Since 1996, Norway has been investing part of its oil revenue in a sovereign wealth fund managed by its central bank. The fund holds stakes in more than 7,000 companies, on average about 1.5% of every listed company on the planet. In 2026 it is worth over $2 trillion, around $400,000 per Norwegian. Under a fiscal rule, the government should spend only about 3% of the fund a year on average.
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.