no recent data. A pink line beneath the map traces the world figure rising from 59 in 1970 to 112 in 2024, crossing a dashed parity line in 2001.

Society

In 1970 there were 59 women in higher education for every 100 men. Now there are 112.

Worldwide, higher education went from strongly male to majority female, passing equal numbers in 2001. Women now outnumber men in 132 of the 155 countries and territories with recent data — but the exceptions are two very different stories.

Chartive EditorialAug 30, 2026

Line chart of the share of U.S. household wealth held by three groups from 1989 to 2026, on a full axis from 0 to 45 percent. The top 1% line rises from 22.8% to 31.6%. The bottom 90% line falls from 39.2% to 32.1%. The two nearly meet at the right edge, and a shaded band marks 2014 to 2019, when the top 1% was ahead in 22 of 23 quarters. A third line near the bottom shows the bottom 50%, flat between 4.1% and 2.5% for the whole period. Below, two stacked bars compare the full composition in 1989 Q3 and 2026 Q1.

Economy

The richest 1% now own almost as much as the bottom 90% combined

In 1989 the wealthiest 1% of American households held 22.8% of all net worth and the bottom 90% held 39.2% — a gap of 16 percentage points. That gap has almost closed: 31.6% against 32.1%.

Chartive EditorialAug 30, 2026

Logarithmic scatter chart of launch cost per kilogram to low Earth orbit by rocket, 1962 to 2019, in constant 2021 dollars. Costs range from over $100,000/kg to SpaceX's Falcon Heavy at about $1,500 and Falcon 9 at $2,600, far below the Space Shuttle's $65,400 and Saturn V's $5,400.

Technology

Reaching orbit got 44× cheaper

Cost to launch one kilogram to low Earth orbit, by rocket (inflation-adjusted). SpaceX's reusable Falcons cost around $1,500–2,600/kg — a fraction of the Space Shuttle's $65,000 and of nearly every rocket before them.

Chartive EditorialAug 30, 2026

Warming stripes: 176 vertical stripes, one per year from 1850 to 2025, coloured from blue (cooler) to deep red (hotter) than the pre-industrial average. Recent decades are deep red; 2024 is the hottest year on record at about 1.5°C above pre-industrial.

Climate

175 years of a warming world

Each stripe is one year's global temperature from 1850 to 2025 — blue for cooler, red for hotter than the pre-industrial average. The ten hottest years on record have all come since 2015.

Chartive EditorialAug 30, 2026

Dumbbell chart of average hours per day spent alone by Americans, comparing 2010 and 2025 across eight age groups. Every group moved toward more time alone. Ages 15–19 rose from 3.60 to 5.16 hours (+43%), 20–24 from 4.21 to 5.49 (+30%), 25–34 from 4.40 to 6.37 (+45%), 35–44 from 4.92 to 6.10 (+24%), 45–54 from 6.14 to 6.88 (+12%), 55–64 from 6.88 to 7.59 (+10%), 65–74 from 7.47 to 8.13 (+9%) and 75 and over from 7.89 to 8.31 (+5%). A panel below shows time spent with friends falling from 65 minutes a day in 2010 to 33 in 2025.

Society

Alone time is rising — fastest for the young

Americans spent 6.82 waking hours a day alone in 2025, up from 5.61 in 2010. Teenagers now spend 43% more time alone than they did in 2010, and 25–34-year-olds 45% more — while time with friends has been cut in half.

Chartive EditorialAug 29, 2026

Diverging bar chart of U.S. price changes since January 2000. Bars extend right for rises: hospital services +293%, college tuition +199%, textbooks and supplies +184%, child care +161%, electricity +153%, medical care +152%, hourly wages +133%, housing +117%, food and drink +108%, overall inflation +98%, new vehicles +25%, clothing +6%. Bars extend left for falls: furniture and bedding 0%, cellphone service −44%, software −67%, toys −73%, televisions −98%.

Economy

What got expensive — and what got cheap

Since January 2000, U.S. hospital care has nearly quadrupled in price and college tuition tripled, while TVs, toys and software collapsed. Average hourly wages rose 133% — beating overall inflation, but far behind the essentials.

Chartive EditorialAug 29, 2026

Line chart of real U.S. home prices and median household income, indexed to 1987 = 100. The home-price line rises to 196 by 2024 (up 96%), spiking to 166 in the 2006 bubble, crashing, then climbing to a new high. The median-income line stays far below, reaching only 130 (up 30%). A shaded gap between the two lines widens over time.

Economy

Home prices soared — incomes didn't

After inflation, U.S. home prices climbed 96% between 1987 and 2024 while the median household income rose just 30% — pushing real prices above even the 2006 bubble.

Chartive EditorialAug 29, 2026

Area chart of world military spending in constant 2024 dollars, 1988 to 2025, falling from $1.8 trillion to a $1.2 trillion low in 1998, then rising to a record $2.8 trillion in 2025, with the 2021–2025 surge highlighted.

Economy

The world is arming again

World military spending, adjusted for inflation, fell after the Cold War — but has since climbed to a real record of about $2.8 trillion in 2025, the steepest sustained rise in decades.

