Our World in Data

Work and Employment See all our data, visualizations, and writing on work and employment.

Check it out: ourworldindata.org/work-employm...

Teaching economics or social sciences?

Concepts like the unemployment rate or labor force participation can be tricky to explain clearly.

Our new Work & Employment page breaks these down with clear explanations and visualizations — all free to download and use in your classes and presentations.

Marriages and Divorces How is the institution of marriage changing? What percentage of marriages end in divorce? Explore global data on marriages and divorces.

Read more about marriages and explore the data for other countries: ourworldindata.org/marriages-an...

Changes in the timing of marriage have come together with other related shifts. For instance, a growing share of people are not marrying at all.

(This Data Insight was written by @eortizospina.bsky.social.)

It’s also the largest increase among the countries in the OECD Family Database with data available from the early 2000s up to 2020 (the most recent year with available data in the series).

Portugal saw the largest increase: from around 26 years in 2002 to over 32 years by 2020. This is more than six years in less than a generation.

The age at which people marry has rapidly changed in many countries. The chart shows this by tracking the average age at first marriage among women, using records from national statistics.

In Portugal, Italy, and Spain, the average age at first marriage has risen rapidly and consistently.

Line chart showing the average age of women who got married for the first time each year, 2002 to 2020, for Spain, Italy, and Portugal. All three countries show a steady upward trend. Spain rises from about 28 in 2002 to about 35 in 2020 and is highest by 2020. Italy rises from about 28 in 2002 to about 33 in 2020. Portugal rises from about 25.5 in 2002 to about 32 in 2020, with a sharper increase after about 2010. Y axis spans roughly 18 to 36 and x axis covers years 2002 to 2020. Data source: OECD (2025). License: CC BY.

Women in Spain, Italy, and Portugal marry on average six years later than just two decades ago—

Marriage is closely linked to decisions about having children in many societies. It also matters for legal rights, family finances, and many other aspects of life.

How do antibiotics work, and how does antibiotic resistance evolve? To use antibiotics more effectively, it’s important to know how different antibiotics work and how antibiotic resistance can evolve and spread.

These mechanisms allow bacteria to adapt quickly and share resistance mechanisms, including between different species.

Learn more in our article, “How do antibiotics work, and how does antibiotic resistance evolve?”: ourworldindata.org/how-do-antib...

Antibiotics are an essential type of medicine used to treat and prevent bacterial infections, but their use is threatened by growing levels of antibiotic resistance.

How does antibiotic resistance develop and spread?

This diagram shows four pathways for antibiotic resistance to evolve.

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Annual number of objects launched into space This includes satellites, probes, landers, crewed spacecrafts, and space station flight elements launched into Earth orbit or beyond.

Explore the interactive version of this chart: ourworldindata.org/grapher/year...

The rapid growth of satellite constellations makes it possible to expand Internet connectivity, but it also increases concerns regarding space debris and the congestion of Earth’s orbital environment.

(This Data Insight was written by Edouard Mathieu and @pablorosado.com.)

The vast majority of these American launches consist of small satellites deployed as part of large commercial “constellations”. These interconnected networks of satellites now account for the bulk of all objects sent into orbit.

Annual number of objects launched into space Line chart showing annual counts from 1957 to 2025 on the horizontal axis and counts from 0 to 5,000 on the vertical axis. The caption notes this includes satellites, probes, landers, crewed spacecraft, and space station flight elements launched into Earth orbit or beyond. From 1957 through about 2015, the plotted lines for individual countries and the world stay low and relatively flat; after about 2018, there is a sudden, steep rise, with the world total climbing to roughly 4,000 to 5,000 launches per year and the United States rising to just under the world total. Other series shown in the legend — China, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, United Kingdom, India, and European Space Agency — also increase more modestly and remain well below the world and United States lines. Data source: United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (2026). License: CC BY.

A record number of objects went into space in 2025—

4,510 objects were launched into space in 2025, surpassing the previous peak of 2,903 objects in 2023 by a large margin.

The data shows that US agencies and companies were responsible for launching 3,708 of these objects — 82% of the global total

✨ We have a whole new page on Work & Employment stats! ✨

Work and Employment See all our data, visualizations, and writing on work and employment.

