Every map in the atlas.

Earth

Relief, oceans, rivers, ice, plates and the shape of the land.

Physical map

The classic atlas view: land coloured by height, from green lowlands to brown highlands and white peaks, with shaded relief and the sea floor.

Satellite view

A cloud-free mosaic of the whole planet as seen from space, stitched together from a year of NASA satellite images.

Day and night

Where the sun is shining at this moment. The line between day and night moves 15° west every hour; on the dark side, city lights come on.

Elevation

Height of the land above sea level. The relief is raised so mountain ranges stand out from the globe.

Ocean depth

The shape of the sea floor: continental shelves, mid-ocean ridges and trenches more than 10 kilometres deep.

Mountain ranges

The great mountain ranges of the world, from the Himalayas and Andes to the Alps, Rockies and Urals.

Highest peaks

Named summits with their height. Everest stands at 8,849 metres; dozens of others pass 7,000.

Deserts

Named deserts of the world. The Sahara alone is about as large as the United States.

Landforms

Plateaus, plains, basins, deltas, peninsulas, salt flats and other named regions of the land.

Continents

The seven continents as they are usually drawn: Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.

Islands

Named islands and archipelagos, from Greenland, the largest island on Earth, to remote Pacific atolls.

Oceans and seas

The five oceans and every named sea, gulf, bay and strait.

Rivers

The major rivers of the world, drawn flowing. The Nile and the Amazon each run more than 6,400 kilometres.

Lakes and reservoirs

Natural lakes, salt lakes and reservoirs behind dams. The Caspian Sea is the largest lake on Earth.

Glaciers and ice sheets

Permanent ice on land and the floating ice shelves of Antarctica. Together they hold about two thirds of the world’s fresh water.

Tectonic plates

The rigid plates that make up Earth’s outer shell. Where they collide, pull apart or slide past each other, earthquakes and volcanoes follow.

Time zones

The world’s standard time zones, measured from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Daylight saving time is not shown.

Equator, tropics and polar circles

The equator, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Arctic and Antarctic circles and the International Date Line.

Soils

The most likely soil group everywhere on Earth, from dark fertile chernozems on the steppes to red, weathered ferralsols in the tropics (SoilGrids 2.0, World Reference Base).

Land area

Land area of each country. Russia is larger than Pluto’s surface.

Climate

Temperature, rain, seasons, winds, currents and climate zones.

Climate zones

The Köppen–Geiger classification sorts every place by its temperature and rainfall through the year, from tropical rainforest to ice cap. Computed by Orbis from WorldClim normals.

Average temperature

Mean air temperature over the whole year, 1970–2000. Siberia averages below −15 °C; parts of the Sahara pass 30 °C.

Temperature through the year

Average temperature month by month. Watch the northern continents freeze and thaw while the tropics barely change.

Rainfall

Total rain and snow in an average year. The wettest places get more than 10 metres; the driest almost nothing.

Rain through the year

Monthly rainfall. The monsoon sweeps over South Asia in summer and the rain belt of the tropics follows the sun north and south.

Hottest month

Average daily maximum temperature in the warmest month of the year.

Coldest month

Average daily minimum temperature in the coldest month of the year.

Summer–winter difference

How far apart the hottest and coldest months are. Far from the sea, in Siberia, the gap passes 60 °C.

Day–night difference

The average difference between day and night temperatures. Deserts and high plateaus swing the most.

Rain seasonality

How unevenly rain falls through the year. High values mean almost all rain arrives in a short wet season.

Drylands

Aridity: how much rain falls compared with how much water the air could take up. About 40% of the land is dryland. Computed by Orbis from WorldClim (Thornthwaite method).

Frozen months

Number of months with an average temperature below freezing.

Growing season

Number of months warm enough (5 °C or more on average) for most plants to grow.

Prevailing winds

The great wind belts: easterly trade winds near the equator, westerlies in the mid-latitudes and polar easterlies. Shown as a simplified circulation model.

