This collection of statistics is intended as a baseline reference for reflection on broad trends and key developments in sustainability and technological development.

The first four statistics, world population, urban/rural population, ageing and per capita gross domestic product are intended to give a positional picture of the human family: its size, demographic distribution and wealth.

The next three, energy, CO2 emissions and economy point to different challenges for the international community. The lack of progress in controlling emissions for example threatens the environmental balance on which all health depends.

The following three statistics, phone connectivity, internet usage and education indicate the shape of the information society. They point to which countries will have a competitive advantage in a world moved by knowledge and technology rather than labour and natural resources. The final one is a special issue on the problem of brain drain.

Choosing only eleven statistics of course meant excluding far more than we have included. In every major area, additional statistics are clearly necessary for a more differentiated picture of the developments in question. On the whole, though, we have opted for rather building a basic guide of representative statistics – numbers that give a sense of global direction and are at the heart of key changes.