Our World in Data (OWID) is a scientific online publication that focuses on large global problems such as

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

hunger In politics, humanitarian aid, and the social sciences, hunger is defined as a condition in which a person does not have the physical or financial capability to eat sufficient food to meet basic Human nutrition, nutritional needs for a sustaine ...

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...

, war, existential risks, and inequality. It is a project of the Global Change Data Lab, a registered charity in England and Wales, and was founded by Max Roser, a social

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

and development economist. The research team is based at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Content

Our World in Data uses interactive charts and maps to illustrate research findings, often taking a long-term view to show how global

living conditions Habitability refers to the adequacy of an environment for human living. Where housing is concerned, there are generally local ordinances which define habitability. If a residence complies with those laws it is said to be habitable. In extreme e ...

have changed over time. Two-centuries-World-as-100-people.png, Compilation of graphs from the organization, showing the overall global percentages of the last two centuries, in six factors: extreme poverty, democracy, basic education, vaccination, literacy, and child mortality Global population cartogram.png, Cartogram showing the distribution of the global population. Each of the 15,266 pixels represents the home country of 500,000 people. Global annual CO2 emissions by world region since 1750.svg, Global emissions by world region since 1750

History

Roser began his work on the project in 2011, adding a research team at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

later on. In the first years, Roser developed the publication together with inequality researcher Sir Tony Atkinson.

Hannah Ritchie Hannah Ritchie (born 1993) is a British data scientist, senior researcher at the University of Oxford in the Oxford Martin School and head of research at '' Our World in Data''. Her research investigates the assessment of global food systems an ...

joined in 2017 and became Head of Research. Edouard Mathieu joined in 2020 and became Head of Data. The organization began the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

with six staff members, and grew to 20 by late 2021. In 2019, Our World in Data won the Lovie Award, a European web award, and was one of three

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

s in Y Combinator's Winter 2019 cohort. Beginning in 2020, Our World in Data added an emphasis on publishing global data and research on the COVID-19 pandemic: * They created and maintained a worldwide database on vaccinations for COVID-19, which was used as the source for data published by the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level o ...

, researchers and other international organizations, journals, and numerous newspapers. * Similarly, the team built and maintained a global dataset on

COVID-19 testing COVID-19 testing involves analyzing samples to assess the current or past presence of SARS-CoV-2. The two main types of tests detect either the presence of the virus or antibodies produced in response to infection. Molecular tests for viral p ...

which was used by the United Nations, the White House, the World Health Organization, and epidemiologists and researchers, and also published data such as hospitalizations and computations of excess deaths. In 2021 the team began campaigning for the

International Energy Agency The International Energy Agency (IEA) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organisation, established in 1974, that provides policy recommendations, analysis and data on the entire global energy sector, with a recent focus on curbing car ...

to make the data it collects from national governments publicly available.

Funding and collaborations

Global Change Data Lab, the non-profit that publishes Our World in Data and the open-access data tools that make the online publication possible, is funded through a mix of grants, sponsors, and reader donations. * The first grant to support the research project was given by the

Nuffield Foundation The Nuffield Foundation is a charitable trust established in 1943 by William Morris, Lord Nuffield, the founder of Morris Motors Ltd. It aims to improve social well-being by funding research and innovation projects in education and social pol ...

, a London-based foundation focused on social policy. * Other grantors supporting the project have included the Quadrature Climate Foundation, the

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was l ...

, and a grant from German philanthropist

Susanne Klatten Susanne Hanna Ursula Klatten (''née'' Quandt, born 28 April 1962) is a German billionaire heiress, the daughter of Herbert and Johanna Quandt. As of January 2022, her net worth was estimated at US$23.4 billion, and the richest woman in German ...

. Sponsors have included the Longview Philanthropy, Effective Altruism Meta Fund, and The Musk Foundation. * Reader donations are also a major source of funding. In 2020, more than 3,000 individuals supported the project. The research team collaborated with the science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt. In the coronavirus pandemic, the team partnered with epidemiologists from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

's Chan School of Public Health and the Robert Koch Institute to study countries that have responded successfully in the early phase of the pandemic. Janine Aron and

John Muellbauer John Norbert Joseph Muellbauer, FBA (born 17 July 1944) is a British applied economist who is a professor at the University of Oxford. He holds several positions at Oxford University including an ''Official Fellowship'' at Nuffield College and a ...

worked with OWID to research

excess mortality Excess may refer to: * Angle excess, in spherical trigonometry * Insurance excess, similar to a deductible * Excess, in chemistry, a reagent that is not the limiting reagent * "Excess", a song by Tricky from the album '' Blowback'' * ''Excess'' ( ...

during the pandemic.

Usage

In 2021, the Our World in Data website had 89 million unique visitors. Our World in Data has been cited in academic scientific journals, medicine and global health journals, and social science journals. ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', and ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Eco ...

'' have used Our World in Data as a source.

References

External links