The total amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to increase rapidly, reaching 149 zettabytes in 2024. Over the next five years up to 2028, global data creation is projected to grow to more than 394 zettabytes. In 2020, the amount of data created and replicated reached a new high. The growth was higher than previously expected, caused by the increased demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people worked and learned from home and used home entertainment options more often. Storage capacity also growing Only a small percentage of this newly created data is kept though, as just two percent of the data produced and consumed in 2020 was saved and retained into 2021. In line with the strong growth of the data volume, the installed base of storage capacity is forecast to increase, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 19.2 percent over the forecast period from 2020 to 2025. In 2020, the installed base of storage capacity reached 6.7 zettabytes.

The world population surpassed eight billion people in 2022, having doubled from its figure less than 50 years previously. Looking forward, it is projected that the world population will reach nine billion in 2038, and 10 billion in 2060, but it will peak around 10.3 billion in the 2080s before it then goes into decline. Regional variations The global population has seen rapid growth since the early 1800s, due to advances in areas such as food production, healthcare, water safety, education, and infrastructure, however, these changes did not occur at a uniform time or pace across the world. Broadly speaking, the first regions to undergo their demographic transitions were Europe, North America, and Oceania, followed by Latin America and Asia (although Asia's development saw the greatest variation due to its size), while Africa was the last continent to undergo this transformation. Because of these differences, many so-called "advanced" countries are now experiencing population decline, particularly in Europe and East Asia, while the fastest population growth rates are found in Sub-Saharan Africa. In fact, the roughly two billion difference in population between now and the 2080s' peak will be found in Sub-Saharan Africa, which will rise from 1.2 billion to 3.2 billion in this time (although populations in other continents will also fluctuate). Changing projections The United Nations releases their World Population Prospects report every 1-2 years, and this is widely considered the foremost demographic dataset in the world. However, recent years have seen a notable decline in projections when the global population will peak, and at what number. Previous reports in the 2010s had suggested a peak of over 11 billion people, and that population growth would continue into the 2100s, however a sooner and shorter peak is now projected. Reasons for this include a more rapid population decline in East Asia and Europe, particularly China, as well as a prolongued development arc in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This statistic depicts a projection for total prescription drug revenue growth worldwide from 2020 to 2026. In 2021, the industry is expected to grow more than 14 percent in prescription drug revenue worldwide. Revenues are expected to reach 1.4 trillion U.S. dollars by 2026.

The total assets of ISS World worldwide decreased overall between 2009 and 2023, despite some fluctuations. The total assets of Danish outsourcing company ISS World amounted to almost seven billion U.S. dollars in 2023, up from 6.73 billion U.S. dollars in the previous year.

In 2024, the total value of U.S. trade goods amounted to approximately 5.4 trillion U.S. dollars. This shows the significance and scale of international trade for the economy of the United States. In 2024, the United States imported goods valuing around 3.3 trillion U.S. dollars from international trading partners, in comparison the value of goods exported from the United States to other countries amounted to around 2.1 trillion U.S. dollars.Import and export trade The import of trade goods relate to goods brought into the United States. This typically refers to goods grown, produced, or manufactured in other countries. Imports include goods of domestic origin which have been worked on abroad before reentering the United States. The export of trade goods refer to goods sold internationally which were grown, produced, or manufactured in the United States. It also includes commodities of foreign origin which have been changed in the United States from the form in which they were imported, or which have been enhanced in value or condition by further processing or manufacturing within the United States before again being sold internationally. Leading trade partners of the United States In 2023, Mexico was the largest source of goods imported into the United States, with goods valuing approximately 475.6 billion U.S. dollars. Mexico and Canada were the second and third largest exporters of goods to the United States, respectively. In 2023, Canada was the leading destination of goods exported from the United States, with U.S. trade goods worth over 350 billion U.S. dollars exported to Canada. Mexico and China also feature at the top of the list of importers of U.S. goods.

As of January 2025, the Marvel Cinematic Universe series was the highest-grossing film franchise with total worldwide box office revenue of 31.06 billion U.S. dollars. "Avengers: Endgame" (2019) was Marvel's highest-grossing movie with 2.8 billion dollars in global revenue. The "Star Wars" and "Harry Potter" series followed with worldwide box office revenues of about 10.32 billion and 9.56 billion dollars, respectively. May the profit be with you The Star Wars series started in the late 1970s and has captured the attention of nerds and moviegoers in general ever since. Released just before the COVID-19 outbreak, the latest film of the saga, "The Rise of Skywalker," recorded a global box office revenue of over one billion dollars. This is almost four times more than the production of the movie had cost. The success of the franchise goes beyond the realm of cinema. The video game Star Wars: Squadrons, for instance, sold over one million digital copies worldwide in the first month of its release in October 2020. Fantastic box offices: where to find them again? While Star Wars has a history of peaks and valleys, the Harry Potter franchise seems to be jinxed since the launching of its prequel series, Fantastic Beasts. The box office revenue of "Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald" (2018) stood below 655 million dollars worldwide. This is the lowest revenue generated by a movie from the Harry Potter universe since the brand debuted on the big screen in 2001. The amount is also nearly 20 percent below the global box office of its predecessor, "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" (2016).

