Five developed countries met the UN’s target for foreign aid in 2023

We’ve all seen the dramatic images of vast parts of the ocean caked in oil; birds and other wildlife stuck in the thick, dark liquid. These spills are both environmentally damaging and expensive to clean up.

As the chart shows, in the 1970s, over 300,000 tonnes of oil were spilled from oil tankers in most years. By the 1980s and 1990s, this had dropped, but the annual average was still over 100,000 tonnes.

These losses have fallen dramatically since the millennium. Last year, 10,000 tonnes were spilled, less than one-thirtieth of the amount lost in a typical year in the 1970s.

This decline has occurred despite global oil production and trade increasing dramatically.

We’ve just updated our charts on oil spills; explore the latest data →

Many countries receive some foreign aid, but it typically accounts for just a few percent of their income. But during periods of conflict, crisis, or natural disaster, foreign aid forms a large part of some countries’ economy.

The map shows the countries where aid was more than one-fifth of national income in 2023 (the latest year of data available). This included Yemen, Syria, and the Central African Republic, which experienced continued conflict, and Ukraine, which received humanitarian aid following the Russian invasion.

Since aid is often given during periods of acute fragility and humanitarian crises, the countries on this list change a lot from year to year. If you look at the trend for Haiti, for example, you can see a spike in aid after the devastating earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince in 2010.

During these events, aid often plays a crucial role in providing basic resources and support for countries trying to rebuild.

Explore data on who gives foreign aid, who receives it, and how this has changed over time →

As countries get richer, the type of work that people do changes a lot.

The chart breaks down the workforce by sector by country income groups. In most low-income countries, a majority of people work in agriculture. People grow their own food, get a surplus to sell to others, or produce commodities that they can export overseas.

In comparison, fewer people work in farming in middle- and high-income countries. People start to move to industrial and service jobs instead.

In rich countries, three-quarters of workers are employed in services, compared to just 3% in agriculture.

There are several drivers of this. Agricultural productivity tends to increase as countries get richer (and they gain access to better seeds, fertilizers, irrigation, and land). This means fewer family members must work on the farm to produce the same — or more — income.

At the same time, many industrial and service jobs pay more, so people are incentivized to move out of farming to higher-paying roles when they become available. This transition has been a key driver of economic growth and poverty reduction for many countries.

Read my article on why improvements in agricultural productivity are important to reduce poverty →

As conflicts break out across the world, the threat of nuclear war is never far from many people’s minds.

One of the first questions we need to answer to better understand the risks of nuclear weapons is: which countries have them, and in what quantity? The chart shows estimates of national stockpiles in 2025.

The exact number of warheads is secret, so these are some of the best estimates based on publicly available information, historical records, and occasional leaks.

Nine countries are thought to have nuclear weapons today, but over 80% of warheads are held by just two: Russia and the United States.

While the number of countries that possess nuclear weapons has never been higher, the total number of warheads and tests being carried out is lower than they were a few decades ago.

Read our colleague Max Roser’s article on why nuclear war is a key concern of our generation →

Forty years ago, public views about homosexuality were extremely negative in many rich countries. As the chart shows, back in 1984, one in three Dutch people believed homosexuality was “never or rarely justified”. In Spain and Great Britain, that view was held by the majority. Perhaps most strikingly, three-quarters of Americans thought the same.

Since then, levels of discrimination have plummeted. Today, the share of people in these countries who think that homosexuality is “never or rarely justified” makes up a shrinking minority. That’s good news — everyone should be free to decide for themselves who they are attracted to.

It might sound odd today to ask whether someone else’s sexuality is justified. But that’s how the long-running World Values Survey phrased it when they began decades ago. Keeping the phrasing consistent helps show how attitudes have changed, but the fact that it may sound outdated now is, in itself, a reflection of how much has changed.

Explore responses to this question in more than a hundred countries →

As someone who studies the transition to low-carbon energy, I am always on the lookout for electric cars in everyday life. I like to see how common they are, and it has been exciting to see their prominence grow on the roads in the UK.

Last year, more than one in five new cars sold globally were electric. But how does this vary worldwide? This share is shown across a selection of countries in the chart (more are available here).

Norway leads the world by a long way, with almost all new cars there being electric. China is another standout, with nearly half of new sales.

At the bottom, you can see that electric cars are still relatively rare in countries like Japan, Brazil, and India.

In most countries, greenhouse gas emissions from transport have either grown or, at best, stagnated in the last decade. Accelerating the transition to electric vehicles will be crucial to pushing emissions downwards.

Note that “electric” here includes fully-electric and plug-in hybrid cars; you can see the contribution of each here.

Explore data on electric car sales and stocks across countries in our latest update →

For the first time, in 2024, more than half of the electricity produced in the Netherlands came from renewable sources, and almost all of it (45%) from solar and wind.

As the chart shows, this has been a sharp and recent shift. Even as recently as 2018, over 80% of Dutch electricity was generated by fossil fuels.

The Dutch government signed a national climate accord in 2019 that introduced more than 600 measures to accelerate the shift to low-carbon power. These included further stimulation of solar and wind energy, a rising carbon tax, and the closure of a major coal plant. A rapid surge in renewable electricity followed, with solar and wind growing from 14% to 45% of the electricity mix.

This transition was developed through negotiations with over 100 organizations, including businesses, unions, government agencies, and NGOs. This collaborative approach reflects the Dutch tradition of polderen, a consensus-driven model in which major decisions are made through dialogue and compromise rather than unilateral decisions from central governments.

This matters because it shows that fast transitions are possible not only through top-down mandates but also through cooperation and shared commitment. That’s an encouraging lesson as countries worldwide seek to move away from fossil fuels.

See how each source contributes to the Dutch electricity mix →