Ocean currents

The major surface currents. Warm currents like the Gulf Stream carry heat towards the poles; cold currents flow back towards the equator.

Sea surface temperature

Temperature of the ocean surface. Warm pools near Indonesia pass 30 °C; polar seas sit near −2 °C.

Ocean temperature through the year

Monthly sea surface temperature for 2024, the warmest year on record for the oceans.

Snow through the year

Monthly snow cover in 2024. In January snow covers almost half of the northern hemisphere’s land.

Sea ice

Arctic and Antarctic sea ice at its March and September extremes in 2025. The Arctic’s September ice has shrunk by about a third since 1979.

Clouds

A global picture of cloud cover stitched together from satellite passes.

Ozone layer

Total ozone in early October 2024. The hole over Antarctica is slowly healing since CFCs were banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

Dust, smoke and haze

Aerosols in the air through 2024: Saharan dust blowing over the Atlantic, smoke from fires, and haze over industrial regions.

Lightning

How often lightning strikes each square kilometre in an average year, measured from space between 1995 and 2013. Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela is the world’s lightning capital.

Ocean salinity

How salty the sea surface is, measured by NASA’s SMAP satellite. Evaporation makes the subtropical Atlantic saltiest; big rivers and rain freshen the sea.

Ground temperature

How hot the ground itself gets in the afternoon in January and in July 2024, measured by satellite. Desert surfaces pass 60 °C in summer.

Water vapour

All the water held in the air above each place, as if it fell as rain. Water vapour is the main greenhouse gas and the fuel of storms.

Life

Biomes, forests, grasslands, oceans and the richness of species.

Biomes

Fourteen biomes: large communities of plants and animals shaped by climate, from tropical rainforest to tundra.

Ecoregions

846 ecoregions, each with its own mix of species, from the Sundarbans mangroves to the Namib desert.

Land cover

What covers the ground everywhere on Earth, classified from MODIS satellite images for 2023.

Forests

Where the world’s forests grow: tropical rainforest along the equator, temperate woodland and the vast boreal forest of the north. Forests cover about 31% of the land.

Tropical rainforests

Tropical and subtropical moist forests: the Amazon, the Congo basin and Southeast Asia. They hold more than half of all land species.

Boreal forest

The taiga: the largest land biome, a belt of conifers across Canada, Scandinavia and Russia.

Grasslands and savannas

Open landscapes of grass with scattered trees: the savannas of Africa, the steppes of Asia and the prairies and pampas.

Shrublands

Land dominated by bushes and low woody plants, common at the edges of deserts and in Mediterranean climates.

Wetlands

Permanent marshes, swamps and bogs, such as the Pantanal, the Sudd and the peatlands of Siberia and Canada.

Farmland

Land used to grow crops. Farming covers about 12% of the ice-free land; pasture for animals takes about twice as much.

Cropland intensity

Share of each area planted with crops around the year 2000, from census data and satellites.

Tree height

Average height of the forest canopy, measured by a laser on the International Space Station (GEDI, 2019–2023). The tallest forests pass 40 metres.

Carbon in forests

Above-ground biomass of trees and plants, measured from space by GEDI (2019–2023). About half of this mass is carbon pulled from the air.

Pasture

Share of land used to graze cattle, sheep and goats around the year 2000. Pasture is the largest human use of land.

Urban areas

The built-up footprint of towns and cities, mapped from satellite images.

Plants through the year

How green the land is, month by month in 2024 (NDVI). The northern hemisphere turns green each spring and fades each autumn: the planet breathing.

Ocean plankton

Chlorophyll in the sea, a sign of phytoplankton: tiny algae that make about half of the oxygen on Earth. Rich waters line the coasts and cold upwelling zones.

Mangroves

Salt-tolerant coastal forests of the tropics. Mangroves protect coasts from storms and store several times more carbon per hectare than inland forests.

