In the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the average Colombian worker put in the most hours in 2022, with 2,400 hours, or 46.3 hours per week. German workers spent the least amount of time on the job, with 1,340 hours on average that year, equal to 25.8 hours per week.

Kiribati in the Pacific was the country with the lowest average weekly working hours per employee in 2022, with the most recent value showing that the population of Kiribati worked on average less than 28 hours per week. Second came Vanuatu at nearly 29 hours per week, with Micronesia following in third. On the other hand, Gambia had the highest average weekly working hours worldwide.

As of November 14, 2022, the United States had recorded almost 98 million cases of COVID-19. The country had also reported a total number of over one million deaths from the disease.

COVID-19 testing remains important The cumulative number of coronavirus cases worldwide reached almost 633 million towards the beginning of November 2022. Demand for test kits has at times exceeded production levels, but many countries continue to test citizens to more effectively control rises in cases. The U.S. has performed the most tests worldwide, followed by India and the United Kingdom.

The silent spread of the coronavirus Widespread testing will also help to detect people who might be asymptomatic – showing few or no symptoms of the illness. These carriers are unwittingly transmitting the virus to others, and the threat of silent transmission is one reason why mass lockdowns have been imposed around the world. However, as asymptomatic carriers produce no symptoms, they may have developed some natural immunity to the illness. Viruses are not as easily spread in communities with high rates of immunity, which helps to protect more vulnerable groups of people. When an infection rate is less than one, a community has achieved herd immunity.

Based on a comparison of coronavirus deaths in 210 countries relative to their population, Peru had the most losses to COVID-19 up until July 13, 2022. As of the same date, the virus had infected over 557.8 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had totaled more than 6.3 million. Note, however, that COVID-19 test rates can vary per country. Additionally, big differences show up between countries when combining the number of deaths against confirmed COVID-19 cases. The source seemingly does not differentiate between "the Wuhan strain" (2019-nCOV) of COVID-19, "the Kent mutation" (B.1.1.7) that appeared in the UK in late 2020, the 2021 Delta variant (B.1.617.2) from India or the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) from South Africa.

The difficulties of death figures

This table aims to provide a complete picture on the topic, but it very much relies on data that has become more difficult to compare. As the coronavirus pandemic developed across the world, countries already used different methods to count fatalities, and they sometimes changed them during the course of the pandemic. On April 16, for example, the Chinese city of Wuhan added a 50 percent increase in their death figures to account for community deaths. These deaths occurred outside of hospitals and went unaccounted for so far. The state of New York did something similar two days before, revising their figures with 3,700 new deaths as they started to include “assumed” coronavirus victims. The United Kingdom started counting deaths in care homes and private households on April 29, adjusting their number with about 5,000 new deaths (which were corrected lowered again by the same amount on August 18). This makes an already difficult comparison even more difficult. Belgium, for example, counts suspected coronavirus deaths in their figures, whereas other countries have not done that (yet). This means two things. First, it could have a big impact on both current as well as future figures. On April 16 already, UK health experts stated that if their numbers were corrected for community deaths like in Wuhan, the UK number would change from 205 to “above 300”. This is exactly what happened two weeks later. Second, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly which countries already have “revised” numbers (like Belgium, Wuhan or New York) and which ones do not. One work-around could be to look at (freely accessible) timelines that track the reported daily increase of deaths in certain countries. Several of these are available on our platform, such as for Belgium, Italy and Sweden. A sudden large increase might be an indicator that the domestic sources changed their methodology.

Where are these numbers coming from?

The numbers shown here were collected by Johns Hopkins University, a source that manually checks the data with domestic health authorities. For the majority of countries, this is from national authorities. In some cases, like China, the United States, Canada or Australia, city reports or other various state authorities were consulted. In this statistic, these separately reported numbers were put together. For more information or other freely accessible content, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Contains data from the World Bank's data portal. There is also a consolidated country dataset on HDX.

Climate change is expected to hit developing countries the hardest. Its effects—higher temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, rising sea levels, and more frequent weather-related disasters—pose risks for agriculture, food, and water supplies. At stake are recent gains in the fight against poverty, hunger and disease, and the lives and livelihoods of billions of people in developing countries. Addressing climate change requires unprecedented global cooperation across borders. The World Bank Group is helping support developing countries and contributing to a global solution, while tailoring our approach to the differing needs of developing country partners. Data here cover climate systems, exposure to climate impacts, resilience, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy use. Other indicators relevant to climate change are found under other data pages, particularly Environment, Agriculture & Rural Development, Energy & Mining, Health, Infrastructure, Poverty, and Urban Development.

As of May 2, 2023, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed in almost every country in the world. The virus had infected over 687 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had reached almost 6.87 million. The most severely affected countries include the U.S., India, and Brazil.

COVID-19: background information COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that had not previously been identified in humans. The first case was detected in the Hubei province of China at the end of December 2019. The virus is highly transmissible and coughing and sneezing are the most common forms of transmission, which is similar to the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus that began in 2002 and was thought to have spread via cough and sneeze droplets expelled into the air by infected persons.

Naming the coronavirus disease Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can be transmitted between animals and people, causing illnesses that may range from the common cold to more severe respiratory syndromes. In February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and the World Health Organization announced official names for both the virus and the disease it causes: SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, respectively. The name of the disease is derived from the words corona, virus, and disease, while the number 19 represents the year that it emerged.

In the 2024/2025 marketing year, the top consumers of wheat globally were China, India, and the European Union. China consumed about 151 million metric tons of wheat that year. Wheat consumption worldwide is slowly increasing, growing by about eight percent since 2018/2019. Wheat production and trade Not only do they consume the most wheat, but China, the EU, and India are also the leading producers of wheat worldwide. Chine led global production, with about 136.6 million metric tons in 2023/24. Despite being a top producer, China also imports a great deal of wheat. In 2022, China imported about 3.8 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of wheat. Egypt has been one of the leading importer of wheat worldwide for the last several years. Wheat price Prices around the world have risen as of 2022. Many believe that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is to blame for the rising wheat prices and others believe it is the speculation of an impending food crisis that is driving up demand. The price of the most common variety of wheat grown in the U.S., hard red winter wheat, reached an all-time high in May 2022, reaching over 522 dollars per metric ton. Globally, the real household income is expected to decline by about 1.57 percent due to the increased cost of wheat and corn. Some countries will experience a decline of over five percent, showing the real impact that growing prices have on consumers across the world.

Germany consumes the highest amount of candy per capita of any country in the world. In 2016, the average German consumer ate 28.7 pounds of candy. Ireland was the second leading candy consumer in that year, with a per capita consumption of 26.2 pounds of candy.

Global Sugar Production

As one of the main ingredients in most confections, the sugar industry has a large stake in the candy market. In 2018/2019, about 179 million metric tons of sugar were produced globally. This figure is expected to increase to 180.7 million metric tons in the next crop year. India and Brazil were the top two producers of sugar in 2018/2019, with production volumes of 33.07 and 29.5 million metric tons of sugar, respectively.

Leading Candy Brands in the U.S.

As the country with the largest confectionary market, the candy preferences of American consumers have the power to affect the global market. When it comes to chocolate candy, M&Ms were the top selling brand in the United States in 2017. That year, sales of M&Ms amounted to nearly 689 million U.S. dollars. Another popular type of candy in the United States is hard sugar candy, which is dominated by brands like Jolly Rancher and Werther’s Original.