Explore
- 🇬🇧 UK
- 🇺🇸USA
- 🌎 Environment
- Social
- Elections
- Energy
- 🥇Olympics
- Debt
- 🇮🇹Italy
- Maps
- Science, technology & innovation
- Jobs, work, pay & benefits
How do you spend your time in a typical day?Today’s #ChartOfTheDay breaks down average daily time use across OECD countries.Japan leads in time spent on paid work or study — averaging 6.1 hours/day. Mexico tops the list for unpaid work (like domestic chores and childcare), with 4.4 hours/day.When it comes to personal care — sleeping, eating, hygiene — France stands out. With 12.5 hours/day, it’s the only country in the dataset where people spend over half the day on wellbeing. Italy follows with 11.8 hours.
UK industry faces historic electricity costs.Prices have doubled since 2020 and remain high at 25p per kilowatt-hour.Click on the chart to read Huw Dixon on how rising energy prices affect the UK economy.
This chart shows an example of reductions in the costs of new technologies over time, highlighting the dramatic fall in the real cost of computer memory and storage over time. In the space of just a few decades, the cost of computer (random access) memory dropped exponentially, from hundreds of trillions of dollars per terabyte in the 1950s to around a thousand dollars per terabyte today.
Global cocoa prices are up almost 18% on last year, following dry weather across West Africa and the spread of a disease affecting cacao trees.Click on the chart to read more about food inflation from Finn McEvoy.
Britain currently has £3 trillion of debt – or 104% of GDP.Compared to the world’s top 21 countries by population, this puts us 3rd on the list behind the US and Japan. Within the G20 group, the UK sits 6th.Click on the chart to read 'The debt mountain: the G7’s big problem'.
Who supplies the world’s weapons? The global arms trade is heavily concentrated. Over 43% of global arms exports originate from the United States – more than the combined total of the next nine countries.Saudi Arabia is its biggest customer, receiving 12% of all US arms exports.
On Monday, April 28, 2025, Canadians will vote in a federal general election to elect members of the House of Commons to the 45th Canadian Parliament. ?Over the past five months, polls have shown a sharp reversal in fortunes. Once trailing significantly, the Liberal Party, led by Mark Carney, now maintains a narrow lead.
In 1971, the UK’s female employment rate lagged men’s by nearly 40 percentage points. Today, that gap stands at just 6.4%. Interestingly, major economic shocks often spurred this convergence, as recessions hit male-dominated industries hardest. Economists refer to this as a “man-cession” effect, though it also reflects longer-term sectoral shifts that favour service and knowledge-based work. Other factors include the “added worker” effect—where some women join the labour force when male earnings drop—and the possibility of “forced renewal,” where post-layoff hiring opens doors for more women. So, do recessions boost gender equality—or simply speed up changes already in motion?Saturday 8th March
Is the UK getting hotter?June’s average temperature hit 15.2°C — the second-warmest on record (just behind June 2023). This spring was the warmest and sunniest ever.Our #ChartOfTheDay shows how much warmer the UK has become over time.
Why do economists call China 'investment-driven'?Consumption (household and government spending) accounts for only 56% of GDP, compared to 81% in the US and 83% in the UK.Click on the chart to read George Magnus on how China's economy is faring.
Donald Trump has won the U.S. presidential election resoundingly, carrying five swing states, with additional gains in Nevada and Arizona unconfirmed but likely. Trump also became the first Republican nominee to win the popular vote since George W. Bush in 2004.In the coming weeks, the Economics Observatory team will provide analysis on the election results and their implications for the U.S. and world economy.For insights into how Trump’s election may influence the stock market, read Clive Walker’s analysis from earlier this year
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences “for studies of how institutions are formed and affect prosperity.”Today’s #ChartOfTheDay recreates and extends a chart from their seminal 2005 paper, showing the divergent economic paths of North and South Korea. The laureates present the case of the two Koreas as a natural experiment between two halves organised in radically different ways - a system of Soviet socialism and a system of private property with government.In 1960, South Korea was one of the world’s poorest countries, with a GDP per capita comparable to that of Liberia or Guatemala. Today, it is a global economic powerhouse, with a per capita income more than 30 times greater than its northern neighbour.