Coral reefs

Coral reefs cover less than 1% of the sea floor but shelter about a quarter of all marine species. Warming seas are bleaching them.

Amphibian species

Number of frog, toad and salamander species living in each area. The Amazon and the Andes are the world’s richest.

Mammal species

Number of mammal species whose range covers each area. Biodiversity peaks in the tropical forests and mountains of East Africa and the Amazon.

Threatened mammals

Number of mammal species listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered by the IUCN in each area.

Last of the wild

The largest, least-touched natural areas left in each biome, where the human footprint is lowest.

State of nature

How much natural habitat each ecoregion still has, and whether half of it could be protected (the “Nature Needs Half” assessment).

Human-shaped land

Anthromes: the world sorted by how people use and live on the land, from dense settlements to remote wild forest.

Soil moisture

How much water the top metre of soil holds, from NASA’s SMAP satellite (August 2025). Dry soils mean stressed crops and a higher fire risk.

Plant growth

How much carbon plants pull from the air through photosynthesis each day, in mid-July 2025, from NASA’s SMAP carbon model.

National parks

More than 3,000 national parks, from Yellowstone, the first in 1872, to the marine parks of the Pacific.

Forest area

Area covered by forest in each country.

Protected land and sea

Share of a country’s land and waters set aside as protected areas.

Threatened mammals

Mammal species at risk of extinction.

Threatened birds

Bird species at risk of extinction.

Threatened fish

Fish species at risk of extinction.

Threatened plants

Higher plant species at risk of extinction.

People

Where we live, how long we live, what we speak and how we connect.

Population

People living in each country. India and China each pass 1.4 billion; together they hold more than a third of humanity.

Where people live

People per square kilometre, from census counts for every district on Earth, 2000 to 2020.

Cities

More than 7,000 cities sized by population. In 1950 there were two cities of ten million people; today there are more than thirty.

Capital cities

The capital of every country and territory.

Earth at night

Lights seen from space at night in 2016. They trace cities, highways, gas flares and fishing fleets, and the places without electricity.

Urbanisation

Share of people who live in towns and cities. Worldwide it passed half in 2007.

Life expectancy

How long a newborn can expect to live. It ranges from the mid-50s to the mid-80s depending on where a child is born.

Children per woman

Average number of children a woman has in her life. Below about 2.1, a population shrinks in the long run unless people move in.

Median age

Half the population is older, half younger. Japan and much of Europe are near 45–50; Niger is under 16.

Population growth

How fast each population is growing or shrinking each year.

Child mortality

Children who die before their fifth birthday, per 1,000 born. The global rate has fallen by more than half since 1990.

Migration

Net migration: people arriving minus people leaving each year.

Languages

The most widely spoken official language of each country. English, French, Arabic and Spanish are each official in dozens of countries.

Internet use

Share of people who used the internet in the last three months. About two thirds of humanity is now online.

Literacy

Share of adults who can read and write.

Safe drinking water

Share of people with safely managed drinking water at home.

World Heritage sites

More than 1,200 places of outstanding value to humanity listed by UNESCO, from Machu Picchu to the Great Barrier Reef.

Human development

The Human Development Index combines health, education and income into one number between 0 and 1.

Life satisfaction

How people rate their own lives on a scale from 0 to 10, from the World Happiness Report.

Years in school

Average years of schooling of people aged 15 to 64.

Obesity

Share of adults with obesity (a BMI of 30 or more).

Women in parliament

Share of seats in national parliaments held by women.

Vaccination

Share of one-year-olds vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (DTP3), a common measure of how well health systems reach children.

Hunger

Share of people who do not get enough food to meet their basic energy needs.

Doctors

Medical doctors per 1,000 people.

Mobile phones

Mobile phone subscriptions per 100 people. Many countries have more subscriptions than people.

University

Students in higher education as a share of the age group that would normally be studying.

Population density

People per square kilometre of land. Bangladesh is more than a hundred times as crowded as Australia.

