Human Development

№ 2026-70 · October 2026 · 22 min

Healthcare Convergence in the Developing World

The life-expectancy gap between developing and high-income countries fell from 25 years in 1960 to 8.4 today, but it closed four times faster before 2000 than since, and coverage growth has halved since 2015. Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam show good health at low cost, yet in the median low-income country governments spend $7 a person on health, households pay nearly half of all costs, and an essential package would cost 11% of GDP.

№ 2026-68 · October 2026 · 22 min

Human Exposure Across the Polycrisis Century

By the 2090s, 4.3 to 9.3 billion people will live with frequent heat, extreme rain or long dry spells, up from 3.4 billion. The exposed population ages fast: heat exposure among people 65 and over rises nearly tenfold, to 1.3 billion. If schooling keeps rising and protecting as it has, harm falls by 70–84% in three pathways, but under SSP3 protection only holds harm level, and heat harm rises 39%.