Head of Research, Our World in Data
Appears in 2 stories
Published the dataset behind the May 2026 milestone
In 2000, 1.35 billion people lived without electricity. By May 2026, that count has fallen to roughly 675 million. The drop works out to about 334,000 new connections every day, sustained for a quarter century.
Updated May 31
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In the 1920s, natural disasters killed an average of 500,000 people per year. Today, with four times the global population, that number has dropped to roughly 45,000—a 99% decline in the per-capita death rate. The transformation happened not through divine intervention or luck, but through a century of investment in weather satellites, building codes, early warning networks, and agricultural science that turned existential threats into manageable emergencies.
Updated May 22
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