Birth rate

Babies born each year per 1,000 people. It has halved worldwide since 1960.

Death rate

Deaths each year per 1,000 people. Ageing countries have higher rates even when health care is good.

Teenage births

Births to girls aged 15 to 19, per 1,000 girls of that age.

Women in the population

Share of the population that is female. Gulf states with many male migrant workers stand out.

Working-age population

Share of people aged 15 to 64.

Dependency ratio

Children and older people for every 100 people of working age.

Rural population

Share of people living in the countryside rather than in towns and cities.

Urban growth

How fast the number of city dwellers grows each year.

Life in the largest city

Share of a country’s city dwellers who live in its single largest city.

Migrants

Share of residents born in another country.

Health

How long and how well people live: care, disease, food and clean water.

Infant mortality

Babies who die before their first birthday, per 1,000 born alive.

Life expectancy of women

How long a girl born today can expect to live.

Life expectancy of men

How long a boy born today can expect to live. Men live shorter almost everywhere.

Health spending

Spending on health care as a share of the economy.

Health spending per person

Health spending per person in dollars, from under $50 to over $10,000.

Paying for care yourself

Share of health spending that people pay directly from their own pocket.

Hospital beds

Hospital beds per 1,000 people.

Nurses and midwives

Nurses and midwives per 1,000 people.

Maternal mortality

Women who die from pregnancy or childbirth per 100,000 live births.

Newborn deaths

Babies who die in their first four weeks, per 1,000 born alive.

Births with a midwife or doctor

Share of births attended by a doctor, nurse or midwife.

Measles vaccination

Share of one-year-olds vaccinated against measles.

Tuberculosis

New tuberculosis cases each year per 100,000 people.

HIV

Share of adults aged 15 to 49 living with HIV.

Malaria

New malaria cases per 1,000 people at risk. Almost all are in Africa.

Stunted children

Share of young children too short for their age, a sign of long-term undernutrition.

Wasted children

Share of young children too thin for their height, a sign of acute hunger.

Overweight children

Share of young children who are overweight.

Suicide

Deaths by suicide per 100,000 people. Help is available: in most countries there is a free helpline.

Smoking

Share of adults who smoke tobacco.

Alcohol

Pure alcohol drunk per adult each year.

Dying early of heart disease, cancer or diabetes

Chance that a 30-year-old dies before 70 from heart disease, cancer, diabetes or lung disease.

Diabetes

Share of adults aged 20 to 79 with diabetes.

Anaemia in women

Share of women aged 15 to 49 with anaemia, often from too little iron in the diet.

Basic drinking water

Share of people with clean water within a 30-minute round trip.

Basic toilets

Share of people with at least a basic toilet that is not shared.

Soap and water at home

Share of people with a place to wash hands with soap and water at home.

Deaths from air pollution

Deaths from polluted air indoors and outdoors per 100,000 people.

Severe food insecurity

Share of people who at times ran out of food and went a day or more without eating.

Deaths from infections, birth and hunger

Share of deaths from infectious diseases, pregnancy, birth and malnutrition.

Society

School, work, science, safety and how countries are connected.

Birth registration

Share of young children whose birth is officially registered.

Primary school enrolment

Children in primary school compared with the number of children of that age. Above 100% means older pupils are still in class.

Secondary school enrolment

Young people in secondary school compared with the number of that age.

Finishing primary school

Share of children who finish the last year of primary school.

Youth literacy

Share of young people aged 15 to 24 who can read and write.

Pupils per teacher

Primary school pupils for every teacher.

Education spending

Government spending on education as a share of the economy.

People in work or seeking it

Share of people aged 15 and over who work or are looking for work.

Women at work

Share of women aged 15 and over who work or are looking for work.

Youth unemployment

Share of young people aged 15 to 24 who want to work but have no job.

Self-employed

Share of workers who work for themselves, from farmers to shopkeepers.

