On any average day, 165,000 people die globally. That’s 60 million a year. What do they die from? 🔧📊 We built a new interactive tool that lets you answer this question, with data for every country. Globally, 75% of deaths are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Heart disease alone is 1 in 3.

Our colleague needs your help keeping a 1,200-year dataset alive! If you have botanical expertise or are based near Arashiyama, Kyoto — DM her or email tuna@ourworldindata.org.

Tuna@antea04.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I'm a data scientist @ourworldindata.org and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸 We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto. The researcher who maintained it, Prof. Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

People living in England and Wales are much less likely to be victims of theft than in the 1990s— Several data sources show that theft in England and Wales has declined in recent decades. One of those is police records — but they only capture reported crimes, and many people don’t report thefts.

✍️ New article: "How have crime rates in the United States changed over the last 50 years?" Crime is clearly a concern for many people. Nearly 60% of Americans, for example, say that reducing crime should be a top priority for the US president and Congress.

Big new blogpost! My guide to data visualization, which includes a very long table of contents, tons of charts, and more. --> Why data visualization matters and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful. www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/salonis-gu...

We just published our “Top of the Charts”, a look at our most popular charts, articles, data insights & more in 2025! (link in 🧵) Here are our top 5 most-viewed charts. Each Friday over the next few weeks, we’ll share the top 5 for other categories (articles, etc.). Stay tuned! 1. CO2 emissions

A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed dramatically with the arrival of humans, who have become the dominant species through our own population, as well as the animals we breed and raise for food. What is the distribution of the global mammal kingdom today?

Only two countries recorded human cases of guinea worm disease in 2024

This is really one of the best charts by @ourworldindata.org 📊 Amazing how much research and work goes into creating a chart like this. And it's such a good insight into society.

The threat of extinction is not spread evenly across the tree of life. To protect animals, it’s important to know which ones are most threatened and why. Of all vertebrates (animals with a backbone and skull), amphibians are most threatened with extinction.

Launch day 🚀 We’ve just released @chartlecc.bsky.social - a daily chart game! Your job is to guess which country is represented by the red line in today's chart. You get 5 tries, no other clues! Play today, come back tomorrow for a different chart with new data and share with your chart friends 📈

Chartle - A daily chart game

Guess the country in red by analysing today's chart

chartle.cc

Global maternal mortality rates have fallen by almost 60% since 1985

Spain is having its largest wildfire year in well over a decade

Homicide rates in Ecuador have increased steeply in the last few years

Vaccines are one of the most powerful tools in public health. They have saved hundreds of millions of lives by preventing deadly diseases like measles, polio, and smallpox. Before vaccines, these infections were common; surviving them often meant facing severe complications or lifelong disability.

✍️ New article: "The world left its fight against tuberculosis unfinished — how can we complete the job?"

💡New feature rolling out: switch between different indicators on our data pages! For example, on our page showing childhood vaccination coverage, you can easily switch between the share and number of children vaccinated (and unvaccinated), and compare across vaccines or focus on a particular one.

✍️ New article: The end of tuberculosis that wasn’t

💡 Very excited to announce new features: better interactive maps! 🗺️ – Enhanced country/region selection with several sorting options and a bar chart preview – Selecting a country highlights it and shows its value on the map – Zooming to your selection brings up a 3D globe view 🌍

Progress can sometimes be slow, but with persistence it is possible. Take the case of leaded gasoline.

📊 Data update: We've just updated the data in our charts on homicides. The data comes from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime 2025 release. This update was led on our team by @spoonerf.bsky.social.

In a new article, @scientificdiscovery.dev and @spoonerf.bsky.social tell the story of measles vaccines and their life-saving impact: ourworldindata.org/measles-vacc...

Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year

Measles once killed millions every year. Vaccines changed this, preventing disease, long-term immune damage, and deadly outbreaks.

ourworldindata.org

Few things are more heartbreaking than the death of a young child. For most of humanity’s past, these tragedies occurred all too frequently — half of all children died. This was true no matter where in the world a child was born, even in the richest countries.

In just the last 50 years, it’s estimated that measles vaccinations have prevented over 90 million deaths worldwide. In a new article, @spoonerf.bsky.social and I describe how they were developed and scaled up worldwide, and the impact they've had:

Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year

Measles once killed millions every year. Vaccines changed this, preventing disease, long-term immune damage, and deadly outbreaks.

ourworldindata.org

An important reminder that measles vaccines save millions of lives every year across the world. The measles vaccine is arguably the most life-saving vaccine in use. Our latest article from @scientificdiscovery.dev and @spoonerf.bsky.social: ourworldindata.org/measles-vacc...

‘The data shows that just one dose cuts the chances of measles by about 95%, and two doses do even better.’ Timely review of the data on measles vaccines from @ourworldindata.org ourworldindata.org/measles-vacc...

How effective and safe are measles vaccines?

Data from large meta-analyses show that measles vaccination is highly effective and safe, giving a 95% reduction in the risk of measles.

ourworldindata.org

In 2025, the peak cherry blossom of happened on April 4th. This long-run data is a proxy for how the climate has changed. Since the early 20th century, the combined effects of urbanization and higher temperatures due to climate change have gradually moved the peak blossom earlier in the year.

Vaccination eliminated polio from the United States 🧵

A flu lineage has likely gone extinct since 2020 🧵

Rising global temperatures can influence the timing of events, such as when crops are ready to plant and harvest and when flowers and trees bloom. One example is the timing of the peak cherry tree blossom in Kyoto, Japan, where records stretch back to the ninth century — that’s over 1200 years.