Society & Justice
Progress in rights, equity and the way societies care for people.
The number of people with no toilet at all has fallen by 429 million since 2015
WHO and UNICEF's official count puts open defecation at 354 million people, a fall of 429 million since 2015, and 91 countries have now ended the practice in their rural areas.
The road death rate fell 21 percent as a billion vehicles joined the world's traffic
New WHO data covering 2011 to 2025 shows the global rate of road traffic deaths fell 21 percent, even as more than a billion motor vehicles joined the world's roads. Crashes still killed 1.16 million people in 2025.
8.6 million Brazilians crossed above the poverty line in a year
Brazil's poverty rate fell from 27.3 percent to 23.1 percent in a single year, the lowest since the count began in 2012. Government payments did much of the work. That is what makes the gain both repeatable and reversible.
Child labour fell by 22 million children, reversing a four-year rise
The ILO and UNICEF count 138 million children in child labour in 2024, down from 160 million in 2020. The increase recorded between 2016 and 2020 has been reversed, and the total is a little over half what it was in 2000.
Global hunger has fallen for a third year running
Five United Nations agencies estimate that 645 million people went hungry in 2025, 14 million fewer than in 2024 and 43 million fewer than at the 2022 peak. In Africa, a rise that had run since 2017 has paused.
Croatia declared mine-free, 31 years after its war
Croatia cleared the last of its landmines in March 2026, destroying nearly 107,000 mines across three decades.
Suriname becomes the first Amazonian country certified malaria-free
A country that once had the highest malaria burden in the Americas has driven local transmission to zero.
