Electricity access in Bangladesh has transformed over my lifetime: from around 15% of the population 30 years ago, to 99% today.

But progress on clean cooking fuels has lagged far behind. Fewer than 30% of households cook with gas, electricity, or improved stoves; most still rely on wood, crop waste, or straw. The chart shows that clean fuel usage is well below the levels reached by its Asian neighbors.

The costs are huge. Using biomass for cooking damages forests and harms health because people breathe in smoke and particulates. In Bangladesh, deaths from indoor air pollution are higher than the average in low-income countries, even though those countries usually have worse overall health. Indoor air pollution is close to being the country’s largest risk factor for early death.

Why has progress been so slow? The main barrier is economic. Bangladesh produces very little liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), relying instead on volatile imports. Its lack of domestic distribution networks also pushes prices, making clean cooking fuels expensive for consumers. Some of Bangladesh’s neighbors — like India — have given subsidies to help households switch; Bangladesh has not, making clean cooking fuels less affordable.

Cultural factors also matter. Biomass is often seen as “free” and convenient, and families are used to traditional cookstoves and the flavors they generate. They might be unaware of how damaging this pollution is to their health and skeptical of the damage that alternatives such as LPG could do.

Read my colleague Max Roser’s article — “The world’s energy problem” — for a global perspective on this issue →

At the turn of the millennium, France had one of the lowest-carbon electricity grids in Europe (and the world). While countries like the UK and Germany emitted well over 500 grams of CO₂ per kilowatt-hour of electricity, France emitted just 80 grams — six times less. This was mostly thanks to nuclear power.

In the 1980s and 1990s, France rapidly expanded its power grid, and almost all of this growth came from new nuclear plants. The chart shows this: in the 1980s alone, nuclear power grew from 60 to over 300 terawatt-hours.

By 2000, nuclear power supplied almost 80% of the country’s electricity, making it much cleaner than its neighbors, mostly relying on coal and gas.

France still has one of the cleanest grids in Europe, although it has added very little nuclear power in the 21st century. It has opened just one plant in the last 25 years, in Flamanville, following long delays and cost overruns.

In the last decade, solar and wind power have grown the most.

See what countries produce nuclear energy, and how their generation has changed over time →

The Northern White rhino is on the brink of extinction. In the chart, you can see the collapse of this beautiful animal's population as a result of poaching, habitat loss, and conflict.

Now, only two individuals are left — Najin and her daughter, Fatu. Without males, the subspecies is “functionally extinct” and cannot rebuild its population naturally.

Scientists, though, offer some hope of bringing the rhino back through assisted reproduction. Eggs from Najin and Fatu have been fertilized with preserved sperm from dead male rhinos to produce viable embryos. Since neither Najin nor Fatu can carry a pregnancy, the plan is to use a female Southern White rhino — the closest subspecies — as a surrogate, to carry the embryo through to birth.

In 2023, a surrogate called Curra became pregnant, showing that the method works. Sadly, she died of a bacterial infection during pregnancy.

Scientists plan to try again and are also exploring other breakthrough reproduction treatments to save the Northern White rhino before it’s lost forever.

Read my article on why large mammals are so threatened with extinction →

One of humanity’s biggest victories has been the fight against infectious diseases. This battle has led to plummeting rates of child and maternal mortality and dramatically increased life expectancy.

However, there are still large differences in infectious disease rates between different parts of the world. As we might expect, deaths are much less common in high-income countries where almost everyone can access clean water, sanitation, and medication.

One common misconception is that this prosperity has come at the cost of an increase in death rates from chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancers (collectively called “non-communicable diseases”). But this is not the case. As you can see in the chart, death rates from these diseases are also lower in richer countries. It’s not the case that we’ve simply substituted one health problem for another.

That means that the risk of someone of a given age dying from any cause each year tends to decrease as countries get richer.

Explore more of our data on causes of death across the world →

The first nationwide law allowing same-sex couples to marry was passed in the Netherlands in 2001. Amsterdam’s mayor, Job Cohen, officiated the first couples. Twenty-five years on, these rights to same-sex marriage now cover 1.5 billion people worldwide.

These people live in 39 countries with marriage equality, mainly across Western Europe and the Americas.

This change in marriage laws has made a huge difference to the lives of many. But they are still in the minority globally. Four in five people still live in countries where same-sex couples are not equal under the law.

Explore which countries have legalized same-sex marriage →

Over the last three decades, employment has changed dramatically across Asia.

In the early 1990s, almost two-thirds of the labor force in South Asia was employed in agriculture, and more than half in East Asia. Today, this is just 40% in the former, and one-quarter in the latter.

The chart shows the change across several countries in these regions. The share has fallen in all of them, but some stand out as having particularly dramatic transitions away from farming.

In Bangladesh and Vietnam, rates have fallen from around 70% to 38%. In China, they have dropped from 60% to 25%. In India, things have moved more slowly.

This matters for people still working in agriculture and those who have moved to jobs in other sectors. Productivity gains — which can allow family members and former workers to move away from the farm — mean that the financial returns per farm worker have increased over this time. Those who have moved to jobs in industry and services often see an increase in their wages. The result is that mean incomes have increased across these countries.

Read our data insight on this transition in today’s rich countries →

Honest elections matter because they give people a say in how their country is run. They help ensure that governments reflect the people's will and that policies respond to real needs.

It’s sometimes assumed that support for democracy and fair elections is limited to particular regions or cultures. However, data from the Integrated Values Surveys, which asks people across many countries how much honest elections matter to them, shows otherwise.

Across all the countries surveyed, large majorities said honest elections are important in their lives. Nearly everyone said so in Indonesia, South Korea, and the UK. Even in countries where experts judge elections as unfree or unfair — like Iran, Egypt, or Russia — around 80% to 90% still said they matter.

In some contexts, people may feel pressure to answer this question in a certain way, either downplaying or overstating the importance of elections. Still, the consistency of results across such different countries suggests the demand is real.

Explore more data on free and fair elections for all countries →