Globally, about 25 percent of the population is under 15 years of age and 10 percent is over 65 years of age. Africa has the youngest population worldwide. In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 40 percent of the population is below 15 years, and only three percent are above 65, indicating the low life expectancy in several of the countries. In Europe, on the other hand, a higher share of the population is above 65 years than the population under 15 years. Fertility rates The high share of children and youth in Africa is connected to the high fertility rates on the continent. For instance, South Sudan and Niger have the highest population growth rates globally. However, about 50 percent of the world’s population live in countries with low fertility, where women have less than 2.1 children. Some countries in Europe, like Latvia and Lithuania, have experienced a population decline of one percent, and in the Cook Islands, it is even above two percent. In Europe, the majority of the population was previously working-aged adults with few dependents, but this trend is expected to reverse soon, and it is predicted that by 2050, the older population will outnumber the young in many developed countries. Growing global population As of 2025, there are 8.1 billion people living on the planet, and this is expected to reach more than nine billion before 2040. Moreover, the global population is expected to reach 10 billions around 2060, before slowing and then even falling slightly by 2100. As the population growth rates indicate, a significant share of the population increase will happen in Africa.

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and NUTS 3 boundary data (generalised to 100m) produced by Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi). The layer represents Census 2016 theme 8.1, population aged 15+ by principal economic status and sex. Attributes include population breakdown by economic status and sex (e.g. Student - males, retired - females). Census 2016 theme 8 represents Principal Status. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. NUTS 3 boundaries generalised to 100m. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. The NUTS classification has been used in EU legislation since 1988, but it was only in 2003 that the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003). The Irish NUTS 3 regions comprise the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993 which came into operation on January 1st 1994. The NUTS 2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed to by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the Regional Authorities.

Over the past 23 years, there were constantly more men than women living on the planet. Of the 8.06 billion people living on the Earth in 2023, 4.05 billion were men and 4.01 billion were women. One-quarter of the world's total population in 2024 was below 15 years.

Unemployment Rate in the United States remained unchanged at 4.20 percent in May. This dataset provides the latest reported value for - United States Unemployment Rate - plus previous releases, historical high and low, short-term forecast and long-term prediction, economic calendar, survey consensus and news.

Abstract

The Viet Nam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) was carried by General Statistics Office of Viet Nam (GSO) in collaboration with Viet Nam Committee for Population, Family and Children (VCPFC). Financial and technical support by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

In the World Summit for children held in New York in 1990, the Government of Vietnam committed itself to the implementation of the World Declaration and Plan of Action for children.

In implementation of directive 34/1999/CT-TTg on 27 December 1999 on promoting the implementation of the end-decade goals for children, reviewing the National Plan of Action for children, 1991-2000 and designing the National Plan of Action for children, 2001-2010, in the framework of the “Development of Social Indicators” project, the General Statistical Office (GSO) has chaired and coordinated with the Viet Nam Committee for the Protection and Care for Children (CPCC) to conduct the survey evaluating the end- decade goals for children, 1991-2000 (MICS). MICS has covered a sample size of 7628 households in 240 communes and wards representing the whole country, the urban area, the rural area and the 8 geographical areas in 61 towns/provinces. Field activities to collect data lasted 2 months, May- June/2000. The survey was technically supported by statisticians from EAPRO, UNICEF regional offices, UNICEF Hanoi on sample and questionnaire designing, data input software, not least the software analyzing and calculating the estimates generalizing the results of survey.

Survey Objectives: The end-decade survey on children is aimed at. · Providing up-to-date and reliable data to analyse the situation of children and women in 2000. · Providing data to assess the implementation of the World summit goals for children and of the National Plan of Action for Vietnamese Children, 1991-2000. · Serving as a basis (with baseline data and information) for development of the National Plan of Action for Children, 2001-2010. · Building professional capacity in monitoring, managing and evaluating all the goals of child protection, care and education at all levels.

Geographic coverage

The 2000 MICS of Vietnam was a nationally representative sample survey.