This statistic depicts a projection for the total prescription drug revenue worldwide from 2022 to 2030. In 2024, the industry is expected to generate 1.12 trillion U.S. dollars in prescription drug revenue worldwide. Revenues are projected to exceed 1.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2030. There is an increasing growth, especially in sales of so-called orphan drugs for the treatment of rare diseases. The pandemic and the demand for treatments and vaccines brought a significant increase in 2021–2022 revenues.

The statistic shows the total value of the shared transportation market worldwide from 2014 to 2020. In 2020, the global shared transportation total addressable market is estimated to be valued at 350 billion U.S. dollars. This includes taxi drivers, public transport as well as private/personal vehicles.

In 2022, mobile gaming accounted for almost three quarters of digital gaming revenues worldwide, up from 68.7 percent in 2017. Mobile gaming is one of the most popular and accessible gaming methods and generates billions in annual gaming sales.

With roughly three billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2023, Facebook is the most used online social network worldwide. The platform surpassed two billion active users in the second quarter of 2017, taking just over 13 years to reach this milestone. In comparison, Meta-owned Instagram took 11.2 years, and Google’s YouTube took just over 14 years to achieve this landmark. As of January 2022, Facebook’s leading audience base was in India, with almost 330 million users whilst the United States ranked second with an approximate total of 179 million users. The platform also finds remarkable popularity in Indonesia and Brazil. Social Media usage in the United States In January 2021, Facebook was the platform on which users in the United States spent the most time per day. The average time spent on Facebook was 33 minutes, followed by TikTok with 32 minutes and Twitter with 31 daily minutes. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, all major social media platforms saw an increase in daily usage, which then either plateaued or decreased in 2021. At the end of 2021, over a quarter of all Facebook users in the United States belonged to the 25 to 34 year age group and 18.2 percent of users were in the 35 to 44 year age group. In general, Facebook users were more likely to be female. Meta Platforms Meta is Facebook’s recently renamed parent company and had a grand total of 3.59 billion core product users by the final quarter of 2021. Other Meta products include Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Oculus – Meta’s virtual reality subsidiary which produces VR headsets. In 2021, Meta's revenue amounted to 117 billion US dollars, up from around 86 billion U.S. dollars in the previous financial year.

The statistic depicts the business and government spending worldwide on technology products and services from 2016 to 2021. Global spending on technology goods and services is estimated to exceed 3.7 trillion U.S. dollars by 2021.

In 2024, spending on devices amounted to around734 billion U.S. dollars globally, an increase of around 5.1 percent from the previous year. Global IT spending is expected to reach approximately 5.6 trillion U.S. dollars in 2025, increasing by about four percent compared to 2024. Around 810 billion U.S. dollars are forecast to be spent on devices.

The total global production volume of mines in 2022 amounted to nearly 19 billion metric tons. That was a considerable increase in comparison to 1985, when the total production volume of all metals and minerals extracted from mines worldwide amounted to less than 10 billion metric tons.

In March 2024, the video platform YouTube reported around 32.5 billion visits from global users. Meta-owned Facebook.com reported around 16.1 billion visits from global users, as Instagram.com and Twitter.com followed, each with 7 billion and 6.1 billion visits from users worldwide during the examined month. Wikipedia.org, which hosts users-generated encyclopedic entries, recorded around 4.4 billion visits, while news aggregator and community platform Reddit.com saw approximately 2.2 billion visits during the examined period.

Research and development (R&D) spending was forecast to reach over 2.47 trillion U.S. dollars globally in 2022 (once local currencies are converted for purchasing power parity). This compares to around one trillion U.S. dollars in 2005, and around 555 billion U.S. dollars in 1996. Spending decreased somewhat in 2020 following the outbreak of COVID-19, but increased again in 2021 and was forecast to do so in 2022 too.

In 2025, there were estimated to be approximately 3.6 billion people employed worldwide, compared to 2.23 billion people in 1991 - an increase of around 1.4 billion people. There was a noticeable fall in global employment between 2019 and 2020, when the number of employed people fell from due to the sudden economic shock caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Formal vs. Informal employment globally Worldwide, there is a large gap between the informally and formally employed. Most informally employed workers reside in the Global South, especially Africa and Southeast Asia. Moreover, men are slightly more likely to be informally employed than women. The majority of informal work, nearly 90 percent, is within the agricultural sector, with domestic work and construction following behind. Women’s employment As the number of employees has risen globally, so has the number of employed women. Overall, care roles such as nursing and midwifery have the highest shares of female employees globally. Moreover, while the gender pay gap has shrunk over time, it still exists. As of 2024, the uncontrolled gender pay gap was 0.83, meaning women made, on average, 83 cents per every dollar earned by men.

This statistic shows the total global grassland area, in a projection from 2010 to 2025. In 2015, the total global grassland area is expected to be 4.022 billion hectares.

This statistic shows the size of the global enterprise datasphere in 2018, by industry. The manufacturing industry accounted for 3,584 exabytes of data as of 2018, making it the industry with the largest datasphere.

The United States is by far the largest insurance market globally. Alone, the United States made up over 57 percent of the entire insurance market in 2022. The six largest markets combined held a market share of 85 percent.

Asia records by far the largest water withdrawals worldwide, with more than 2.4 trillion cubic meters in 2021. This represented roughly two-thirds of global water withdrawals that year. Meanwhile, water withdrawals in Oceania stood below 22 billion cubic meters in 2021.