Founded in Jerusalem in the 11th century to care for pilgrims, the Sovereign Military Order of Malta lost the island of Malta to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1798. It no longer has any sovereign territory; its headquarters in Rome enjoy extraterritorial status. Yet it is recognised as a subject of international law: it has diplomatic relations with more than 110 countries, has been a UN observer since 1994 and issues its own passports. Above all, it runs a vast humanitarian and medical network.
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.