Analysis unit

Households, Women, Child.

Kind of data

Sample survey data [ssd]

Sampling procedure

The sample for the Viet Nam Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICSII) was designed to provide reliable estimates on a large number of indicators on the situation of children and women at the national level, for urban and rural areas, and for 8 regions: Red River Delta, North West, North East, North Central Coast, South Central Coast, Central Highlands, South East, and Mekong River Delta. Regions were identified as the main sampling domains and the sample was selected in two stages: At the first stage, 240 EAs are sellected. After a household listing was carried out within the selected enumeration areas, a systematic sample of 1/3 of households in each EA was drawn. The survey managed to visit all of 240 selected EAs during the fieldwork period. The sample was stratified by region and is not self-weighting. For reporting national level results, sample weights are used.

Sampling deviation

No major deviations from the original sample design were made. All sample enumeration areas were accessed and successfully interviewed with good response rates.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face [f2f]

Research instrument

The questionnaires for MICS in Vietnam are based on the New York UNICEF module questionnaires with some modifications and additions to fit in with Vietnam's context and to evaluate the goals set out in the National Plan of Action. The questionnaires have been arranged in such a way as to prevent the loss of questionnaire sheets and to facilitate the logic control between the items in the modules. Questionnaires include 3 sections. Section 1: general questions to be administered to families and family members. Section 2: questions for child bearing-age women (aged 15-49). Section 3: for children under 5.

Section 1: Household questionnaire Part A: Household information panel Part B: Household listing form Part C: Education Part D: Child labour Part E: Maternal mortality Part F: Water and sanitation Part G: Salt iodization

Section 2: Questionnaire for child bearing-age women Part A: Child mortality Part B: Tetanus toxoid (TT) Part C: Maternal and newborn health Part D: Contraceptive use Part E: HIV/AIDS

Section 3: Questionnaire for children under five Part A:Birth registration and early learning Part B: Vitamin A Part C: Breastfeeding Part D: Care of illness Part E: Malaria Part F: Immunization Part G: Anthropometry

Apart from the questionnaires to collect information at family level, questionnaires are also designed to gather information at community level supplementary to some indicators that can not have data collected at family level. The information garnered includes local population, socio-economic and physical conditions, education, health and progress of projects/plans of actions for children.

Cleaning operations

To minimize the errors made by data entry staff members, all the records were double- entered by two different members. Any error detected between the two entries was re-checked to find out which one is wrong. Data cleaning started in to early September. This process was closely observed to ensure the accuracy, quality and practicality of all the data collected.

To minimize the errors due to wrong statements of respondents or wrong registration by interviewers, a cleaning programme was used to check the consistency and logic in the items of questionnaires and between the questionnaires. The cleaning programme printed out all the errors, then questionnaires were checked by qualified officials.

Response rate

8356 households were selected for the sample. Of these all were found to be occupied households and 8355 were successfully interviewed for a response rate of 100%. Within these households, 10063 eligible women aged 15-49 were identified for interview, of which 9473 were successfully interviewed (response rate 94.1%), and 2707 children aged 0-4 were identified for whom the mother or caretaker was successfully interviewed for 2680 children (response rate 99%).

Sampling error estimates

Estimates from a sample survey are affected by two types of errors: 1) non-sampling errors and 2) sampling errors. Non-sampling errors are the results of mistakes made in the implementation of data collection and data processing. Numerous efforts were made during implementation of the MICS - 3 to minimize this type of error, however, non-sampling errors are impossible to avoid and difficult to evaluate statistically.

Sampling errors can be evaluated statistically. The sample of respondents to the MICS - 3 is only one of many possible samples that could have been selected from the same population, using the same design and expected size. Each of these samples would yield results that different somewhat from the results of the actual sample selected. Sampling errors are a measure of the variability in the results of the survey between all possible samples, and, although, the degree of variability is not known exactly, it can be estimated from the survey results. The sampling errors are measured in terms of the standard error for a particular statistic (mean or percentage), which is the square root of the variance. Confidence intervals are calculated for each statistic within which the true value for the population can be assumed to fall. Plus or minus two standard errors of the statistic is used for key statistics presented in MICS, equivalent to a 95 percent confidence interval.

