How many hours have you used electricity today? For me, it’s probably all of them — from charging my phone overnight to working on my laptop, exercising with my watch, and listening to music through my earphones. It's so normal that I can't imagine life without it.

But life without electricity is a reality for millions in Sub-Saharan Africa. This map shows the share of people with access to electricity across the region. This is defined as having a source that can provide basic lighting, charge a phone, or power a radio for just 4 hours daily.

Look at the countries in dark red: in Chad, only 12% of people have access. In the Democratic Republic of Congo — a country of over 100 million people — it's just 22%. Overall, 85% of people worldwide who lack access to electricity now live in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are bright spots, though. Countries like Kenya, where more than three-quarters of people now have electricity, show that progress in the region is possible.

Explore more data on access to electricity →

Most of us have heard that smoking damages the lungs. The chart drives this home: in the US, men who smoke are around 21 times more likely to die from lung cancer than men who have never smoked.

But the damage doesn’t stop there: smoking also increases the risk of other cancers, including mouth, throat, bladder and pancreatic cancer, in addition to other health conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease, and diabetes.

Why does one habit harm so many organs? Cigarettes carry a mixture of carcinogens that reach — and damage — tissues throughout the body. Smoking also injures blood vessels, fuels inflammation, and makes it easier for tumors to spread.

Because a single behavior poses so many risks, cutting smoking rates has been one of the most powerful tools to save lives and improve public health.

Explore more data and research on smoking on our dedicated page →

In 1990, one in four newborns in Malawi died before their fifth birthday.

At that time, the average number of births per woman was almost seven. This meant that many families experienced the tragedy of losing a child.

But in recent decades, Malawi has made incredible progress. As you can see in the chart, the child mortality rate has dropped to 1 in 25 children — an 84% reduction.

Many factors have contributed to this decline. The expansion of antenatal care and the attendance of skilled health professionals at birth have been crucial in saving newborns in the earliest days of life. Increasing vaccination rates, distributing insecticide-treated bed nets and antimalarials, and programs to stop the transmission of HIV have all reduced the risks of dying in infancy.

Read more about the role that vaccines have played in reducing child mortality →

Italy has become much safer over the last thirty years.

In the early 1990s, there were around 3 homicides per 100,000 people every year. That was one of the highest rates in Europe.

Since then, rates have fallen by more than 80%. As you can see in the chart, they have been around 0.5 per 100,000 in recent years. That now makes Italy safer than many of its European neighbours.

Mafia-related homicides dropped dramatically in the 1990s following intensified efforts from the Italian government. Some of this organized crime may have also shifted from violent acts towards financial and “white collar” crime.

While estimates can vary across data sources, for Italy, they show strong agreement →

If you live in the same country as your family, you don’t usually have to pay a fee when you send them money. International migrants face a harsher reality: they pay hefty transaction costs when supporting family back home. Globally, the average fee in 2023 was 6.3%, more than double the UN Sustainable Development Goal's target of getting this down to 3%.

This may not sound like much, but migrants send large amounts home to help with schooling, medical bills, house maintenance, and food. The total sum was nearly three times larger than global foreign aid in 2023. (Here, foreign aid consists of net development assistance from national governments and private philanthropy that meets the necessary conditions.)

Although 6.3% might seem modest, when applied to large volumes of money, these transfer fees amount to tens of billions of dollars.

The chart shows that migrants lost $51 billion in transaction fees in 2023, which is not far from the $66 billion the US gave as foreign aid. That's $51 billion paid by migrants but never received by their families.

With the new US administration projected to cut aid by more than half, aid experts from the Center for Global Development suggest reducing fees could help fill some of the gap. They recommend promoting cheaper transfer options, increasing competition between services, and linking banking systems across countries.

While money sent home by migrants isn’t as targeted to vulnerable groups as aid, most of it flows directly to families in low- and middle-income countries who can use it for what they need most.

Read more about money sent home by migrants →

Foreign aid has saved and improved millions of lives through health programs, food aid, and humanitarian assistance. Several countries — including the United States and the United Kingdom — have announced large cuts to their foreign aid budgets in the last few months. However, one country has been moving in the opposite direction in the last five years.

Since 2018, the amount Japan gives in foreign aid has more than doubled. You can see this in the chart.

In 2018, Japan gave $8.6 billion. By 2023, this had increased to $19.3 billion. This makes Japan’s aid budget equivalent to 0.44% of its gross national income. That was more than the United States, which gave 0.24%, but still less than many European countries, including the UK, France, Germany, and Norway, which topped the list at 1.1%.

Read my recent article on how small amounts of foreign aid can go a long way →

In the early 1980s, Nepal’s children suffered from some of the highest death rates from pneumonia in the world, with over 1,400 deaths for every 100,000 children under five. That meant around 39,000 children died from pneumonia each year, more than from any other cause.

Since then, Nepal has made huge progress. The death rate has fallen almost 20-fold. This improvement is due to various measures, including pneumococcal and Hib vaccines, better access to healthcare and antibiotics, and improved nutrition.

Despite this progress, pneumonia is still among the leading causes of death in children in Nepal. And we know that more progress can be made: high-income countries have achieved much lower rates, with fewer than 5 per 100,000.

Explore how deaths from pneumonia among children have changed in other countries →