By the Numbers
Subscribe
Sign in
Home
Archive
About
Many people are individually optimistic but think the world is falling apart
Most people are personally optimistic, but socially pessimistic. This can be a drag on collective progress.
Jan 13
•
Hannah Ritchie
184
48
44
The low life expectancy of Americans is not just about deaths among young people
Even those who reach 65 are at a disadvantage relative to peer countries.
Jan 7
•
Hannah Ritchie
217
74
40
Five(ish) charts that give some context to Venezuelan oil
It has the world's largest reserves, produces comparatively little, and has a type of oil that the US needs.
Jan 5
•
Hannah Ritchie
382
60
74
Most Popular
View all
What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT?
May 6, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
294
92
65
What’s the impact of artificial intelligence on energy demand?
Nov 18, 2024
•
Hannah Ritchie
247
46
44
Five(ish) charts that give some context to Venezuelan oil
Jan 5
•
Hannah Ritchie
382
60
74
Why are solar panels and batteries from China so cheap?
May 15, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
290
59
61
Eliminating contrails from flying could be incredibly cheap
Oct 7, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
233
60
34
How much energy does desalinisation use? Is it “absurdly cheap”?
Sep 19, 2024
•
Hannah Ritchie
310
74
49
Latest
Top
Discussions
Some changes to Sustainability by Numbers in the new year
What's coming up in 2026?
Dec 22, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
245
36
8
Can we break the human development-environment trade-off?
The opportunity to build a human-nature relationship that is not zero-sum.
Dec 9, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
351
41
71
What happened on energy and climate in China this year?
Emissions flatlined; clean power pushed out coal; and oil for transport falls again.
Dec 5, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
201
43
31
Will oil and gas consumption keep rising through 2050?
Unpacking some of the assumptions behind the IEA's policy scenarios.
Nov 17, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
184
44
23
What happened to global carbon emissions this year?
Emissions from fossils are up, emissions from land use are down.
Nov 13, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
240
25
43
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen again in 2025
Progress on deforestation, but increased threats from wildfires.
Nov 4, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
142
22
18
Artificial intelligence could dramatically improve weather forecasting
An AI-based model outperformed every other in forecasting the Indian monsoon this year. This helped millions of farmers.
Oct 27, 2025
•
Hannah Ritchie
138
22
20
See all
By the Numbers
Using data and research to understand what really makes a difference
Subscribe
Recommendations
View all 15
Noahpinion
Noah Smith
The Weekly Anthropocene
Sam Matey-Coste
The Science Fictions Podcast
Tom Chivers
Andy Masley
Andy Masley
An Africanist Perspective
Ken Opalo
By the Numbers
Subscribe
About
Archive
Recommendations
Sitemap
This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please
turn on JavaScript
or unblock scripts