If the sample of respondents had been a simple random sample, it would have been possible to use straightforward formulae for calculating sampling errors. However, the MICS - 3 sample is the result of a two-stage stratified design, and consequently needs to use more complex formulae. The SPSS complex samples module has been used to calculate sampling errors for the MICS - 3. This module uses the Taylor linearization method of variance estimation for survey estimates that are means or proportions. This method is documented in the SPSS file CSDescriptives.pdf found under the Help, Algorithms options in SPSS.

Sampling errors have been calculated for a select set of statistics (all of which are proportions due to the limitations of the Taylor linearization method) for the national sample, urban and rural areas, and for each of the five regions. For each statistic, the estimate, its standard error, the coefficient of variation (or relative error -- the ratio between the standard error and the estimate), the design effect, and the square root design effect (DEFT -- the ratio between the standard error using the given sample design and the standard error that would result if a simple random sample had been used), as well as the 95 percent confidence intervals (+/-2 standard errors).

Data appraisal

A series of data quality tables and graphs are available to review the quality of the data and include the following:

Age distribution of the household population Age distribution of eligible women and interviewed women Age distribution of eligible children and children for whom the mother or caretaker was interviewed Age distribution of children under age 5 by 3 month groups Age and period ratios at boundaries of eligibility Percent of observations with missing information on selected variables Presence of mother in

This statistic displays the estimated and actual Muslim population share in Denmark and Sweden in 2018. In Denmark, respondents on average guessed that 18 out of every 100 people in Denmark were Muslims. In fact, 4. percent of the Danish population was Muslim in 2018. Swedes estimated 23 percent of every hundred people to be Muslim, but the actual number was 8 percent.

This feature layer was created using Census 2016 data produced by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and NUTS 3 boundary data (generalised to 100m) produced by Tailte Éireann. The layer represents Census 2016 theme 8.1, population aged 15+ by principal economic status and sex. Attributes include population breakdown by economic status and sex (e.g. Student - males, retired - females). Census 2016 theme 8 represents Principal Status. The Census is carried out every five years by the CSO to determine an account of every person in Ireland. The results provide information on a range of themes, such as, population, housing and education. The data were sourced from the CSO. NUTS 3 boundaries generalised to 100m. The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) were drawn up by Eurostat in order to define territorial units for the production of regional statistics across the European Union. The NUTS classification has been used in EU legislation since 1988, but it was only in 2003 that the EU Member States, the European Parliament and the Commission established the NUTS regions within a legal framework (Regulation (EC) No 1059/2003). The Irish NUTS 3 regions comprise the eight Regional Authorities established under the Local Government Act, 1991 (Regional Authorities) (Establishment) Order, 1993 which came into operation on January 1st 1994. The NUTS 2 regions, which were proposed by Government and agreed to by Eurostat in 1999, are groupings of the Regional Authorities.

Abstract

The 2001-2002 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) was carried out by the Central Statistical Office and the Central Board of Health. It is a nationally representative sample of 7,658 women age 15-49 and 2,145 men age 15-59. The principal objective of the survey was to provide data to policymakers and planners on the population and health situation in Zambia. Most of the information collected in the 2001-2002 ZDHS represents updated estimates of basic demographic and health indicators covered in the 1992 ZDHS and 1996 ZDHS surveys.

The 2001-2002 ZDHS was conducted by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Central Board of Health (CBoH). ORC Macro of Calverton, Maryland provided technical assistance to the project through its contract with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Funding for the survey was supplied by ORC Macro (from USAID), the Government of Japan through a trust fund managed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and through bilateral agreements between the Government of the Republic of Zambia and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA).

