According to the International Labour Organization, 52% of the world's population received at least one social protection benefit in 2023 (a pension, child benefit, unemployment insurance and so on), up from about 43% in 2015. It's the first time the 50% mark has been crossed. Yet some 3.8 billion people still have no protection at all, mostly in low-income countries.
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.