According to the WHO and other UN agencies, the risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth fell from about 328 to 197 deaths per 100,000 live births between 2000 and 2023, largely thanks to better access to basic care. Still, around 260,000 women died in 2023, roughly one every two minutes, most of them from preventable causes.
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.