According to the World Bank's Global Findex survey, 79% of adults worldwide had a bank or mobile money account in 2024, up from 51% in 2011. Mobile phones played a key role, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where mobile money has boomed. Around 1.3 billion adults still have no account, often women and people in rural areas.
That's the estimate from a WHO-led study published in The Lancet in 2024, covering the half-century since the Expanded Programme on Immunization was launched in 1974. It works out to about six lives saved every minute, mostly infants. The measles vaccine alone accounts for around 60% of those lives.
According to the World Gold Council, about 216,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in all of human history. Because gold is so dense (19.3 tonnes per cubic metre), it would fit in a cube about 22 metres on each side, roughly the height of a seven-storey building. Strikingly, about two-thirds of it has been mined since 1950.