general human statistics

what statistics describe the great acceleration?

population and energy use >2x following 1950 (Steffen et al., 2007)

how much plastic is produced annually?

275mn tonnes annually (Jambeck et al., 2015)

how much tree cover loss 2001-2015 was driven by commodity demand?

27% of tree cover loss between 2001-15 was driven by demand for commodities (Curtis et al., 2018)

what is the value of natural capital globally against global GNP?

natural capital: up to $54tn compared to $18tn GDP (Costanza et al., 1997)

what was the decline in NO2 - SO2 following the introduction of Cap-and-Trade?

50% from 1990-2018 (McNish, 2012)

what is the collapse percentage of value of Mexican free-tailed bats?

a 79% collapse in ecosystem value (Lopez-Hoffman et al., 2014)

what is the difference in emissions between the richest 0.1% and poorest 10%?

the richest 0.1% emit 56X more than the poorest 10% (Oxfam, 2023)

how have individual emissions changed in the UK since 1990?

the richest 0.1%’s emissions have increased 53% while the bottom 90% have falledn 26% (Oxfam, 2023)

what percentage of crude oil travelling to the USA entered via the Carribbean?

50% in 1988 (O Tuathail, 1988)

what percentage of US investment in Latin America was in Central America?

2.4% of all investment in Latin America was in Central America (O Tuathail, 1998)

where did the PBI (Peace Brigades International) act?

in San Jose, Colombia, 1996-97 (Koopman, 2011)

what is the global value of SWFs?

$12.4tn (Alami et al., 2025)

what was the change in apparent interest rates for developing countries from 1975-85?

-5% → 4% (1975-85) (Dumeneil and Levy, 2001)

what was the decline in employment in manufacturing under Thatcher?

7.1mn in 1979 → 4.4mn in 1993 (Coman, 2013)

what was the decline in trade union membership following Thatcherism?

trade union membership in the UK halved between 1980 - 2013 (Coman, 2013)

what were house price increases from 1980-90?

up to 10X in council flats (Coman, 2013)

what was the top rate of income tax in 1979?

83% (Coman, 2013)

what proportion of African countries researched by Potts (2018) were agriculturally based?

4/5

what was the urban growth in Ghana, 2000-2010?

urban growth of 7% / annum, 51% urbanisation by 2010 (BUT: manufacturing importance in these urban areas relatively has declined with the growth of small urban settlements) (Potts, 2018)

what is the cut-off point used for Egyptian urban areas?

over 20K residents is counted as urban, leading to discrepancies between economic and demographic data (Satterhwaite, 2007)

what is the importance of industry and services to global GDP in 2007?

97% (Satterhwaite, 2007)

by how much did the number of settlements >5K increase in Nigeria from 1950-2010?

tenfold (10x) between 1950-2010 (Fox et al., 2018)

what is the fertility rate in Nigeria?

4.7 (Fox et al., 2018)

what percentage of migrating Nigerian women migrate to urban areas for marraige?

40% (Fox et al., 2018)

how many people live in homelessness globally?

~318mn (UN-Habitat, 2023)

what percentage of global emissions and GDP stem from urban areas?

70% (UN-Habitat, 2023)

What percentage of SDGs depend on urban policy?

65% (UN-Habitat, 2023)

how many public spaces globally have been rehabilitated by UN-Habitat?

40 public spaces (UN-Habitat, 2023)

what was the date of the Detroit Riot?

1967, 43 dead (Boyle, 2001)

under LBJ’s anti-poverty campaign, what was the per capita spending in inner-city Detroit?

$60/capita (Boyle, 2001)

what did the democratisation / further rollout of neoliberalism in the 1990s do to poverty in Santiago?

from 1990-2006, poverty in Greater Santiago declined 33-10%, but note the spatial segregation that this entailed (Caldeira, 2017)

as of October 2025, how many active SFI programmes were active?

44.5K (DeFRA, 2025)

as of October 2025, what was the most common SFI initiative?

soil quality and nutrient assessment, covering 44% of usable agricultural area (UAA) (DeFRA, 2025)

as of October 2025, what was the most common actionable SFI initiative?

agriculture with no insecticide, covering 738,000ha of land (DeFRA, 2025)

by how much did labour-intensive industry in Thailand decline, 1995-2005?

Exports of labour-intensive industries declined 20-10% 1995-2005 (Arnold and Pickles, 2011)