Our Mission

The World Bank forecasts that global economic growth will strengthen to 2.7 percent in 2017 as a pickup in manufacturing and trade, rising market confidence, and stabilizing commodity prices allow growth to resume in commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies. Growth in advanced economies is expected to accelerate to 1.9 percent in 2017, and growth in emerging market and developing economies as will rise to 4.1 percent this year from 3.5 percent in 2016. Read more and download Global Economic Prospects.

The number of stunted children has declined steadily since 1990, and many countries are on course to meet the global target of reducing stunting by 40% by 2025. But the absolute number of stunted children increased in Sub-­Saharan Africa from nearly 45 million in 1990 to 57 million in 2015, and the region will not meet the target if the current trend is not reversed. Read More. 

Global emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, increased from 22.4 billion metric tons in 1990 to 35.8 billion in 2013, a rise of 60%. The increase in CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases has contributed to a rise of about 0.8 degrees Celsius in mean global temperature above pre-industrial times. Read More. 

In 2015, 663 million people were drinking from unimproved sources such as unprotected dug wells. The bulk of those without were in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where rural dwellers, especially the poorest, lagged behind others in access to both water and sanitation. Read More. 

An undernourished person doesn’t have enough food to meet their daily energy needs. Globally, over 793 million people are currently considered undernourished. While there’s been steady progress during the past 25 years, ending hunger by 2030 will require accelerated efforts to achieve faster declines in undernourishment. Read More. 

Violence against women exists across the globe, but laws against gender-based violence do not. In many countries societal norms permit physical and verbal abuse, and in countries studied, when there are fewer legal provisions, women are more likely to tolerate this abuse. Read More. 

The world's population is young: 42% of people are under the age of 25. In South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the number of people aged 12-24 has steadily risen to 525 million in 2015 - almost half the global youth population. The newly released Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals 2017 analyses this and other data related to the 17 SDGs. Read More.