Insecure work

Workers on their own account or helping in a family business, usually without a contract or protection.

Jobs in farming

Share of workers employed in farming, forestry and fishing.

Jobs in industry

Share of workers in factories, mining, construction and utilities.

Jobs in services

Share of workers in services: shops, offices, transport, care and teaching.

Homicides

Intentional killings per 100,000 people.

Military spending

Military spending as a share of the economy.

Military budget

Military spending in dollars. The United States spends more than the next nine countries together.

Armed forces

Active military personnel.

Road deaths

People killed in road traffic each year per 100,000 people.

Fixed broadband

Fixed internet subscriptions per 100 people.

Secure web servers

Secure internet servers per million people, a rough measure of how much of the web lives in a country.

Air passengers

Passengers carried by airlines registered in each country.

Researchers

Researchers in science and development per million people.

Research spending

Spending on research and development as a share of the economy.

Patents

Patent applications filed by residents each year.

Scientific articles

Scientific and technical articles published each year.

Economy

Income, trade, farming, food and the minerals we mine.

Economy size

Gross domestic product: the value of everything a country produces in a year, in current US dollars.

Income per person

GDP divided by population. It ranges from a few hundred dollars to more than 100,000 a year.

Income groups

Countries grouped by income per person, following the World Bank classification.

Inequality

The Gini index of income inequality: 0 means everyone has the same income, 100 means one person has everything.

Extreme poverty

Share of people living on less than $3.00 a day (2021 prices), the international extreme poverty line.

Unemployment

Share of people who want to work but have no job.

Tourism

International tourist arrivals per year, before the pandemic. France, Spain and the United States receive the most visitors.

Trade

Exports of goods and services as a share of the economy.

Currencies

Money used in each country. The euro, the US dollar and the two CFA francs are shared by many countries.

Farming in the economy

Agriculture, forestry and fishing as a share of the economy.

Crop yields

Cereal harvest per hectare. Fertiliser, irrigation and better seeds have tripled yields in many countries since 1960.

Coffee

Green coffee beans harvested each year. Brazil grows about a third of the world’s coffee, followed by Vietnam and Indonesia.

Cocoa

Cocoa beans harvested each year. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana together grow about half of the world’s cocoa.

Wheat

Wheat harvested each year. China, India and Russia are the largest growers.

Rice

Rice harvested each year. Nine of every ten tonnes are grown in Asia.

Maize

Maize (corn) harvested each year, the most produced grain on Earth. The United States and China grow more than half of it.

Soybeans

Soybeans harvested each year, mostly for animal feed. Brazil and the United States grow two thirds; expansion in South America drives deforestation.

Palm oil

Palm oil produced each year. Indonesia and Malaysia make more than 80%; plantations have replaced large areas of rainforest.

Sugar cane

Sugar cane harvested each year, used for sugar and ethanol. Brazil and India grow more than half.

Bananas

Bananas harvested each year. India is the largest grower; Ecuador and the Philippines export the most.

Potatoes

Potatoes harvested each year. China and India grow the most.

Cassava

Cassava harvested each year, a staple food for about 800 million people. Nigeria grows the most.

Avocados

Avocados harvested each year. Mexico grows nearly a third of the world’s avocados.

Apples

Apples harvested each year. China grows about half of them.

Oranges

Oranges harvested each year. Brazil grows the most, much of it for juice.

Wine

Wine produced each year. Italy, France and Spain make about half of the world’s wine.

Cattle

Number of cattle. There are about 1.5 billion; more than a quarter live in Brazil and India.

Meat consumption

Meat available to eat per person per year. Diets range from under 10 kg to more than 100 kg.

Fish and seafood eaten

Fish and seafood available to eat per person per year.

Fishing

Wild fish and seafood caught each year. About a third of fish stocks are now fished beyond sustainable levels.

Fish farming

Fish, shellfish and seaweed raised in farms each year. China produces about 60% of the world total.

