Photo: Heather Suggitt / Unsplash (CC0)
Many people feel that the world is going from bad to worse. And it’s true that there are many crises – but there’s also been huge progress made in many areas. In this edition, we’ve compiled some of the most important stories about it.
Literacy levels for the world population have risen drastically in the last couple of centuries. While only one in ten people in the world could read and write in 1820, today, the share has reversed, with only one in ten remaining illiterate.
Source: Our World in Data
The number of children not attending school worldwide has dropped from 390 million in 2000 to 244 million in 2023, marking significant progress despite global population growth.
Source: Our World in Data
Since 2020, the number of children receiving school meals through government-run initiatives has increased by roughly 20%. This brings the total to at least 466 million, including an additional 20 million children across African regions such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, and Rwanda.
Source: WFP
The figure dropped by about 18.7% globally between 2014 and 2024, from 507 million initially to 412 million as of last year. Although South Asia has more than halved its child poverty rates in general, India shows the largest reduction in the number of extremely poor children in the region.
Source: Warp News
A new study has found that solar energy is so cheap, it costs as little as €0.023 to produce one unit of power in the sunniest countries. Even in the UK, which sits 50 degrees north of the equator and is infamous for its grey weather, solar was still by far the cheapest option for large-scale energy generation.
Source: Euronews
Global electricity output rose by about 850 terawatt hours between 2024 and 2025. Nearly all of that increase came from solar and wind, and although gas use edged up slightly, larger declines in coal and oil more than compensated, pushing overall fossil generation downward.
Source: Our World In Data
The simultaneous fall in coal-powered electricity in the world’s biggest coal-consuming countries had not happened since 1973, according to analysts at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, and was driven by a record roll-out of clean energy projects.
Source: The Guardian
A new analysis of nearly 100 cities around the world shows that interventions such as cycle lanes and restrictions on polluting vehicles have driven improvements in air quality since 2010. Beijing and Warsaw cut levels of fine particulate pollution by more than 45%, while Amsterdam and Rotterdam saw cuts of more than 40% in nitrogen dioxide levels. San Francisco was the only US city that cut levels of both pollutants by more than 20%.
Source: The Guardian
Coastal mangrove systems protect millions of people from storms and extreme weather events, while also soaking up large volumes of planet-warming gases. For many years, these trees have been disappearing in large numbers as they were cleared to make space for housing and fish farms. However, new data show that since 2010 the world has been gaining more mangroves than it’s been losing.
Source: BBC News
Morocco signed on as the 60th nation, pushing the treaty across the threshold number for ratification next year. It pledges to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030, provides a legal process for creating protected marine areas, and sets a framework for collaboration on research, technology, and funding.
Source: AP
The area will cover the entirety of the country’s exclusive economic zone, which is roughly 5 million square kilometres, and will restrict damaging extractive practices such as bottom trawling and deep sea mining.
Source: Time
By creating a network of wilderness bigger than Texas, China plans to overtake the US by building the world’s largest national park system, despite only announcing its first national park four years ago. The goal is to secure 49 parks covering 272 million acres by 2035.
Source: National Geographic
With 10 human cases reported worldwide in 2025, Guinea worm is close to being the second disease eradicated in history, following smallpox. For a disease to be declared eradicated, every country in the world must be certified free of human and animal infections, even in those where transmission has never been known to occur.
Source: Euronews
The HPV vaccine was developed in Australia, and the country has been a global leader in how to eliminate the cervical cancer the virus can lead to. The first country to start a nationwide vaccination programme, it critically began giving it to boys as well in 2013. There have been no new cases of the cancer there in 25 years.
Source: BBC
New data shows that the number of animals annually killed for fur production has dropped from 140 million in 2014 to 20.5 million in 2024. Although the downward trend reflects a history of anti-fur activism that began in the 1980s, more recent calls to go fur-free have gained legislative influence, whilst customer pushback caused brands to reevaluate their use of fur.
Source: Good Good Good
Environmentalists have long expressed concern with the global trade in plastic waste that has allowed wealthier countries to pass on a plastic problem to countries with less waste regulation. The trade began to drop in 2018 when China banned waste importation, and now the trade is mainly between wealthy countries with strong regulations.
Source: Our World in Data
Strengthening waste management systems in low and middle-income countries could reduce global plastic pollution by up to 98%, according to new data. Nations with effective waste systems release far less plastic into the environment: on average, high-income countries generate 100 times less plastic pollution per person than lower-income ones.
Source: Our World in Data
The survey carried out jointly by the UN Development Program, Oxford University, and GeoPoll suggests that momentum is gathering in support of action on climate policy – with the number rising to 89% in regions historically most affected by extreme weather.
Source: Phys.org
A behavioural study conducted by the University of Bonn found that most people worldwide indicate a willingness to cooperate while simultaneously underestimating others’ desire to do the same.
Source: Blue News
Ask people how the world is doing, and you’ll mostly hear a negative approach. Ask them about their own lives, however, and the story changes: despite broad pessimism about global progress, most people believe their personal situations will improve in the future, according to new data.
Source: Our World In Data
The age-standardised rate has dropped from roughly 15 deaths per 100,000 people in the early 1990s to around 9 per 100,000 by the early 2020s: a fall of nearly 40%. Despite population growth, the total number of annual suicide deaths has also declined, with the most significant drops taking place in East Asia and Europe.
Source: Our World In Data
Despite geopolitical conflicts and wars, more and more people around the world are feeling safe in their everyday lives. Gallup’s Global Safety Report 2025 reports the highest level of people feeling safe since the survey began.
Source: Squirrel News
