https://sphre.org/ Independent global data stories and daily briefs, with every figure traced to its source. en Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://sphre.org/brief/population-handover https://sphre.org/brief/population-handover Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Population endpoints SPHRE Data Desk World Bank indicators show a reversal in the two countries’ population ranking while distinguishing total size from annual growth. https://sphre.org/brief/price-of-everything https://sphre.org/brief/price-of-everything Fri, 24 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT The long view on inflation SPHRE Data Desk The latest annual observations place the United States and United Kingdom in the low single digits, Türkiye in the tens and Argentina in the hundreds. https://sphre.org/brief/africa-online https://sphre.org/brief/africa-online Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia online SPHRE Data Desk The latest World Bank observations show different internet-use and mobile-subscription rankings for Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia. https://sphre.org/brief/power-turns-green https://sphre.org/brief/power-turns-green Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Renewable electricity shares SPHRE Data Desk World Bank endpoints show higher renewable shares for Germany, China and the United States, but lower shares for India and Brazil. https://sphre.org/story/the-refugee-century https://sphre.org/story/the-refugee-century Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Displacement SPHRE Data Desk Origin counts and hosting counts describe different sides of displacement. Across many decades of first and latest observations, the countries carrying the greatest weight change with the measure. https://sphre.org/brief/great-return https://sphre.org/brief/great-return Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk The world's refugee count has fallen for two years running, and 2025's drop was the steepest in the seventy-five-year record. The reasons run through Damascus, Kabul — and the limits of welcome in Tehran and Islamabad. https://sphre.org/brief/last-unlit-region https://sphre.org/brief/last-unlit-region Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk Since 2000 the number of people living without electricity has halved, to about 680 million — and nearly nine in ten of them now live in sub-Saharan Africa. https://sphre.org/brief/below-replacement-majority https://sphre.org/brief/below-replacement-majority Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk The world's average fertility rate still clears the replacement bar — but the average conceals that most of the world's people already live under it. https://sphre.org/brief/three-quarters-online https://sphre.org/brief/three-quarters-online Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk Twenty years ago about one person in six used the internet; the S-curve has since climbed past 73 percent — and it is now visibly flattening at the top. https://sphre.org/story/age-of-migration https://sphre.org/story/age-of-migration Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Migration SPHRE Data Desk Across the rich world, deaths now outnumber births. All the growth that remains arrives from somewhere else — and the data shows the handover happened years before the politics noticed. https://sphre.org/story/great-slowdown https://sphre.org/story/great-slowdown Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Demography SPHRE Data Desk World population growth peaked above 2 percent a year in the 1960s. It has since fallen by more than half — the quiet unwinding of the twentieth century's loudest fear. https://sphre.org/brief/sixteen-year-gap https://sphre.org/brief/sixteen-year-gap Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk In 1960 a North American could expect to outlive a sub-Saharan African by nearly three decades. The distance has almost halved — because the bottom rose. https://sphre.org/brief/grid-u-turn https://sphre.org/brief/grid-u-turn Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk Renewables' share of the world's electricity fell from 1990 to 2003 before wind and solar turned it around — the most underrated U-turn in the energy data. https://sphre.org/story/urban-century https://sphre.org/story/urban-century Thu, 09 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Cities SPHRE Data Desk In 1960 one person in three lived in a city. Today it is nearly three in five — the largest migration in human history, and it is not finished. https://sphre.org/brief/korea-birth-record https://sphre.org/brief/korea-birth-record Mon, 06 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk South Korea's fertility rate has dropped below one child per woman — less than half of replacement, and the sharpest edge of a birth dearth spreading across the rich world. https://sphre.org/brief/guns-and-gdp https://sphre.org/brief/guns-and-gdp Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Significant digits SPHRE Data Desk As NATO lifts its spending targets, Europe's military budgets are reclaiming a share of GDP they surrendered when the Cold War ended. https://sphre.org/story/wired-world https://sphre.org/story/wired-world Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Technology SPHRE Data Desk Every country traces the same S-curve online — but the Global South skipped a century of infrastructure to get there. https://sphre.org/story/birth-dearth https://sphre.org/story/birth-dearth Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Demography SPHRE Data Desk From Seoul to Lagos, the same curve at different speeds: the global fertility decline is the quietest revolution in the data. https://sphre.org/story/great-convergence https://sphre.org/story/great-convergence Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT Health SPHRE Data Desk In 1960, where you were born decided how long you would live. Sixty years of data show that gap closing — unevenly, incompletely, but unmistakably.