The UNDP and the University of Oxford don't just measure income: their index combines health, education and living standards such as water, electricity, housing and cooking fuel. Of the roughly 6.3 billion people covered in more than 100 countries, about 1.1 billion are in acute poverty by this measure. About half of them are children.
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.