The primary objectives of the ZDHS are: - To collect up-to-date information on fertility, infant and child mortality and family planning; - To collect information on health-related matters such as breastfeeding, antenatal care, children's immunisations and childhood diseases; - To assess the nutritional status of mothers and children; - To support dissemination and utilisation of the results in planning, managing and improving family planning and health services in the country;
- To enhance the survey capabilities of the institutions involved in order to facilitate the implementation of surveys of this type in the future; and - To document current epidemics of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS through use of specialised modules.

Specifically, the 2001-2002 ZDHS collected detailed information on fertility and family planning, child mortality and maternal mortality, maternal and child health and nutritional status, and knowledge, awareness and behaviour regarding HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. New features of the 20012002 ZDHS include the collection of information on violence against women and testing of individuals for HIV and syphilis.

Geographic coverage

The DHS 2001-02 is a nationally representative survey. The primary focus of the 2001 Zambia DHS is to provide estimates of key population and health indicators, including fertility and mortality rates, for the country as a whole, and for urban and rural areas separately. Also, the sample was designed to provide estimates of key variables for the nine provinces, namely, 1) Central, 2) Copperbelt, 3) Eastern, 4) Luapula, 5) Lusaka, 6) Northern, 7) North-Western, 8) Southern, and 9) Western. In addition, the sample provides basic information for a total of 12 combined districts (not each separately) that are the special focus of the Zambia Integrated Health Programme (Livingstone, Kalomo, Chibombo, Kabwe Urban, Ndola Urban, Kitwe, Chipata, Lundazi, Chama, Kasama, Samfya, and Mwense).

Analysis unit

• Household
• women age 15-49
• Men age 15-59
• Children under five years

Universe

The population covered by the 2001-2002 ZDHS is defined as the universe of all women age 1549 in Zambia and all men age 15-59. A sample of households was selected and all women age 15-49 identified in the households were interviewed. In addition, in a subsample of one-third of all the households selected for the ZDHS, all men 15-59 were eligible to be interviewed if they were either permanent residents or visitors present in the household on the night before the survey.

Kind of data

Sample survey data

Sampling procedure

The 2001-2002 Zambia Demographic and Health Survey (ZDHS) is a comprehensive nationally representative population and health survey carried out by the Central Statistical Office in partnership with the Central Board of Health. ORC Macro provided financial and technical assistance for the survey through the USAID-funded MEASURE DHS+ programme. Additional funding for the ZDHS was received from the Government of Japan, UNFPA, and DANIDA. The principal objective of the ZDHS is to provide current and reliable data on fertility and family planning behaviour, child mortality, children's nutritional status, the utilization of maternal, child health services, knowledge and prevalence of HIV and syphilis.

SAMPLE DOMAINS

The Zambia DHS collected demographic and health information from a nationally representative sample of women and men age 15-49 and 15-59, respectively. The primary focus of the 2001 Zambia DHS is to provide estimates of key population and health indicators, including fertility and mortality rates, for the country as a whole, and for urban and rural areas separately. Also, the sample was designed to provide estimates of key variables for the nine provinces, namely, 1) Central, 2) Copperbelt, 3) Eastern, 4) Luapula, 5) Lusaka, 6) Northern, 7) North-Western, 8) Southern, and 9) Western. In addition, the sample provides basic information for a total of 12 combined districts (not each separately) that are the special focus of the Zambia Integrated Health Programme (Livingstone, Kalomo, Chibombo, Kabwe Urban, Ndola Urban, Kitwe, Chipata, Lundazi, Chama, Kasama, Samfya, and Mwense).

SAMPLE FRAME

Zambia is divided into nine provinces. In turn, each province is subdivided in districts, each district into constituencies, and each constituency into wards. In addition to these administrative units, during the 2000 population census, each ward was subdivided into convenient areas called census supervisory areas (CSAs), and in turn each CSA into standard enumeration areas (SEAs). In total Zambia has 72 districts, 150 constituencies, 1,289 wards, about 4,400 CSAs, and about 16,400 SEAs. Preliminary information on the counts of households and population, as well as cartographic materials were available from the 2000 population census for the SEAs. Therefore, the sample frame for this survey was the list of SEAs developed from the 2000 population census.

