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Percentage of over 14-year-olds worldwide who can read and write:

1976:

66%

2022:

87%

Source: World Bank

Increase in global life expectancy

(in years)

66.8 73.3 2000 born in 2019 born in

Source: World Health Organisation

Online

The number of Internet users worldwide is estimated to have grown from around one billion in 2005 to more than five billion in 2023.

Source: Statista

Today, around90% of all people have access to electricity. In 1990, it was only 75 percent.

Source: Gapminder Foundation

Reuse of water

Every year, about 165 billion cubic metres of waste water are collected and treated around the world. However, only two percent of this is currently reused. This precious resource can be put to much better use, for example in agriculture and municipal irrigation as well as in cleaning processes.

Source: SUEZ Group

The ozone hole is shrinking

The ban on the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is working: United Nations experts say that the ozone layer could recover completely by 2066. The regeneration of this important protective shield is crucial because it protects the earth from ultraviolet sun rays and slows down global warming.

Source: United Nations Environment Programme

Around the globe, the number of people who

have access to clean drinking water is increasing.

Percentage of the global population with access to managed drinking water systems

Source: World Health Organisation

Less global poverty

Since 1990, fewer and fewer people have been living in extreme poverty. Scientists expect this trend to continue.

Number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide (in million)

574* 2030 648 2018 1,996 1990

*Forecast | Source: United Nations