According to the 2026 Tracking SDG7 report, published by the International Energy Agency, the World Bank and several UN agencies, 92% of humanity had access to electricity in 2024. That left about 655 million people without power, more than 80% of them in sub-Saharan Africa, where nearly one person in two lacks access. The figure was over a billion in 2010, but progress has slowed markedly in recent years.
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.