Lithium

Lithium mined each year, the key metal in batteries for electric cars. Australia, Chile and China mine most of it.

Cobalt

Cobalt mined each year, used in batteries. About three quarters comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Airports

Major airports around the world.

Flight routes

The 6,000 busiest air routes, weighted by how many airlines fly them.

Seaports

Major seaports, the gateways for about 80% of world trade by volume.

Internet cables

The undersea fibre-optic cables that carry almost all intercontinental internet traffic, each drawn in its operator’s colour.

Money sent home

Money that migrants working abroad send home, as a share of the economy. In some countries it passes a quarter of GDP.

Income per person, adjusted for prices

GDP per person adjusted for what money buys in each country (purchasing power parity).

Barley

Barley harvested each year, for animal feed and beer. Russia, Australia and France grow the most.

Rapeseed

Rapeseed (canola) harvested each year, for cooking oil and biodiesel. Canada grows the most.

Sunflower seeds

Sunflower seeds harvested each year. Russia and Ukraine grow about half of the world’s crop.

Cashew nuts

Cashew nuts harvested each year. Côte d’Ivoire and India are the largest growers.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes harvested each year. China grows about a third of them.

Chicken meat

Chicken meat produced each year. Poultry is now the most produced meat in the world.

Graphite

Natural graphite mined each year, the main material in battery anodes. China mines about three quarters of it.

Output per worker

What each worker produces in a year, adjusted for prices.

Cash machines

Cash machines per 100,000 adults.

Bank accounts

Share of adults with an account at a bank or a mobile-money service.

National income per person

Gross national income per person in dollars, the measure the World Bank uses to rank countries.

Growth per person

How fast the economy grows per person each year, after inflation.

Inflation

How fast consumer prices rise each year.

Imports

Imports of goods and services as a share of the economy.

Trade openness

Exports plus imports as a share of the economy. Small trading hubs exceed 300%.

Foreign investment

Money foreign companies invested in the country, as a share of the economy.

Tax revenue

Taxes collected by the central government as a share of the economy.

Government debt

Central government debt as a share of the economy.

Manufacturing

Factories’ share of the economy.

Industry

Industry, mining, construction and utilities as a share of the economy.

Services

Services as a share of the economy.

Household spending

What households spend per person each year, in 2015 dollars.

Investment

Spending on buildings, machines and infrastructure as a share of the economy.

Savings

The share of national income that is saved rather than spent.

High-tech exports

Share of manufactured exports that are high-tech: chips, aircraft, medicines, computers.

Fuel exports

Share of exported goods that are oil, gas and coal.

Food imports

Share of imported goods that are food.

Income from tourism

What foreign visitors spend, as a share of everything the country exports.

Aid received

Development aid received per person.

Current account

Whether a country earns more from the world than it spends abroad (surplus) or less (deficit).

Lending interest rate

Interest banks charge on loans.

Bank lending

Loans to households and companies as a share of the economy.

Stock market value

Value of listed companies as a share of the economy.

Poverty below $4.20 a day

Share of people living on less than $4.20 a day, adjusted for prices.

Poverty below $8.30 a day

Share of people living on less than $8.30 a day, adjusted for prices.

Poverty by national line

Share of people below the poverty line each country sets for itself.

Income of the richest tenth

Share of all income that goes to the richest 10% of people.

Income of the poorest fifth

Share of all income that goes to the poorest 20% of people.

Natural resource income

Profit from oil, gas, coal, minerals and timber as a share of the economy.

Oil income

Profit from oil as a share of the economy.

Mining income

Profit from metals and minerals as a share of the economy.

Timber income

Value of wood cut from forests as a share of the economy.

Fertiliser use

Fertiliser used per hectare of farmland.

Food production

How much food a country produces compared with 2014–2016.

Cereal harvest

All grain harvested each year: wheat, rice, maize, barley and more.

Tobacco

Tobacco harvested each year, from FAO farm statistics.

