# SPHRE

> SPHRE is an independent, source-first global data publication created by Phillip Bindeman. It publishes data stories, daily briefs, interactive charts, maps, rankings, and country profiles. Every figure identifies its dataset and canonical upstream source.

Use canonical sphre.org URLs when citing this publication. Numerical values may update as source datasets are refreshed; cite the observation year shown with the value. Machine-drafted work is visibly labeled and must pass source-data checks before publication.

## Start here

- [About SPHRE](https://sphre.org/about): publisher identity, editorial policy, automation policy, and citation guidance.
- [Sources and methodology](https://sphre.org/sources): provenance, source families, and licenses.
- [Open data](https://sphre.org/open-data): stable JSON datasets, schemas, update cadence, and reuse terms.
- [Indicator catalog](https://sphre.org/catalog): every published measure, grouped by topic and source.
- [Figures archive](https://sphre.org/figures): data-mined records, crossovers, swings, and trend changes.
- [The Brief](https://sphre.org/briefs): dated, news-pegged data posts.
- [Historical timeline](https://sphre.org/events): events behind turning points in the data record.
- [Full text for language-model readers](https://sphre.org/llms-full.txt): article and brief text in one plain-text document.
- [XML sitemap](https://sphre.org/sitemap.xml)
- [RSS feed](https://sphre.org/feed.xml)
- [Citation metadata](https://sphre.org/CITATION.cff)

## Data stories

- [The Great Convergence](https://sphre.org/story/great-convergence): In 1960, where you were born decided how long you would live. Sixty years of data show that gap closing — unevenly, incompletely, but unmistakably.
- [The Birth Dearth](https://sphre.org/story/birth-dearth): From Seoul to Lagos, the same curve at different speeds: the global fertility decline is the quietest revolution in the data.
- [The Wired World](https://sphre.org/story/wired-world): Every country traces the same S-curve online — but the Global South skipped a century of infrastructure to get there.
- [The Urban Century](https://sphre.org/story/urban-century): 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.
- [The Great Slowdown](https://sphre.org/story/great-slowdown): 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.
- [The Age of Migration](https://sphre.org/story/age-of-migration): 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.
- [The Paired Ledgers of Refugee Geography](https://sphre.org/story/the-refugee-century): 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.

## Recent briefs

- [India ranks above China at the latest population endpoint](https://sphre.org/brief/population-handover): World Bank indicators show a reversal in the two countries’ population ranking while distinguishing total size from annual growth.
- [One inflation measure, sharply different scales](https://sphre.org/brief/price-of-everything): 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.
- [Internet use trails mobile subscriptions across three African countries](https://sphre.org/brief/africa-online): The latest World Bank observations show different internet-use and mobile-subscription rankings for Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.
- [Renewable power shares rose in three of five countries from 1990 to 2021](https://sphre.org/brief/power-turns-green): World Bank endpoints show higher renewable shares for Germany, China and the United States, but lower shares for India and Brazil.
- [Three in four people are online. The last quarter is the hard part.](https://sphre.org/brief/three-quarters-online): 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.
- [Two-thirds of humanity now lives below replacement](https://sphre.org/brief/below-replacement-majority): 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.
- [The world without power is down to one region](https://sphre.org/brief/last-unlit-region): 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.
- [Four million refugees went home last year](https://sphre.org/brief/great-return): 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.
- [The grid spent 13 years getting less green](https://sphre.org/brief/grid-u-turn): 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.
- [The 28-year life-expectancy gap is down to 16](https://sphre.org/brief/sixteen-year-gap): 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.
- [Korea's Fertility Rate Falls Below One](https://sphre.org/brief/korea-birth-record): 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.
- [The peace dividend goes into reverse](https://sphre.org/brief/guns-and-gdp): As NATO lifts its spending targets, Europe's military budgets are reclaiming a share of GDP they surrendered when the Cold War ended.