STRATIFICATION

In the preliminary census frame, the SEAs were grouped by CSAs, by CSAs within a ward, by wards within a constituency, by constituencies within a district and by districts within a province for purposes of the ZDHS. The SEAs were further stratified separately by urban and rural areas within each province.

SAMPLE ALLOCATION

The primary sampling unit (PSU), the cluster for the 2001-2002 ZDHS, is defined on the basis of SEAs from the census frame. A minimum requirement of 85 households for the cluster size was imposed in the design. If an SEA did not have 85 households, it was combined with an adjacent SEA; thus, the ZDHS cluster comprised one or more SEAs. The number of clusters in each district was not allocated proportional to the total population due to the need to present estimates by each of the nine provinces. Zambia is a country where two-thirds of the population reside in rural areas, and one-third in urban areas.

The target for the 2001-2002 ZDHS sample was 8,000 completed interviews. Based on the level of non-response found in the 1996 ZDHS, to achieve this target, approximately 8,200 households were selected, with all women age 15-49 being interviewed. The target was to reach a minimum of 750 completed interviews per province. In each province the number of households was distributed proportionately among the urban and rural areas. Table A.2 shows the distribution of about 8,200 households by province.

The urban-rural distribution was also considered in distributing the sample. The selected households were distributed in 320 clusters in Zambia, 100 clusters in the urban areas, and 220 clusters in the rural areas.

Under this final allocation, the 12 combined districts of the Zambia Integrated Health Programme have 77 selected clusters, 36 in urban areas and 41 in rural areas.

SAMPLE SELECTION

The 2001-2002 ZDHS sample was selected using a stratified two-stage cluster design consisting of 320 clusters, 100 in urban and 220 in rural areas. Once the number of households was allocated to each combination of province by urban and rural areas, the number of clusters was calculated based on an average sample take of 25 completed interviews among women 15-49 years. In each urban or rural area in a given province, clusters were selected systematically with probability proportional to the number of households in each cluster.

Mode of data collection

Face-to-face

Research instrument

Three questionnaires were used for the 2001-2002 ZDHS: a) the Household Questionnaire, b) the Women's Questionnaire c) the Men's Questionnaire.

The contents of these questionnaires were based on the model questionnaires developed by the MEASURE DHS+ programme for use in countries with low levels of contraceptive use.

In consultation with technical institutions, local and international organisations, the CSO modified the DHS model questionnaires to reflect relevant issues in population, family planning and other health issues in Zambia. A series of questionnaire design meetings were organised by the CSO with the assistance of ORC Macro, and the inputs generated in these meetings were used to produce the first draft of the ZDHS questionnaires. These questionnaires were translated from English into the seven major languages, namely Bemba, Kaonde, Lozi, Lunda, Luvale, Nyanja, and Tonga.

a) The Household Questionnaire was used to list all the usual members and visitors in the selected

In 2023, it was estimated that over 161 million Americans were in some form of employment, while 3.64 percent of the total workforce was unemployed. This was the lowest unemployment rate since the 1950s, although these figures are expected to rise in 2023 and beyond. 1980s-2010s Since the 1980s, the total United States labor force has generally risen as the population has grown, however, the annual average unemployment rate has fluctuated significantly, usually increasing in times of crisis, before falling more slowly during periods of recovery and economic stability. For example, unemployment peaked at 9.7 percent during the early 1980s recession, which was largely caused by the ripple effects of the Iranian Revolution on global oil prices and inflation. Other notable spikes came during the early 1990s; again, largely due to inflation caused by another oil shock, and during the early 2000s recession. The Great Recession then saw the U.S. unemployment rate soar to 9.6 percent, following the collapse of the U.S. housing market and its impact on the banking sector, and it was not until 2016 that unemployment returned to pre-recession levels. 2020s 2019 had marked a decade-long low in unemployment, before the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic saw the sharpest year-on-year increase in unemployment since the Great Depression, and the total number of workers fell by almost 10 million people. Despite the continuation of the pandemic in the years that followed, alongside the associated supply-chain issues and onset of the inflation crisis, unemployment reached just 3.67 percent in 2022 - current projections are for this figure to rise in 2023 and the years that follow, although these forecasts are subject to change if recent years are anything to go by.

