According to the ILO, about 2 billion people, close to 58% of the world's workers, have informal jobs: no contract, no social security contributions, often no protection if they fall ill or get injured. Street vendors, smallholder farmers, domestic workers... In some low-income countries the share tops 85%. The 'standard' job of rich-country statistics is actually the minority worldwide.
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.