Countries have very different rates of homelessness, according to the OECD’s Affordable Housing Database.

The chart shows that more than 300 out of every 100,000 are reported homeless in France, while it’s fewer than 20 in Finland.

In about half of the countries, more than 100 in every 100,000 people are homeless. That means more than one per thousand people.

There are also differences in types of homelessness. The United States, for example, has relatively high numbers of people living in the streets or public spaces but fewer in temporary accommodations or shelters.

Not all countries on the chart can be directly compared. For example, Japan and Greece only report data on one type of homelessness, so they don’t give a complete picture of the total population affected by homelessness.

Explore our updated and expanded topic page on homelessness →

The chart shows the weekly area burned by wildfires globally and in Africa from 2012 to 2024. This August saw an abrupt increase in the area burned by wildfires, with most of this rise coming in a single week.

This global weekly burn rate was 64% higher than any previous week during this period. This data comes from the Global Wildfire Information System.

This dramatic rise was mostly driven by severe wildfires in Africa, where approximately 22 million hectares burned in a week, accounting for around 80% of the global burned area.

Two countries have been particularly hard-hit — Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo — where 6% and 2.5% of the total land area have burned in just one week.

Explore wildfire data across the world, updated weekly →

Smallpox was a deadly disease that has been recorded since ancient times. It killed around 30% of those who developed the disease.

In 1980, it became the first disease to be eradicated worldwide. This considerable achievement resulted from centuries of coordinated effort and scientific development.

People were able to fight the virus by developing and refining smallpox vaccines, using quarantine control measures, and applying ring vaccination.

Many countries — in Europe, the former Soviet Union, and many island nations — eliminated smallpox around a century ago. This is shown on the map, whose data was compiled by researchers Frank Fenner and colleagues in 1988.

Smallpox continued to kill in many countries in South Asia, Africa, and South America until the 1970s. It remains a vivid memory for many older people alive today.

Read more about the history of smallpox and its eradication →

The United Kingdom was the birthplace of coal. It has now, effectively, died there.

As shown in the chart, in the late 1980s, around two-thirds of the UK’s electricity came from coal. By the time I was born in the 1990s, this had dropped to just over half.

The use of coal has plummeted in my lifetime. It now makes up less than 2% of the UK’s electricity.

Coal was first replaced by gas but is now being pushed out by wind, solar, and biomass.

Read more about the death of UK coal →

Around the world, women tend to live longer than men.

However, the sex gap in life expectancy has changed over time, as this chart shows. The data comes from combining the WHO’s Human Mortality Database and the United Nations World Population Prospects.

As you can see, the sex gap in life expectancy — defined as female life expectancy minus male life expectancy — was around 3 years in the 19th century in countries like France and Sweden. It spiked during the two World Wars, as deaths surged among young men in combat.

But it also grew gradually over the 20th century to around 7 years.

One reason for this widening gap was the rise in tobacco smoking, especially among men. Smoking increases the risk of various cancers and heart disease and leads to premature death.

Since then, as smoking has declined, the sex gap in life expectancy has narrowed in many countries.

Read more about why women tend to live longer than men →

The number of countries that possess nuclear weapons has never been higher. Only one country that had them — South Africa — entirely dismantled its arsenal.

But, as the chart shows, many more states had considered or pursued nuclear weapons in the past — they are displayed in yellow and orange.

In the late 1970s, more than a dozen countries considered them or pursued them by launching nuclear weapons programs, but almost all stopped. Only Syria has considered nuclear weapons recently, and only Iran has pursued building them.

This data is based on the work of political scientist Philipp Bleek and the Nuclear Threat Initiative.

Find out which countries gave up obtaining nuclear weapons →

Improved crop yields have allowed us to feed billions more people while sparing forests and other land from agriculture.

Global cereal yields have tripled since 1961. And as you can see in the chart, they have increased in all regions.

However, yields across most African countries have lagged behind. At 1.7 tonnes per hectare, they’re still less than half the global average of 4.2 tonnes.

This is bad for farmers: they get much smaller harvests and live on much lower incomes. It makes it harder for countries to feed their populations. And it’s a problem for biodiversity: lower yields mean that farmland has to expand into wild habitats.

Increasing agricultural productivity — particularly across Africa — is one of the biggest challenges of this century.

Explore the data →