The 2026 Living Planet Index report is published today. As with previous editions, it makes for a depressing read (despite this year’s title being about the “Science of Hope”). The headline is a 73% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970.
While these trends are extremely worrying, the numbers presented in the Living Planet Index (LPI) report are often misunderstood or misreported. In this article, I give a short overview of what these numbers mean — and don’t mean — and what some of the data underneath the headline figure shows.
Source: Our World in Data – A project of Global Change Data Lab
Our World In Data
- A 73% average decline in wildlife populations: an overview of the 2026 Living Planet Index report
- What impact will climate change have on malaria?
- How high is current immigration to the United States in historical perspective?
- Is organic farming better for the environment than conventional farming?
- A never-ending childhood of malaria
Climate Change
- What impact will climate change have on malaria?
- Hannah Ritchie’s second book, “Clearing the Air”, is out in paperback in the United Kingdom
- Air conditioning is almost universal in the US and Japan — but not elsewhere
