On this page, you can find guidance on how to use Our World in Data for teaching and some older teaching materials.

If you have any questions or suggestions for improving this page, please use the feedback button at the bottom right of this page (or email us at info@ourworldindata.org).

We would also love to hear from you if you already use our work to teach. You can do so by filling out our short teaching survey.

Can I use Our World in Data for teaching?

Yes! You only have to keep a few things in mind, depending on whether you want to use our charts, data, or writing:

Charts: Unless otherwise stated, you can use, reproduce, and distribute any chart we made (those with our logo and CC BY copyright stamp), provided that you cite us — no permission is required.

Note that some of the charts on our site were produced by third parties and are subject to their license terms. You can find more information about these third-party charts, as well as how to cite and download our charts, in our FAQs.

Data: Whether you can reuse or republish our data depends on the data source, which is always indicated along with the data.

Most of the data on Our World in Data comes from third-party providers (such as the WHO, UN, and World Bank) and is subject to the license terms of those providers. You should always check their license before reusing or republishing the data. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always respect their license terms and cite them appropriately.

Some of the data on our site is produced by us — you can tell because it will say “Official data collated by Our World in Data”, “with major processing by Our World in Data”, or similar. Data produced by us falls under our permissive CC BY license; you have permission to use, reproduce, and distribute it, provided that you cite us.

You can find more information, including how to cite the data, in our FAQs.

Writing: You can also republish or reproduce our writing, online or in print, for free and without permission, provided that you follow a few guidelines.

How can I use Our World in Data to teach?

We know from emails and surveys that many teachers and professors use our work. This includes teachers from primary schools, secondary schools, and higher education institutions across the world, including leading universities such as Oxford, Berkeley, Cambridge, Harvard, and Stanford. Our work is also featured in many textbooks and learning tools, such as the CORE project.

Educators use our work to teach courses in many fields, ranging from physics, medicine, psychology, and biology, to sustainable development, environmental sciences, economics, politics, and public policy.

Drawing on their experiences, here are some ways you can use our work in teaching for both yourself and for your students:

• You and your students can use our articles as background or assigned reading.
• You can have your students explore data through our interactive charts.
• You can add our charts to your presentation slides.
• You can download data for specific charts to conduct your own analyses and create your own charts, including via our Chart data API.
• You can have your students practice data management, cleaning, and analysis with our datasets, such as our datasets on the COVID-19 pandemic, CO2, and energy.
• You can point your students to our posts, topic pages, and data to support them with their presentations and term papers.
• You can use our charts and data to write your own textbooks and teaching material.

If you are interested in how to use our work in a high school setting, you can read teacher Matthew Cone’s article. It is some years old, but we still think it can be helpful in your own teaching. We are also working on new surveys and case studies.

How I use Our World in Data in my work as a high school teacher

Matthew Cone, a US high school teacher, shares how he uses OWID.

Do you have specific teaching materials?

For selected topics, we have created presentation slides that we designed specifically for students and teachers. You are welcome to use, edit, and share these materials for free.

These slide decks were created some years ago, so some slides and visualizations do not reflect our most recent data and research. As the charts often have not changed substantially, you might still find them useful. We also link to our related topic pages, where you can find our latest data and research.

Extreme Poverty

What your students will learn:

• What is extreme poverty?
• Why should we care about it?
• How should we tackle it?

Related topic pages:

Poverty

In order to make progress against poverty in the future, we need to understand poverty around the world today and how it has changed.

Happiness and Life Satisfaction

Self-reported life satisfaction differs widely between people and between countries. What explains these differences?

Hunger and Malnutrition

What your students will learn:

• What is the number of undernourished people in the world and how is this changing?
• What are the main causes and determinants of hunger and malnutrition?
• What does this all mean in terms of policy?

Related topic pages:

Hunger and Undernourishment

What are the consequences of undernourishment and how can we make progress against hunger and undernourishment?

Famines

In many parts of the world famines have been common in the past. What causes famines? How can famines be averted?

Micronutrient Deficiency

Food is not only a source of energy and protein, but also micronutrients — vitamins and minerals — which are essential to good health. Who is most affected by the "hidden hunger" of micronutrient deficiency?

Food Supply

How had the availability of food changed over time? How does food supply vary across the world today?

Diet Compositions

Explore data on diet compositions.

Global Health

What your students will learn:

• How does the general health situation of people in poor countries compare to the health of people in rich countries?
• How are population health outcomes changing over time?
• How difficult is it to improve health outcomes in poor countries?
• What does this all mean in terms of policy?

Related topic pages:

Life Expectancy

People are living longer across the world, but large differences remain. Explore global data on life expectancy and how it has changed over time.

Child and Infant Mortality

Child mortality remains one of the world’s largest problems and is a painful reminder of work yet to be done. With global data on where, when, and how child deaths occur, we can accelerate efforts to prevent them.

Maternal Mortality

What could be more tragic than a mother losing her life in the moment that she is giving birth to her newborn? Why are mothers dying and what can be done to prevent these deaths?

Causes of Death

To find ways to save lives, it’s essential to know what people are dying from. Explore global data and research on causes of death.

Burden of Disease

How is the burden of disease distributed and how did it change over time?

Malaria

The deadly disease transmitted by mosquitoes is one of the leading causes of death in children. How did we eliminate the disease in some world regions and how can we continue progress against malaria?

Global Health

An overview of our research on global health.

Population Growth

What your students will learn:

• How many people live around the world today?
• Will humanity keep growing indefinitely?
• How will population dynamics change in the next decades?
• What is the link between population growth and development?
• How does development lead to smaller families?

Related topic pages:

Population Growth

Explore global and country data on population growth, demography, and how this is changing.

Fertility Rate

Explore changing patterns in fertility worldwide, from birth rates to parental ages, twinning rates, reproductive technologies, and more.

Life Expectancy

People are living longer across the world, but large differences remain. Explore global data on life expectancy and how it has changed over time.

Child and Infant Mortality

Child mortality remains one of the world’s largest problems and is a painful reminder of work yet to be done. With global data on where, when, and how child deaths occur, we can accelerate efforts to prevent them.

Maternal Mortality

What could be more tragic than a mother losing her life in the moment that she is giving birth to her newborn? Why are mothers dying and what can be done to prevent these deaths?

Famines

In many parts of the world famines have been common in the past. What causes famines? How can famines be averted?

Global Education

What your students will learn:

• What are the private and social returns to education?
• How has the quantity and quality of education changed over time?
• What are the main challenges going forward?

Related topic pages:

Global Education

See all our data, visualizations, and writing on global education.

Education Spending

How is education financed? How much do we spend on it? What are the returns?

Literacy

Being able to read and write opens up the world of education and knowledge. When and why did more people become literate? How can progress continue?

Our World in Data team (2018) - “Teaching with OWID” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://fix-button-icon-margin.owid.pages.dev/teaching' [Online Resource]

@article{owid-teaching,
    author = {Our World in Data team},
    title = {Teaching with OWID},
    journal = {Our World in Data},
    year = {2018},
    note = {https://fix-button-icon-margin.owid.pages.dev/teaching}
}

Reuse this work freely

All visualizations, data, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

The data produced by third parties and made available by Our World in Data is subject to the license terms from the original third-party authors. We will always indicate the original source of the data in our documentation, so you should always check the license of any such third-party data before use and redistribution.

All of our charts can be embedded in any site.