Our Mission

Over 75% of young children in upper-middle- and high-income countries attend pre-primary schools, compared with one in three in lower-middle-income countries. One in five children in low-income countries is enrolled in pre-primary education.

Children with pre-primary education have better attendance and achievement in primary school. Read more.

High-income countries tend to outperform low-income countries on logistics. But income is not the sole determinant. On this graph, countries further away from the trend line are over- or under-performers compared to their income group. Read more.

New satellite data shows a significant decline in gas flaring at oil production sites around the world in 2017, despite a half-percent increase in global oil production. The nearly 5 percent flaring decline begins to reverse years of increases in global gas flaring that started in 2010. The data reveals about 141 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas was flared in 2017, down from nearly 148 bcm in 2016. Read More.

Globally, countries are losing $160 trillion in wealth because of differences in lifetime earnings between women and men. This amounts to an average of $23,620 for each person in the 141 countries studied by the World Bank Group in a new report.

The study, Unrealized Potential: The High Cost of Gender Inequality in Earnings, examines the economic cost of gender inequality in lost human capital. Read More>>

A lot of progress has been made over the past few years toward extending financial access and the number of unbanked adults has fallen to 1.7 billion, according to the latest Findex data. The number of unbanked people continues to fall, even when accounting for population growth. Read More.