In 2023, it was estimated that over ** million people in the United States had used cocaine at some point in their life. The number of people in the United States who stated they had used cocaine in the past month has fluctuated over the past decade, but over *** million people reported they had used cocaine in the past month as of 2023. Cocaine use among teens The percentage of U.S. students in grades *, **, and ** that had used cocaine in their lifetime has gradually decreased since 1999. At that time, around *** percent of students stated they had used cocaine in their lifetime, while in 2021 just *** percent of students said so. Perhaps unsurprisingly, perceived availability of cocaine among **** graders has also decreased over the past couple decades, with about ** percent of **** graders stating cocaine was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to get in 2021, compared to almost ** percent who reported it was easy to get in 1990. The most common illicit drugs U.S. students in grades *, **, and ** reported having used in their lifetime were marijuana, inhalants, and hallucinogens such as LSD and mushrooms. Deaths from cocaine In 2020, there were ****** drug poisoning deaths involving cocaine in the United States. The number of overdose deaths involving cocaine has increased significantly over the past few years as part of the ongoing opioid epidemic. Although, it is possible to die of an overdose just from using cocaine, many overdose deaths in the U.S. that involved cocaine also involved the use of opioids. The rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine is almost ***** times higher among men than women, but both have seen increases in the rate of overdose death in recent years. Considering race and ethnicity, the rate of overdose deaths involving cocaine is by far highest among black, non-Hispanics and lowest among Asian/Pacific Islander, non-Hispanics.

In 1990, the unemployment rate of the United States stood at 5.6 percent. Since then there have been many significant fluctuations to this number - the 2008 financial crisis left millions of people without work, as did the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2022 and throughout 2023, the unemployment rate came to 3.6 percent, the lowest rate seen for decades. However, 2024 saw an increase up to four percent. For monthly updates on unemployment in the United States visit either the monthly national unemployment rate here, or the monthly state unemployment rate here. Both are seasonally adjusted. UnemploymentUnemployment is defined as a situation when an employed person is laid off, fired or quits his work and is still actively looking for a job. Unemployment can be found even in the healthiest economies, and many economists consider an unemployment rate at or below five percent to mean there is 'full employment' within an economy. If former employed persons go back to school or leave the job to take care of children they are no longer part of the active labor force and therefore not counted among the unemployed. Unemployment can also be the effect of events that are not part of the normal dynamics of an economy. Layoffs can be the result of technological progress, for example when robots replace workers in automobile production. Sometimes unemployment is caused by job outsourcing, due to the fact that employers often search for cheap labor around the globe and not only domestically. In 2022, the tech sector in the U.S. experienced significant lay-offs amid growing economic uncertainty. In the fourth quarter of 2022, more than 70,000 workers were laid off, despite low unemployment nationwide. The unemployment rate in the United States varies from state to state. In 2021, California had the highest number of unemployed persons with 1.38 million out of work.

In 2024, global retail e-commerce sales reached an estimated six trillion U.S. dollars. Projections indicate a 31 percent growth in this figure over the coming years, with expectations to come close to eight trillion dollars by 2028. World players Among the key players on the world stage, the American marketplace giant Amazon holds the title of the largest e-commerce player globally, with a gross merchandise value of nearly 800 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. Amazon was also the most valuable retail brand globally, followed by mostly American competitors such as Walmart and the Home Depot. Leading e-tailing regions E-commerce is a dormant channel globally, but nowhere has it been as successful as in Asia. In 2024, the e-commerce revenue in that continent alone was measured at nearly two trillion U.S. dollars, outperforming the Americas and Europe. That year, the up-and-coming e-commerce markets also centered around Asia. The Philippines and India stood out as the swiftest-growing e-commerce markets based on online sales, anticipating a growth rate surpassing 20 percent.