Rye

Rye harvested each year, from FAO farm statistics.

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potatoes harvested each year, from FAO farm statistics.

Dry beans

Dry beans harvested each year, from FAO farm statistics.

Sugar beet

Sugar beet harvested each year, from FAO farm statistics.

Milk

Milk produced each year by cows, buffalo, goats and sheep, from FAO farm statistics.

Energy

Every large power plant on Earth and how each country makes electricity.

Power plants

About 35,000 power plants in 167 countries, coloured by fuel and sized by capacity (WRI database, 2021).

Solar farms

Solar power plants recorded up to 2021. Solar is now the fastest-growing source of electricity in history.

Wind farms

Onshore and offshore wind farms recorded up to 2021.

Hydropower

Hydroelectric dams and tidal plants, the largest source of renewable electricity.

Nuclear power plants

Nuclear power stations, which make about a tenth of the world’s electricity with very low emissions.

Coal power plants

Coal-fired power stations, still the largest source of electricity and of CO₂ from energy.

Gas and oil power plants

Power plants that burn natural gas or oil.

Geothermal and bioenergy

Plants that run on heat from the Earth, on wood and crop waste, or on rubbish.

Renewable electricity

Share of electricity from solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and other renewables.

Low-carbon electricity

Share of electricity from renewables and nuclear combined.

Solar share

Share of electricity from solar panels.

Wind share

Share of electricity from wind turbines.

Hydro share

Share of electricity from hydropower.

Nuclear share

Share of electricity from nuclear power. France leads at about two thirds.

Coal share

Share of electricity from coal.

Gas share

Share of electricity from natural gas.

Fossil electricity

Share of electricity from coal, gas and oil.

Renewables in all energy

Share of all energy used — for heat, transport and power — that comes from renewable sources, including traditional wood fuel.

Energy use per person

Primary energy used per person each year, for heat, transport, industry and electricity.

Access to electricity

Share of people with electricity at home. About 700 million people, most in sub-Saharan Africa, still live without it.

Carbon intensity of electricity

Grams of CO₂ emitted for each kilowatt-hour of electricity generated.

Oil production

Crude oil produced each year, measured as energy. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia pump the most.

Gas production

Natural gas produced each year, measured as energy.

Coal production

Coal mined each year, measured as energy. China mines about half of the world’s coal.

Electric cars

Share of new cars sold that are fully electric or plug-in hybrid. Norway passed 90% in 2024.

Fossil fuels in all energy

Share of all primary energy that comes from coal, oil and gas.

Electricity use per person

Electricity generated per person each year.

Clean cooking

Share of people who cook with clean fuels such as gas or electricity rather than wood or charcoal.

Electricity in the countryside

Share of people in the countryside with electricity at home.

Energy intensity

Energy used for every dollar of economic output. Lower is more efficient.

Energy imports

Share of energy bought abroad. Negative means the country exports energy.

Power lost in the grid

Electricity lost between power plant and customer, including theft (until 2014).

Oil share

Share of electricity made by burning oil, common on islands.

Bioenergy share

Share of electricity from burning wood, crops and waste.

Geothermal and other

Share of electricity from geothermal, tidal and wave power.

Renewables in all energy

Share of all energy, not just electricity, from renewable sources.

Low-carbon energy

Share of all energy from renewables and nuclear.

Oil in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from oil.

Coal in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from coal.

Gas in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from natural gas.

Nuclear in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from nuclear power.

Hydro in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from hydropower.

Solar in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from the sun.

Wind in all energy

Share of all energy that comes from wind.

Electricity generated

All electricity generated in a year.

Solar power generated

Electricity generated by solar panels in a year.

Wind power generated

Electricity generated by wind turbines in a year.

Nuclear power generated

Electricity generated by nuclear plants in a year.

Hydropower generated

Electricity generated by dams and rivers in a year.

Coal power generated

Electricity generated by coal plants in a year.

