Good health, nutrition, a place to live, education… Many of the things we care most about require goods and services produced by people: the care that nurses and doctors give; the food we eat; the homes we live in; the education that teachers provide.

Economic growth means an increase in the quantity or quality of the many goods and services that people produce.

The history of economic growth is, therefore, the history of how societies left widespread poverty behind. In places that have seen substantial economic growth, few now go without food, almost all have access to education, and parents rarely suffer the loss of a child. The work of historians shows this was not the case in the past.

Similarly, the history of economic growth is also the history of how large global inequalities emerged – in nutrition, health, education, basic infrastructure, and many other dimensions. In some countries, the quantity and quality of the goods and services underpinning these outcomes grew substantially over the past two centuries; in others, they did not.

Of course, economic growth does not reflect everything we value. On Our World in Data we provide thousands of measures that try to capture these many different dimensions, covering topics such as biodiversity, pollution, time use, human rights and democracy.

Economic growth is, however, central to shaping people's overall living conditions. Just as in the past, the future of global poverty and inequality will depend on whether, and which, countries are able to substantially grow their economy. As such, it is one of the most important aspects of understanding our world today and what is possible for the future.

On this page, you can find all our data, visualizations, and writing on the topic.