The World Bank uses the term 'learning poverty' for being unable, at age 10, to read and understand a simple text. In low- and middle-income countries it affects about 70% of children, according to a 2022 estimate that factors in Covid-19 school closures. Most of these children are enrolled in school: the challenge now is quality, not just access.
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.