In 2024-2025, the United States was the largest contributor to the World Health Organization (WHO), contributing around 958 million U.S. dollars. The majority of these contributions came in the form of voluntary contributions, accounting for almost 698 million dollars, compared to 261 million dollars in assessed contributions. Assessed contributions are a countries' membership dues for being a member of the WHO and are a percentage of the country's gross domestic product. However, the majority of the WHO's funding comes from voluntary contributions from member states and other United Nations organizations, intergovernmental organizations, and philanthropic foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Saving data was reported at -1,335.198 RMB bn in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of -1,895.026 RMB bn for 2015. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Saving data is updated yearly, averaging -570.608 RMB bn from Dec 1992 (Median) to 2016, with 25 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 68.590 RMB bn in 1993 and a record low of -2,920.884 RMB bn in 2008. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Saving data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s National Accounts – Table CN.AD: Flow of Funds Accounts: Physical Transaction: Rest of World.

Inflation was the most worrying topic worldwide as of January 2025, with one third of the respondents choosing that option. Crime and violence as well as poverty and social inequality followed behind. Moreover, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the war in Gaza, nine percent of the respondents were worried about military conflict between nations. Only four percent were worried about the COVID-19 pandemic, which dominated the world after its outbreak in 2020. Global inflation and rising prices Inflation rates have spiked substantially since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. From 2020 to 2021, the worldwide inflation rate increased from 3.5 percent to 4.7 percent, and from 2021 to 2022, the rate increased sharply from 4.7 percent to 8.7 percent. While rates are predicted to fall come 2025, many are continuing to struggle with price increases on basic necessities. Poverty and global development Poverty and social inequality was the third most worrying issue to respondents. While poverty and inequality are still prominent, global poverty rates have been on a steady decline over the years. In 1994, 64 percent of people in low-income countries and around one percent of people in high-income countries lived on less than 2.15 U.S. dollars per day. By 2018, this had fallen to almost 44 percent of people in low-income countries and 0.6 percent in high-income countries. Moreover, fewer people globally are dying of preventable diseases and people are living longer lives. Despite these aspects, issues such as wealth inequality have global prominence.

The statistic shows the 30 largest countries in the world by area. Russia is the largest country by far, with a total area of about 17 million square kilometers.

Population of Russia

Despite its large area, Russia - nowadays the largest country in the world - has a relatively small total population. However, its population is still rather large in numbers in comparison to those of other countries. In mid-2014, it was ranked ninth on a list of countries with the largest population, a ranking led by China with a population of over 1.37 billion people. In 2015, the estimated total population of Russia amounted to around 146 million people. The aforementioned low population density in Russia is a result of its vast landmass; in 2014, there were only around 8.78 inhabitants per square kilometer living in the country. Most of the Russian population lives in the nation’s capital and largest city, Moscow: In 2015, over 12 million people lived in the metropolis.

The Gridded Population of the World, Version 3 (GPWv3): National Administrative Boundaries are derived from the land area grid to show the outlines of pixels (cells) that contain administrative Units in GPWv3 on a per-country/territory basis. The National Boundaries data are derived from the pixels as polygons and thus have rectilinear boundaries at large scale. Note that the polygons that outline the countries and territories are not official representations; rather, they represent the area covered by the statistical data as provided. The national/territorial boundaries are designed for cartographic use with the GPWv3 population raster data sets. GPWv3 is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Statistical Discrepancy data was reported at 0.000 RMB bn in 2012. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 RMB bn for 2011. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Statistical Discrepancy data is updated yearly, averaging -0.176 RMB bn from Dec 1992 (Median) to 2012, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.000 RMB bn in 2012 and a record low of -51.017 RMB bn in 1997. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Statistical Discrepancy data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s National Accounts – Table CN.AD: Flow of Funds Accounts: Physical Transaction: Rest of World.

In 2024-2025, the United States was the largest voluntary contributor to the World Health Organization (WHO), accounting for nearly 15 percent of all voluntary contributions at that time, followed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the GAVI Alliance. In January 2025, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the U.S. from the WHO. The impact of such a withdrawal on the WHO is difficult to predict, but will likely have implications for public health around the world, including the United States itself.

The World Religion Project (WRP) aims to provide detailed information about religious adherence worldwide since 1945. It contains data about the number of adherents by religion in each of the states in the international system. These numbers are given for every half-decade period (1945, 1950, etc., through 2010). Percentages of the states' populations that practice a given religion are also provided. (Note: These percentages are expressed as decimals, ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 indicates that 0 percent of the population practices a given religion and 1 indicates that 100 percent of the population practices that religion.) Some of the religions (as detailed below) are divided into religious families. To the extent data are available, the breakdown of adherents within a given religion into religious families is also provided.