On our new Work and Employment topic page, we bring together the key labor market indicators — from unemployment rates and participation, to informality and much more — and explain what they mean in clear terms and with helpful diagrams.

→ ourworldindata.org/work-employm...

That means the unemployment rate can rise not only when people lose jobs — but also when more people enter the labor force by starting to look for a job, but haven’t found one yet.

A diagram showing how the unemployment rate is defined. CC BY to Our World in Data

What’s the “labor force”? It’s the sum of everyone employed + unemployed.

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people divided by the total labor force.

In labor statistics, a person is counted as unemployed if they:
– Don’t have a job
– Are actively looking for one
– Can start soon

If someone doesn’t have a job *but isn’t looking for one* — e.g., because they're studying or retired — they’re not unemployed, but outside the “labor force” entirely.

World map showing the unemployment rate in 2025. The unemployment rate is the share of the labor force without work, but actively looking for a job and available to start soon. Figures are modeled estimates from the International Labour Organization in 2026, via the World Bank. The chart is licensed CC BY to Our World in Data.

Being unemployed isn’t the same as not having a job — at least when it comes to labor statistics.

The map shows unemployment rates around the world in 2025.

Let’s see what this number captures — and what it doesn’t 🧵

Oil Spills How often do oil spills happen? How did the frequency of oil spills change over time?

Explore more charts on oil spills on our dedicated topic page: ourworldindata.org/oil-spills

The *quantity* of oil spilled from tankers has also fallen dramatically. Over the last decade, the average is less than 10,000 tonnes per year, compared to over 300,000 tonnes in the 1970s.

(This Data Insight was written by @hannahritchie.bsky.social.)

This number has fallen by more than 90% since then. In the last decade, no year has had more than ten oil spills, as shown in the chart.

Oil spills from tankers have fallen by more than 90% since the 1970s. Stacked bar chart showing annual counts of tanker oil spills from 1970 to 2024, with the vertical axis labeled 0 to 120 spills and the horizontal axis by year. Bars are stacked to show two categories: medium oil spills (7 to 700 tonnes) and large oil spills (greater than 700 tonnes). Only medium and large spills are included; smaller spills are excluded. Key annotations: a callout at 1974 notes 117 oil spills occurred that year, 27 of them large; a callout at 2024 notes 10 oil spills occurred that year, 5 of them large. Overall the chart shows a sharp peak in the early to mid-1970s, followed by a long-term decline in annual spill counts, with much lower and relatively stable numbers from the 2000s onward and a slight uptick toward 2024. Data source in the footer: ITOPF (2025); website OurWorldInData.org/oil-spills. License: CC BY.

Oil spills from tankers have fallen by more than 90% since the 1970s—

In the 1970s, oil spills from tankers — container ships transporting oil — were common. Between 70 and 100 spills occurred per year. That’s one or two spills every week.

Search Search articles and charts on Our World in Data. Filter by country or subject area to discover insights on global issues supported by reliable data.

Explore all of the updated data in our interactive charts: ourworldindata.org/search?datas...

One of the largest efforts of its kind, the GBD study is published by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington.

Our colleague @spoonerf.bsky.social recently updated more than 500 (!) of our charts with the latest release of the GBD study.

The Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study aims to answer these and many other questions related to health, disease, and mortality. They provide estimates across hundreds of indicators for every country in the world over the last decades.

Global deaths by risk factor in 2023 Horizontal bar chart of the estimated annual number of deaths attributed to each of the top risk factors, with a note that estimates come with wide uncertainties, especially for countries with poor vital registration. Note: Risk factors are not mutually exclusive; the sum of deaths attributed to each risk factor can exceed the total number of deaths. Data source: IHME, Global Burden of Disease (2025). License: CC BY.

📊 Explore updated data on health, disease, and mortality around the world—

What are the leading risk factors that can lead to premature death? You can see the top ones globally in the chart here.

What do people die from? How many people suffer from mental illness, or are living with HIV/AIDS?

You're right! That was a typo. Thanks for pointing this out. We've corrected the chart on our website.