Pierre-Olivier François

📝 New article on Our World in Data: A 73% average decline in wildlife populations: an overview of the 2026 Living Planet Index report. The 2026 Living Planet Index report is published today. As with previous additions, it can make for a depressing read. The headline is a 73% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970. Declines in global biodiversity are extremely concerning, but many of the news headlines you’ll see today will probably report this latest result incorrectly. At least they have in previous years. Some may report that the world has lost “73% of animal populations since 1970” or “73% of species are in decline”. Neither of these is correct, and the report’s authors go to great lengths to stress this. Instead, the Living Planet Index captures the average decline in population numbers across almost 36,000 populations. These changes are then averaged using a geometric mean and given different weightings in the final index. It’s a bit more complicated than a “we’ve lost 73% of wildlife” headline might suggest. When we dig beneath the headline number, we find that around half of the studied populations have declined, but just as many have either increased or remained stable. In this article, we look at what the Living Planet Index does and doesn’t capture, and what’s changed since the last report.