Our Mission

In 2014, around 15 percent of the world’s population, or 1.1 billion had no access to electricity. Nearly half were in rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa and around a third were rural dwellers in South Asia. Just four countries - India, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Bangladesh are home to about half of all people who lack access to electricity. Read more in the 2017 Atlas of Sustainable Development Goals and in a new feature on "Solar Powers India's Clean Energy Revolution". Read more.

Electrification has expanded in all regions and in both urban and rural areas. South Asia has driven global declines, with just 28 percent of rural dwellers lacking electricity in 2014. In most regions, electrification has outpaced population growth. An exception is Sub-­Saharan Africa: 134 million more people in rural areas lacked access in 2014 than in 1994. Read more.

The World Bank forecasts that global economic growth will strengthen to 2.7 percent in 2017 as a pickup in manufacturing and trade, rising market confidence, and stabilizing commodity prices allow growth to resume in commodity-exporting emerging market and developing economies. Growth in advanced economies is expected to accelerate to 1.9 percent in 2017, and growth in emerging market and developing economies as will rise to 4.1 percent this year from 3.5 percent in 2016. Read more and download Global Economic Prospects.

Global emissions of carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas and driver of climate change, increased from 22.4 billion metric tons in 1990 to 35.8 billion in 2013, a rise of 60%. The increase in CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases has contributed to a rise of about 0.8 degrees Celsius in mean global temperature above pre-industrial times. Read More. 

In 2015, 663 million people were drinking from unimproved sources such as unprotected dug wells. The bulk of those without were in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where rural dwellers, especially the poorest, lagged behind others in access to both water and sanitation. Read More. 

An undernourished person doesn’t have enough food to meet their daily energy needs. Globally, over 793 million people are currently considered undernourished. While there’s been steady progress during the past 25 years, ending hunger by 2030 will require accelerated efforts to achieve faster declines in undernourishment. Read More.