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See all Daily Data InsightsYesterdayInvestment in generative AI has surged recentlyGenerative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create various media, including text, images, and music. It learns from existing data to generate novel outputs. Examples include language models like GPT-4 and Claude, which can write essays or answer questions, and image generation models like Midjourney and DALL·E, which can create artwork based on textual descriptions.In 2023, funding for generative AI soared to $22.4 billion, nearly nine times more than in 2022 and about 25 times the amount from 2019. This surge occurred despite overall investment in AI declining since its 2021 peak.The data is produced by Quid and made available through the AI Index Report. Quid analyzes investment data from over 8 million companies, using natural language processing to uncover patterns and insights from vast datasets. We have recently updated our charts on Our World in Data with the report's latest edition.Read more on how investment in AI has been changing over time here→Continue readingAugust 29Men are more likely to be homeless in most countries, but there are exceptionsThis chart shows the gender breakdown of people affected by homelessness.In most countries, men tend to be more likely to experience homelessness than women. In many, women make up 20% to 40% of the homeless population.But this ratio varies a lot by country. In Colombia and Costa Rica, men are much more likely to be affected by homelessness, with only around one in ten being women.In the United Kingdom and New Zealand, it’s even the opposite: more women experience homelessness than men.This data comes from the OECD’s Affordable Housing Database and only includes countries that count people experiencing homelessness on a single night of the year.Explore our updated and expanded topic page on homelessness →Continue readingAugust 28Highly active antiretroviral therapy transformed the lives of people with HIVOver the 1980s and 1990s, the rise in HIV/AIDS deaths seemed unstoppable. Several effective antiretroviral drugs had been developed, but people with HIV still died from the disease because the virus would evolve to evade each drug.Thankfully, scientists discovered that a combination of drugs could create a significant barrier to HIV’s evolution. This new treatment, highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), was first introduced in 1995 in the United States.Data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows the massive impact of HAART in the chart. HIV/AIDS mortality dropped steeply after it was introduced.It profoundly improved the survival of people with HIV and reduced their risk of passing it on to others.Read more about the impact of antiretroviral therapy →Continue readingAugust 26People in richer countries tend to eat more meatRicher people tend to have more diverse diets. They get a lower share of their calories from staples such as cereals, roots, and tubers and increase their consumption of fruit, vegetables, dairy, and meat.The chart shows the relationship between meat supply and gross domestic product (GDP) per person. Meat supply — as reported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations — measures the average quantity of meat available for consumers. It includes how much people ultimately eat and any consumer waste.There is a strong positive relationship: people in wealthier countries tend to eat more meat per person. This has also meant that as the world has gotten richer, global meat production has increased.Explore the data →Continue readingAugust 23Cancer has replaced cardiovascular diseases as the leading cause of death in several wealthy countriesThis chart shows the share of reported deaths caused by cardiovascular diseases and cancer since 1950 in Denmark, Australia, the UK, and Canada. This is based on the underlying cause listed on death certificates and comes from the WHO Mortality Database (2024); we recently updated our charts with the latest release.Fifty years ago, around half of all deaths in these countries were due to cardiovascular diseases. Today, this proportion has dropped to between 20% and 25%. Cancer has become the most common cause of death in many of these countries, even though overall cancer mortality rates have also been declining.Many factors contribute to these trends, such as declines in smoking and improvements in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring.These countries are also leading the use of statins, medicines that lower cholesterol, which likely have had a significant effect on reducing heart-related deaths.Even though fewer people are dying from cardiovascular diseases in some of these wealthy countries, heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide.Read more on the different types of cardiovascular diseases→Continue readingAugust 22Drivers of tree cover loss are different in each regionRecent data from Global Forest Watch shows trends in tree cover loss, split by five drivers: forestry, shifting agriculture, and wildfires, which lead to temporary tree cover loss, while commodity-driven deforestation and urbanization often cause permanent deforestation.This dataset combines time-series data of tree cover loss, estimated from satellite imagery using research by Matthew Hansen and colleagues, with research on the drivers of deforestation by Philip Curtis and colleagues.The drivers of tree cover loss vary markedly across regions. Wildfires and forestry (logging) are the main drivers of tree cover loss in Europe and North America, with wildfires mainly occurring in Canada and Russia. Tree cover loss from wildfires does not include fire clearing for agriculture.Commodity-driven deforestation is a key cause in Asia and South America, largely due to trends in Brazil and Indonesia. Shifting agriculture — where trees are cleared so the land can be cultivated temporarily before being abandoned — is the dominant driver of tree cover loss in Africa and a major driver in South America.Explore the drivers of tree cover loss for all countries and regions→Continue reading