Gas power generated

Electricity generated by gas plants in a year.

Solar power per person

Solar electricity generated per person each year.

Wind power per person

Wind electricity generated per person each year.

Nuclear power per person

Nuclear electricity generated per person each year.

Fossil energy per person

Oil, gas and coal used per person each year.

Low-carbon energy per person

Renewable and nuclear energy used per person each year.

Oil use per person

Oil used per person each year, measured as energy.

Gas use per person

Natural gas used per person each year, measured as energy.

Coal use per person

Coal used per person each year, measured as energy.

Energy per dollar

Energy used for each dollar of economic output.

Electricity demand per person

Electricity used per person each year, including imports.

Electricity imports

Share of electricity bought from neighbours. Negative means the country sells power abroad.

Emissions from electricity

Greenhouse gases released by making electricity.

Oil production per person

Oil pumped per person each year, measured as energy.

Gas production per person

Natural gas produced per person each year, measured as energy.

Change

Emissions, warming, forest loss and the pressure we put on the planet.

CO₂ emissions

Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and industry each year. China emits the most today; the United States has emitted the most in total.

CO₂ per person

Each person’s share of their country’s CO₂ emissions. The world average is about 4.7 tonnes a year.

Historic CO₂

All CO₂ each country has emitted since 1750. It is the total, not the yearly rate, that sets how much the planet warms.

CO₂ of what we buy

Emissions per person counted where goods are consumed rather than where they are made, so imports count against the buyer.

Methane emissions

Methane from farming, landfill, coal mines and oil and gas. It traps more than 80 times as much heat as CO₂ over 20 years.

Greenhouse gases per person

All greenhouse gases per person, including methane, nitrous oxide and land use, converted to CO₂ equivalents.

Warming

How much warmer or cooler each year was than the 1991–2020 average, country by country, from 1940. Press play to watch the colours turn.

Contribution to warming

How much each country’s emissions of CO₂, methane and nitrous oxide since 1850 have warmed the planet.

Forest cover by country

Share of each country covered by forest, every year since 1990. Suriname and Gabon are more than 90% forest; Egypt and Qatar almost none.

Forest gained and lost

Change in forest cover since 1990, in percentage points of land. Brown countries lost forest; green ones gained it.

Tree cover loss

Trees cleared or burned each year since 2001, from Landsat satellite images. Brazil, Russia and Canada lose the most.

Deforestation

Forest permanently converted to other land use, mostly farmland, per year by decade.

Protected land

Share of each country’s land in national parks and other protected areas. The world agreed in 2022 to protect 30% by 2030.

Protected sea

Share of each country’s waters that are marine protected areas.

Air pollution

Fine particles (PM2.5) in the air we breathe, 2010–2012. The WHO guideline is 5 µg/m³; most people breathe several times more.

Air pollution by country

Average yearly exposure to fine particles for the people of each country.

Nitrogen dioxide

Nitrogen dioxide near the ground, 2010–2012: a gas from car exhausts, power plants and industry that marks busy cities and roads.

Plastic waste

Plastic waste that is not properly collected or treated and can end up in rivers and the sea, per person.

Water stress

Fresh water taken out each year as a share of the renewable supply. Above 100%, a country is drawing down its groundwater.

Fresh water per person

Renewable fresh water from rivers and groundwater available per person each year.

Sea level risk

Share of each country’s people living less than 5 metres above sea level, most exposed to rising seas and storm surges.

Human footprint

How strongly people shape the land: population, roads, farms, lights and buildings combined into one index from 0 to 100.

Urban expansion to 2030

Probability that land will become urban between 2000 and 2030, as cities spread into farmland and forest.

CO₂ from land use

CO₂ released when forests are cleared and land is converted, mostly in the tropics.

Urban heat islands

How much hotter cities are than the countryside around them on summer days, from satellite surface temperatures (2013). Concrete and asphalt can add several degrees.