The project was developed in three stages. The first stage consisted of the formation of a religion tree. A religion tree is a systematic classification of major religions and of religious families within those major religions. To develop the religion tree we prepared a comprehensive literature review, the aim of which was (i) to define a religion, (ii) to find tangible indicators of a given religion of religious families within a major religion, and (iii) to identify existing efforts at classifying world religions. (Please see the original survey instrument to view the structure of the religion tree.) The second stage consisted of the identification of major data sources of religious adherence and the collection of data from these sources according to the religion tree classification. This created a dataset that included multiple records for some states for a given point in time. It also contained multiple missing data for specific states, specific time periods and specific religions. The third stage consisted of cleaning the data, reconciling discrepancies of information from different sources and imputing data for the missing cases.

The Global Religion Dataset: This dataset uses a religion-by-five-year unit. It aggregates the number of adherents of a given religion and religious group globally by five-year periods.

China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Net Tax on Production data was reported at 0.000 RMB bn in 2012. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 RMB bn for 2011. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Net Tax on Production data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 RMB bn from Dec 1992 (Median) to 2012, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.000 RMB bn in 2012 and a record low of 0.000 RMB bn in 2012. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Source: Net Tax on Production data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s National Accounts – Table CN.AD: Flow of Funds Accounts: Physical Transaction: Rest of World.

Databank (databank.worldbank.org) is an online web resource that provides simple and quick access to collections of time series data. It has advanced functions for selecting and displaying data, performing customized queries, downloading data, and creating charts and maps. Users can create dynamic custom reports based on their selection of countries, indicators and years. They offer a growing range of free, easy-to-access tools, research and knowledge to help people address the world's development challenges. For example, the Open Data website offers free access to comprehensive, downloadable indicators about development in countries around the globe.

Source: https://www.wider.unu.edu/database/wiid User Guide: https://www.wider.unu.edu/sites/default/files/WIID/PDF/WIID-User_Guide_06MAY2020.pdf

The World Income Inequality Database (WIID) contains information on income inequality in various countries and is maintained by the United Nations University-World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER). The database was originally compiled during 1997-99 for the research project Rising Income Inequality and Poverty Reduction, directed by Giovanni Andrea Corina. A revised and updated version of the database was published in June 2005 as part of the project Global Trends in Inequality and Poverty, directed by Tony Shorrocks and Guang Hua Wan. The database was revised in 2007 and a new version was launched in May 2008.

The database contains data on inequality in the distribution of income in various countries. The central variable in the dataset is the Gini index, a measure of income distribution in a society. In addition, the dataset contains information on income shares by quintile or decile. The database contains data for 159 countries, including some historical entities. The temporal coverage varies substantially across countries. For some countries there is only one data entry; in other cases there are over 100 data points. The earliest entry is from 1867 (United Kingdom), the latest from 2003. The majority of the data (65%) cover the years from 1980 onwards. The 2008 update (version WIID2c) includes some major updates and quality improvements, in fact leading to a reduced number of variables in the new version. The new version has 334 new observations and several revisions/ corrections made in 2007 and 2008.

World Countries Generalized represents generalized boundaries for the countries of the world as of August 2022. The generalized political boundaries improve draw performance and effectiveness at a global or continental level. This layer is best viewed out beyond a scale of 1:5,000,000.This layer's geography was developed by Esri and sourced from Garmin International, Inc., the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (The World Factbook), and the National Geographic Society for use as a world basemap. It is updated annually as country names or significant borders change.

This dataset contains data, per EU-27 country and 153 additional countries and territories (the World). The data displays the total number of publications per country, per topic, as well as the number of EC sponsored publications. Aggregates for EU-27, EU-28 and the World are also provided. The dataset also contains data and metrics specifying the prominence (momentum) of the topics on which the sponsored outputs where published. Next to the above data, additional data also contained in https://doi.org/10.34894/DNWIXV and used in the 2nd Interim Report is added as a comparison, showing the difference in topical outputs for the main knowledge economies and the world. Note: the World is defined by 180 countries and territories that have produced output in the 23755 topics.

Terrestrial Ecoregions of the World (TEOW) is a biogeographic regionalization of the Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. Our biogeographic units are ecoregions, which are defined as relatively large units of land or water containing a distinct assemblage of natural communities sharing a large majority of species, dynamics, and environmental conditions. There are 867 terrestrial ecoregions, classified into 14 different biomes such as forests, grasslands, or deserts. Ecoregions represent the original distribution of distinct assemblages of species and communities. The map has been produced by the Conservation Science Program of the World Wildlife Fund.

In 2022, the global total corporate investment in artificial intelligence (AI) reached almost 92 billion U.S. dollars, a slight decrease from the previous year. In 2018, the yearly investment in AI saw a slight downturn, but that was only temporary. Private investments account for a bulk of total AI corporate investment. AI investment has increased more than sixfold since 2016, a staggering growth in any market. It is a testament to the importance of the development of AI around the world.