Chartive EditorialAug 29, 2026

Health

America spends the most on health — but avoidable deaths stay high

In 2022 the U.S. spent $13,062 per person on health — more than any OECD country — yet its treatable-mortality rate (95 deaths per 100,000) was higher than 27 other members.

Chartive EditorialAug 28, 2026

Logarithmic scatter chart of training compute for notable AI systems from 1950 to 2025, rising from about 10^2 operations to over 10^26, with landmark models Perceptron (1960), AlexNet (2012), AlphaGo (2016), GPT-3 (2020), GPT-4 (2023) and Grok 4 (2025) highlighted.

Technology

Training AI doubles every six months

The computing power used to train notable AI systems has grown astronomically — doubling roughly every six months since 2010, and about a billionfold since 2012. Measured in floating-point operations (FLOP).

Mara EllisonAug 28, 2026

Paired bar chart comparing each cause's share of U.S. deaths with its share of New York Times coverage in 2016. Terrorism: ~0% of deaths but 36% of coverage; homicide 0.8% vs 23%; suicide 1.9% vs 11%; cancer 26% vs 13%; road accidents 6.7% vs 2%; heart disease 27% vs 2%.

Society

What kills us vs. what makes the news

The leading causes of death in the U.S., next to how often the news writes about them. We fixate on the rare — and ignore the common.

Chartive EditorialAug 28, 2026

A single horizontal bar representing a 79-year life, divided into activities: 30 years sleeping, 12 working, 9 watching TV, 8 other leisure, 6 household chores and 14 for everything else.

Society

How you'll spend a 79-year life

If a whole life of 79 years followed the average American's day, this is roughly how the years add up — nearly a third of it asleep, and more than half sleeping or working.

Chartive EditorialAug 27, 2026

Line chart of global life expectancy at birth from 1950 to 2023, rising from 46 to 73 years, with a dip around 1960 and a COVID-19 dip in 2020–21 before recovering.

Health

The world gained 27 years of life

Life expectancy at birth worldwide rose from about 46 years in 1950 to 73 in 2023 — one of humanity's great gains. COVID-19 caused the first global setback in a generation, before the trend resumed.

Chartive EditorialAug 27, 2026

Pictogram of 117 dots, each representing 1 billion people ever born. Eight dots are highlighted as the roughly 8 billion people alive today — about 7% of the 117 billion humans who have ever lived.

Demographics

117 billion humans have ever lived

Demographers estimate about 117 billion members of our species have ever been born. The 8 billion alive today are only about 7% of them — the other 93% came before us.

Chartive EditorialAug 26, 2026

Stacked area chart of wind and solar as a share of world electricity, 2000 to 2025, rising from 0.2% to about 17%. In 2025 solar is 8.8% and wind 8.5%.

Climate

Wind and solar reached one-sixth of world electricity

Share of the world's electricity generated by wind and solar, 2000 to 2025. It has climbed from a rounding error to about one-sixth — and in 2025 solar edged past wind for the first time.

Daniel OkaforAug 26, 2026

Stacked area chart of world population by region from 1950 to 2024, rising from 2.5 to 8.2 billion. In 2024 Asia is 59%, Africa 19%, the Americas 13%, Europe 9% and Oceania under 1%.

Demographics

From 2.5 to 8 billion in 74 years

World population by region, 1950 to 2024. Humanity more than tripled in under three generations — Asia is still home to most people, while Africa has become the fastest-growing region.

Mara EllisonAug 25, 2026

Scale comparison: counted one per second, a million takes 11.6 days, a billion 31.7 years, and a trillion 31,700 years. The median US household is worth $193,000; the world's richest person about $864 billion, or 4.5 million households.

Economy

A billion is bigger than you think

We treat a million, a billion and a trillion as close cousins. They are not — each is a thousand times the last. Counted one per second, the gap becomes almost unimaginable.

Chartive EditorialAug 25, 2026

Log-scale line chart of lithium-ion battery cell prices in constant 2024 dollars, falling from about $9,210 per kilowatt-hour in 1991 to $78 in 2024, with a small uptick in 2022.

Climate

Batteries got 99% cheaper

The price of lithium-ion battery cells has fallen from about $9,200 per kilowatt-hour in 1991 to under $80 in 2024 (in constant 2024 dollars) — the quiet engine behind cheap solar storage and electric cars.

Daniel OkaforAug 24, 2026

Two ranked lists of the 10 most valuable companies. In 2000: Microsoft, General Electric, Cisco, Walmart, Exxon Mobil, Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Royal Dutch Shell, Pfizer and Nokia — spanning many sectors. In 2026: Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, TSMC, SpaceX, Broadcom, Meta and Tesla — almost all technology.

Technology

The top of the market went all-in on tech

In 2000 the world's biggest companies were oil, retail, pharma and industry. By 2026 the top of the list is almost entirely technology and AI — and only Microsoft is still there.

Chartive EditorialAug 24, 2026

Stacked area chart of U.S. drug-overdose deaths per year, 2015 to 2024, split into fentanyl (synthetic opioids) and all other drugs. Total deaths rose from about 52,600 in 2015 to a record 109,413 in 2022, then fell to about 80,860 in 2024.

