Water, electricity, vaccines: the 2026 figures and how far they hold up
Three institutional databases measure improvements in access to water, electrification and childhood vaccine coverage. These are estimates, not counts: here are the figures, the beneficiaries and the limitations declared by the sources themselves.
What has improved. The 2026 United Nations report on sustainable development goals, produced by UN DESA and presented on July 7 in New York at the opening of the High-level Political Forum, records nearly one billion more people with access to safely managed drinking water and 1.2 billion more with safely managed sanitation services. The same document shows access to electricity now extended to 92% of the world’s population, while access to the internet rose from 40% in 2015 to 74% in 2025.
On childhood vaccinations, joint estimates from the World Health Organization and UNICEF released on July 15, 2026 indicate that in 2025, 90% of newborns received at least one dose of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, and 85% completed all three doses: one percentage point more than in 2024. The number of children who received no dose at all in their first year of life was 13.5 million, roughly 750,000 fewer than the previous year.
For whom. The World Bank, in its March 2026 update, counts 847 million people in extreme poverty in 2024 and projects a decline in the global rate from 10.4% to 10.0% in 2026. In the Atlas of Global Development 2026, two national cases are quantified: Ethiopia has gone from near-zero rural electrification to about 50% access, with near-universal coverage in cities; in Turkey, female labor market participation rose from 34% in 2015 to nearly 42% in 2024, eight points in ten years.
The gains are not evenly distributed. According to WHO-UNICEF estimates, more than half of the children with no doses at all live in fragile or conflict-affected countries, and in Syria measles coverage has fallen by 12%. Also in 2025, the first dose against measles reached 84% of children and the second 77%, below the 95% threshold that the two agencies identify as necessary to prevent outbreaks; fifty-seven countries have reported significant outbreaks.
How we know this. The three sources are institutional and independent of the parties benefiting from the progress: no data here comes from corporate press releases. However, they differ in nature. The United Nations document is a statistical compilation by UN DESA based on national indicators, and in the material available it rests on a single source (the 2026 report on sustainable development goals, UN DESA); no independent confirmation is currently available. The vaccination figures likewise rest on a single source, the joint WHO-UNICEF estimates on national coverage: these are models built on administrative data and surveys, revised annually, not direct counts. The World Bank’s figures for 2026 are projections, not measurements already recorded.
The UN report itself quantifies the setback. Of the targets for which data exist, just over a third — 36% — are on track or advancing moderately; nearly half, 49%, are progressing at an insufficient pace; the remaining 15% are regressing relative to their starting point. Extreme poverty still affects one person in ten, and the World Bank counts 2.1 billion people without safely managed drinking water in 2024.
Sources: SDG Knowledge Hub (IISD); World Bank Data Blog, March 2026 update; World Bank Data Blog, Atlas of Global Development 2026; UN News; Forbes (UNICEF USA BrandVoice).
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