https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/nearly-half-of-teenagers-globally-cannot-read-with-comprehension Our World in Data Oxford Martin School logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo * Browse by topic * Latest * Resources * About Subscribe Donate It's Giving Season. Help us do more with a donation. Gdoc/Admin Daily Data InsightsNearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension Today Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension Veronika SamborskaVeronika Samborska Nearly half of teenagers globally cannot read with comprehension The chart shows the share of children at the end of lower-secondary school age -- aged 12 to 15 -- who meet the minimum proficiency set by UNESCO in reading comprehension. This means they can connect the main ideas across various texts, understand the author's intentions, and draw reasoned conclusions. Only around half of children of this age can read this well. In countries like Ireland and South Korea, more than 8 in 10 children reach this level. But in poorer countries like Senegal, Zambia, and Cambodia, fewer than 1 in 20 do. These numbers include all children of middle school age, not just those who attend school. Explore the most recent education data from UNESCO, now available in our updated charts - Related topic pages: * Global Education * Literacy Copy link Our latest Daily Data Insights See all Daily Data Insights A line chart showing global per capita CO2 emissions from 1850 to 2023. The red line represents emissions from fossil fuels, peaking in 2012 at about 4.9 tons per person. The green line shows combined emissions from fossil fuels and land use, peaking slightly earlier. Both lines show a sharp rise starting in the 20th century and recent declines. The source is the Global Carbon Budget (2024). Yesterday Per capita CO2 emissions have peaked globally, but total emissions are still increasing To tackle climate change, the world needs to rapidly reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. But before we reduce emissions, we need to stop them rising; the world needs to pass the peak. Globally, total CO2 emissions are still slowly increasing. The Global Carbon Project just released its preliminary estimates for 2024, which suggest another 0.8% increase. However, while total emissions have not yet peaked, emissions per person have. Globally, per capita CO[2] emissions from fossil fuels peaked in 2012. When land use emissions -- which are more uncertain and noisier -- are included, they peaked in the 1970s and have fluctuated since then. You can see both trends in the chart. This suggests that, globally, lifestyles are slowly decarbonizing. However, to come closer to our global climate targets, economies must decarbonize much faster to push total emissions into decline. Explore the latest CO2 emissions data in our updated charts - Continue reading The image shows a bar chart titled "Number of lives saved by childhood vaccinations from 1974 to 2024," sourced from Shattock et al. (2024). A total of 93.71 million lives have been saved by measles vaccines since 1974. Other diseases include tetanus (27.95 million) and whooping cough (13.17 million). The data highlights the large impact of vaccination programs globally. December 02 Measles vaccines have saved over 90 million lives in the last 50 years Measles vaccination has saved 94 million lives globally since 1974. Of those, 92 million were children. The chart shows the number of lives saved by different childhood vaccines in the last 50 years. These estimates come from Andrew Shattock and colleagues and are based on global data on diseases, causes of death, vaccination rates, and vaccine efficacy. Measles vaccines rank the highest in the total number of lives saved. Measles is especially contagious and deadly. The virus depletes immune cells, making it harder to fight off measles and making other infections much more life-threatening. It can also erase immune memory to infections and vaccines that children have already encountered. Before vaccines, almost all children caught measles, and it was a common cause of disability and death. With high measles vaccination rates, millions of lives are saved globally each year. Read more in our article about the impact of global vaccination - Continue reading [expected-population-growth-across-continents-desktop-v2] November 29 The UN projects that Africa's population will double by 2070 Today, Africa is home to 1.5 billion people. By 2070, the UN expects this number to more than double. Its estimates range from 2.7 billion to 3.7 billion, with the most likely scenario placing the African population around 3.2 billion. This region is where most of the growth in the world population will occur in the next 50 years. Europe's population is already shrinking, with Asia and Latin America expected to follow from the 2050s onwards. The UN expects North America's population to grow, although much slower than Africa's. Read more about population growth - Continue reading [Growth] November 28 In these nine African countries, average incomes have more than doubled since 1990 Economic growth is most important for the world's poorest people, and most of the world's poorest live on the African continent. Are Africa's economies growing? The picture is mixed. In some countries, incomes have unfortunately declined in the last decades. This includes Madagascar, Zimbabwe, and Burundi. I have written about this in my brief explainer on extreme poverty. In today's Daily Data Insight, I want to focus on the other side: I want to highlight the African countries that are achieving economic growth. Nine of them are shown in the chart above. In all nine countries, people's average incomes have more than doubled since 1990. This made substantial improvements in living standards possible: the share of people in extreme poverty and the rate of child mortality declined in all nine countries. If you want to know more about the importance of growth and how it can be measured, you could read my article: What is economic growth? And why is it so important? - Continue reading Line chart titled '20.5 million people receive antiretroviral therapy through PEPFAR' showing the annual number of people receiving antiretroviral therapy through PEPFAR, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, from 2004 to 2023. The chart starts near zero in 2004, rising steadily each year, and reaching 20.5 million people in 2023. The therapy helps keep people with HIV healthy and prevents its spread to others. Data source: President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (2024), published by Our World in Data. November 27 In 2023, PEPFAR provided life-saving therapy against HIV to 20.5 million people The US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, was established in 2003 to fight the global HIV epidemic. Since its launch, PEPFAR has provided millions of people with antiretroviral therapy (ART) worldwide, especially in Africa. The chart shows the number of people who received therapy through PEPFAR in a given year. In 2023, it was 20.5 million people. ART is highly effective: it helps keep people with HIV healthy and reduces the risk of spreading the virus to others, saving more than one million lives each year. But, after months of legislative delay, PEPFAR was recently renewed for only one year, raising concerns about the program's future after March 2025. Explore data on other aid success stories - Continue reading Line chart showing an example of a data error that was detected and flagged for correction. The old data has a large spike in the middle of the timeline, while the new data shows a consistent line without the anomaly. November 26 Spotting and fixing data issues: how we help improve data quality on and off our publication In today's Data Insight, we're sharing a behind-the-scenes look at a part of our work we rarely talk about, but that is crucial in contributing to a more accurate understanding of the world. We work with hundreds of datasets from many different sources. To check their quality, we've built in-house tools that flag unusual patterns, helping us spot when something seems off. Even in high-quality datasets, occasional errors can slip through. The chart shows a recent example: after we updated a dataset, we noticed an unexpected spike in one of its time series. Investigating further, we traced the issue back to the data provider and let them know. They reviewed it, confirmed the problem, and corrected the error. Thanks to exchanges like this, several datasets have been improved this year. Improving data quality is always a collaborative effort. We deeply appreciate the work of statisticians and data providers worldwide, who play a critical role in creating and maintaining these datasets. Our role is to help flag issues when we spot them and provide constructive feedback to make the data better for everyone. Continue reading Get Daily Data Insights delivered to your inbox Receive an email from us when we publish a Daily Data Insight (every weekday). [ ]Subscribe By subscribing you are agreeing to the terms of our privacy policy. Our World in Data is free and accessible for everyone. Help us do this work by making a donation. 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