Health

U.S. overdose deaths hit a record — then a historic drop

Fentanyl drove U.S. drug-overdose deaths to a record of about 109,000 in 2022. By 2024 they had fallen roughly 26% — the steepest decline on record.

Chartive EditorialAug 23, 2026

Line chart of the share of new cars sold worldwide that are electric, rising from under 0.1% in 2010 to about 4.4% in 2020 and roughly 25% in 2025, with almost all growth after 2020.

Climate

One in four new cars is now electric

Share of new cars sold worldwide that are electric — battery-electric or plug-in hybrid. In 2010 it was about 1 in 8,000; by 2025 roughly one in four new cars had a plug.

Chartive EditorialAug 23, 2026

Health

America spends the most on health — and lives less

Health spending per person vs life expectancy across 57 countries in 2023. The U.S. spends about $12,100 a head — the most of any country — yet 31 nations that spend less live longer.

Chartive EditorialAug 22, 2026

Area chart of the realized CEO-to-worker pay ratio in the U.S. from 1965 to 2025, rising from 21-to-1 to about 325-to-1, with spikes to 380 in 2000 and an all-time 408 in 2021 and a dip to 166 in 2009.

Economy

CEOs out-earn workers 325 to 1

How many times more the average big-company CEO is paid than a typical U.S. worker — up from about 21-to-1 in 1965 to roughly 325-to-1 in 2025, after peaking at 408-to-1 in 2021.

Chartive EditorialAug 22, 2026

Stacked area chart of nuclear warheads in military stockpiles, 1945–2026. The United States (navy) and Soviet Union/Russia (red) dominate; the combined total rises to about 64,000 in 1986 and falls to roughly 9,700 by 2026, with seven other states adding about 1,600.

History

The nuclear arms race peaked in 1986

Warheads in military stockpiles. Cold-War rivalry drove the American and Soviet arsenals to about 64,000 combined by the mid-1980s; they have since fallen by roughly 85%, though thousands remain.

Chartive EditorialAug 22, 2026

Line chart of the share of the world that can read and write, rising from about 12% in 1820 to roughly 88% in 2024, with the fastest gains after 1950.

Society

The world learned to read

The share of people who can read and write has risen from about 12% in 1820 to roughly 88% today — from one in eight adults to nearly nine in ten.

Chartive EditorialAug 20, 2026

Column chart of the share of the world's population in extreme poverty (below $3.00 a day, 2021 prices): 43% in 1990, 36% in 2000, 21% in 2010, 13% in 2015 and 11% in 2022.

Economy

Extreme poverty is retreating

The share of the world living on less than $3 a day (2021 prices) has fallen from about 43% in 1990 to roughly 11% — from more than four in ten people to about one in nine.

Daniel OkaforAug 19, 2026

Horizontal bar chart of CO₂ emissions per person in 2023: Saudi Arabia 20.4t, United States 14.3t (highlighted), Russia 11.9t, China 8.6t, Japan 7.9t, Germany 7.0t, United Kingdom 4.5t, Brazil 2.3t, India 2.1t, Nigeria 0.6t, with a world average of 4.7t.

Climate

Americans emit far more CO₂ per person than China or India

CO₂ emissions per person in 2023. China and India lead on total emissions, but per head the average American emits about seven times an Indian — and roughly 1.7 times someone in China.

Chartive EditorialAug 18, 2026

Dumbbell chart comparing the share of people using the internet in 2000 and 2023 for eight countries: South Korea 45%→97%, United States 43%→94%, Germany 30%→92%, China 1.8%→91%, Brazil 2.9%→84%, Indonesia 0.9%→69%, India 0.5%→60%, Nigeria 0.1%→40%.

Technology

The world came online

Share of people using the internet, 2000 vs 2023. Two decades ago most of these countries were barely online; today, majorities in all of them are connected.

Daniel OkaforAug 17, 2026

Line chart of life expectancy at birth, 1950–2023, showing the United States (highlighted) rising from about 68 to 79 years but falling below Japan, the UK, France and Germany, with a dip during 2020–21.

Health

America started ahead on life expectancy — then fell behind

In 1950 the United States lived about as long as other wealthy countries. By 2023 it had the lowest life expectancy of the group — and lost the most ground during the pandemic.

Mara EllisonAug 16, 2026

Line chart on a logarithmic scale showing the price of solar photovoltaic modules falling from about $128 per watt in 1975 to about $0.26 per watt in 2024.

Climate

Solar panels are about 500 times cheaper than in 1975

The price of a solar panel, per watt of capacity, has fallen 99.8% since 1975 — one of the fastest sustained cost declines of any technology.

Mara EllisonAug 15, 2026

Area chart of U.S. federal debt held by the public as a share of GDP from 1939 to 2025, peaking at 106% in 1946, falling to 22% in 1974, and rising to about 98% in 2025.

Economy

America's debt is back near its World War II peak

Federal debt held by the public reached about 98% of U.S. GDP in 2025 — close to the record 106% set in 1946, after falling as low as 22% in 1974.

Mara EllisonAug 14, 2026