Wildlife populations have declined 73% since 1970—but many of the world's animals still aren't being counted - Phys.org

Wildlife populations around the world have declined by an average of 73% since 1970. That’s according to the WWF’s new 2026 Living Planet Index – a major estimate, updated every two years, of the changing state of nature. This does not mean that 73% of the world’s animals have disappeared. Rather, it is the average decline in the size of wildlife populations that is being monitored. The index is one of the metrics used to track progress towards the UN’s biodiversity goals and shapes narratives of biodiversity loss across the world. But the data behind that 73% headline, one of the most comprehensive available, is still far from complete.

October 06, 2026In 1950, almost one in four children worldwide died before their fifth birthday. In Africa, one in three children died. The chart shows the change since then. In every region, the mortality rate of children has declined. In Africa and Oceania, the child mortality rate declined 5-fold, in Asia 10-fold, and in Europe about 27-fold. Progress was not always steady. The sharp spike in Asia around 1960 was due to the “Great Leap Forward” famine in Mao’s China, the deadliest famine in recorded history. And the progress is far from finished. The global average has declined to 3.5%, but this still means that about 4.7 million children younger than five years died in 2025 — 13,000 children every single day. Explore child mortality data for every country in our interactive data explorerOur latest Data InsightsSee all Data Insights TodayHow many people in the world identify with a particular religion? Hannah RitchieReligious compositions vary a lot from country to country. In my own country, the United Kingdom, Christianity is the most popular, and following no religion is becoming increasingly common, particularly among young people.

Israeli settlers have attacked European diplomats, including a French mayor, near the Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank. The delegation was visiting Palestinian olive harvesters on Saturday when the Israeli attackers confronted the group. The attack comes a day after settlers assaulted a US journalist north of Ramallah. In Saturday’s incident, the settlers targeted Belgium’s consul general, French and Polish diplomats and Catholic representatives, Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prevot said. “A French mayor was assaulted and a Belgian vehicle damaged,” Prevot said, linking the attack to what he called Israel’s “illegal settlement policy” and pledging to push for further European Union sanctions. French mayor Bernard Baudoux, who was assaulted, told the AFP news agency that the violence suggests that “there is a tolerance on the part of the Israeli government” towards settler violence. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said the settlers surrounded the diplomats’ vehicles, pelted them with stones and smashed their windows.

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What researchers uncovered through lab testing and surveillance footage, prosecutors said, was a plot by his fellow graduate student to intentionally poison him.