Our World in Data

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Group.png Our World in Data   Influencewatch WebsiteRdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
Our World in Data logo.png
Formation2011
FounderMax Roser
Sponsored byBill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Department of Health and Social Care, WHO
Maker of interactive charts and maps, financed by the Gates Foundation. These charts are then used freely by corporate media and "policymakers" around the world.

Our World in Data (OWID) is a online publication making interactive charts and maps to illustrate research findings. These charts are then used by corporate media and "policymakers" around the world.[1]

It is funded via grants from private foundations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Quadrature Climate Foundation. It also has various "sponsors" including the Musk Foundation (Elon Musk), the Pritzker Innovation Fund (the Pritzker family), and the Camp Foundation.

Work

OWID charts creates politically convenient enemy images and is designed to reinforce the conception that only "we"(the West) are the good ones

OWID has produced 3381 charts across 297 topics, and focuses on subjects such as poverty, disease, hunger, climate change, war, existential risks, and inequality. OWID was referenced in nearly 50,000 media articles during 2022; and over 20,000 of these references were in large media outlets with international reach, such as The Guardian, The BBC, and The New York Times.[1]

Covid

During Covid it supplied a large number of statistical charts to corporate media for "data storytelling", like this chart over "cumulative cases", a counting method never used for other diseases

In 2020 it reorganized, "and became a highly visible, trusted source of data and research on Covid-19." It created a Global Covid-19 Vaccinations Database, applying lessons learned from the work we had started the previous year on Covid-19 Testing. In 2021 it did an analysis, compilation and curation of available Covid-19 Vaccination data. "Thanks to this effort, all major international organisations and news outlets, as well as thousands of policymakers and hundreds of heads of state around the world, can rely on accurate and timely data on the vaccine rollout"[2]

Funding

OWID is a project of the Global Change Data Lab, a registered charity in England and Wales.[3], through which OWID receives funding. Global Change Data Lab receives revenue from government and intergovernmental agencies, private grantmaking foundations, and individual donors.[4]

GCDL notes on its website that it is supported by donations from "several thousand readers" of the Our World in Data publication. It also notes that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, World Health Organization, and the United Kingdom Government’s Department of Health and Social Care have all financially supported the Global Change Data Lab. The Gates Foundation committed a $1 million grant to the Global Change Data Lab in September 2019, to provide "general operating support" in order to increase "content outputs related to global health and development". The foundation also provided GCDL with just over $1.5 million in a single grant in November 2021, to "strengthen provision of capacity and tools for media organizations to be more effective in the implementation of data storytelling." [5][6]


 

Sponsors

EventDescription
Bill & Melinda Gates FoundationVery influential and rich foundation established to take leadership of global health.
Department of Health and Social Care
WHO
Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.


References