Drawing on data from the world bank's World Development Indicators, the book brings to life country comparisons of social indicators like life expectancy, infant mortality, safe water, population below the poverty line and energy efficiency, as well as basic economic indicators like income growth, income per person, private capital and aid flows. Issues that have been hitting the headlines such as Aids, population living below $1 a day, freshwater, trade are presented giving an unbiased view of the state of the world we live in. This title replaces the existing World Bank Atlas which has been published by the World Bank for the last 36 editions.