According to a McKinsey study published in 2016, global clothing production doubled between 2000 and 2014. Over the same period, the average consumer bought about 60% more garments each year and kept them roughly half as long. The main driver of this shift was 'fast fashion', with new collections released far more often than the traditional seasonal cycle, at relatively lower prices.
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.