What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

Artificial intelligence, once the subject of people’s imaginations and the main plot of science fiction movies for decades, is no longer a piece of fiction, but rather commonplace in people’s daily lives whether they realize it or not. AI refers to the ability of a computer or machine to imitate the capacities of the human brain, which often learns from previous experiences to understand and respond to language, decisions, and problems. These AI capabilities, such as computer vision and conversational interfaces, have become embedded throughout various industries’ standard business processes.

AI investment and startups

The global AI market, valued at 142.3 billion U.S. dollars as of 2023, continues to grow driven by the influx of investments it receives. This is a rapidly growing market, looking to expand from billions to trillions of U.S. dollars in market size in the coming years. From 2020 to 2022, investment in startups globally, and in particular AI startups, increased by five billion U.S. dollars, nearly double its previous investments, with much of it coming from private capital from U.S. companies. The most recent top-funded AI businesses are all machine learning and chatbot companies, focusing on human interface with machines.

China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Gross Capital Formation: Change in Inventory data was reported at 0.000 RMB bn in 2012. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 RMB bn for 2011. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Gross Capital Formation: Change in Inventory data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 RMB bn from Dec 1992 (Median) to 2012, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 0.000 RMB bn in 2012 and a record low of 0.000 RMB bn in 2012. China Flow of Funds: Rest of the World: Use: Gross Capital Formation: Change in Inventory data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by National Bureau of Statistics. The data is categorized under China Premium Database’s National Accounts – Table CN.AD: Flow of Funds Accounts: Physical Transaction: Rest of World.

Source of Funds: Dom: HN: Repurchase Agreements data was reported at 0.000 NTD mn in 2016. This stayed constant from the previous number of 0.000 NTD mn for 2015. Source of Funds: Dom: HN: Repurchase Agreements data is updated yearly, averaging 0.000 NTD mn from Dec 2001 (Median) to 2016, with 16 observations. Source of Funds: Dom: HN: Repurchase Agreements data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Bank of the Republic of China. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Taiwan – Table TW.AB009: Flow of Funds Account (Incl Rest of the World): Domestic: Households and Non-Profit Institutions: Flow.

Use of Funds: Dom: HN: Short-term Securities data was reported at 4,020.300 NTD mn in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 1,171.680 NTD mn for 2015. Use of Funds: Dom: HN: Short-term Securities data is updated yearly, averaging -98.790 NTD mn from Dec 2001 (Median) to 2016, with 16 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8,610.690 NTD mn in 2012 and a record low of -6,982.020 NTD mn in 2002. Use of Funds: Dom: HN: Short-term Securities data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Central Bank of the Republic of China. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Taiwan – Table TW.AB009: Flow of Funds Account (Incl Rest of the World): Domestic: Households and Non-Profit Institutions: Flow.

A Trust Fund is a financing arrangement set up with contributions from one or more donor(s), and in some cases from the World Bank Group. A Trust Fund can be country-specific, regional, or global in its geographic scope, and it can be free-standing or programmatic. In fulfilling its responsibilities, the World Bank as Trustee complies with all sanctions applicable to World Bank transactions. This dataset provides a summary of the contributions per fiscal year at the individual Trust Fund level. All definitions should be regarded at present as provisional and not final, and are subject to revision at any time.

With a market capitalization of 3.12 trillion U.S. dollars as of May 2024, Microsoft was the world’s largest company that year. Rounding out the top five were some of the world’s most recognizable brands: Apple, NVIDIA, Google’s parent company Alphabet, and Amazon. Saudi Aramco led the ranking of the world's most profitable companies in 2023, with a pre-tax income of nearly 250 billion U.S. dollars. How are market value and market capitalization determined? Market value and market capitalization are two terms frequently used – and confused - when discussing the profitability and viability of companies. Strictly speaking, market capitalization (or market cap) is the worth of a company based on the total value of all their shares; an important metric when determining the comparative value of companies for trading opportunities. Accordingly, many stock exchanges such as the New York or London Stock Exchange release market capitalization data on their listed companies. On the other hand, market value technically refers to what a company is worth in a much broader context. It is determined by multiple factors, including profitability, corporate debt, and the market environment as a whole. In this sense it aims to estimate the overall value of a company, with share price only being one element. Market value is therefore useful for determining whether a company’s shares are over- or undervalued, and in arriving at a price if the company is to be sold. Such valuations are generally made on a case-by-case basis though, and not regularly reported. For this reason, market capitalization is often reported as market value. What are the top companies in the world? The answer to this question depends on the metric used. Although the largest company by market capitalization, Microsoft's global revenue did not manage to crack the top 20 companies. Rather, American multinational retailer Walmart was ranked as the largest company in the world by revenue. Walmart also had the highest number of employees in the world.