Fiona Spooner
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spoonerf.bsky.social
Fiona Spooner
@spoonerf.bsky.social
2.9K followers 540 following 10 posts
Data Scientist @ ourworldindata.org
Interested in environmental change, biodiversity and health.
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spoonerf.bsky.social
We do our very best to attribute the data to our sources and to make information on our sources available to our users.

If you click 'Learn more about this data' on any of our interactive charts, a new window will open with more information about the indicator and data source used.
A screenshot of the page that appears when 'Learn more about this data' is clicked on any of Our World in Data's interactive chart. The page shows detailed information about the source that the chart is based on, in this case, the WHO Mortality Database. It states that: The WHO mortality database is a collection death registration data including cause-of-death information from member states. Where they are collected, death registration data are the best source of information on key health indicators, such as life expectancy, and death registration data with cause-of-death information are the best source of information on mortality by cause, such as maternal mortality and suicide mortality. WHO requests from all countries annual data by age, sex, and complete ICD code (e.g., 4-digit code if the 10th revision of ICD was used). Countries have reported deaths by cause of death, year, sex, and age for inclusion in the WHO Mortality Database since 1950. The WHO only includes data, which are properly coded according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Today the database is maintained by the WHO Division of Data, Analytics and Delivery for Impact (DDI) and contains data from over 120 countries and areas. Data reported by member states and selected areas are displayed in this portal’s interactive visualizations if the data are reported to the WHO mortality database in the requested format and at least 65% of deaths were recorded in each country and year. Additional information includes the date the data was retrieved on, the url the data was retrieved from and a suggested citation for the data source.
August 15, 2025 at 8:54 AM
spoonerf.bsky.social
In 2025, the peak cherry blossom of happened on April 4th.

This long-run data is a proxy for how the climate has changed.

Since the early 20th century, the combined effects of urbanization and higher temperatures due to climate change have gradually moved the peak blossom earlier in the year.
A scatter plot showing the peak blossom date of cherry blossom in Kyoto, Japan from 812 to 2025. The trend oscillates around mid-April until the mid 19th century where it moves consistently earlier in the year, in 2025 it happened on 4th April.
April 10, 2025 at 6:18 PM
spoonerf.bsky.social
In 2015, women in their thirties overtook those in their twenties to become the age group having the most babies in Europe.

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...
The graphic presents a line chart illustrating the shift in birth rates among older mothers in Europe. The title at the top states, "Births have shifted to older mothers in Europe," and the subtitle notes that it depicts the estimated share of total births by the age of the mother. The vertical axis is labeled with percentages from 0% to 70%, while the horizontal axis covers years from 1950 to 2023. There are four lines representing different age groups: - Women aged 20-29, shown in a light gray line, which hovers around 30% in the early years and gradually declines over time. - Women aged 30-39, depicted in a prominent brown line that crosses above 50% since 2015, indicating they became the age group with the most births. - Women aged 40-49, represented by a light gray line, which rises slightly in recent years. - Women aged 10-19, also shown in light gray, with minimal levels of births throughout the time period. Annotations highlight key points: in 2015, women in their 30s surpassed other age groups in births, and in the same year, women in their 40s began having more babies than those aged 10-19. At the bottom of the graphic, the data source is cited as "UN, World Population Prospects (2024)," along with a copyright indication "CC BY."
March 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
spoonerf.bsky.social
Until 2017, the age group with the greatest number of deaths globally was those aged under five years.

An interactive version of the chart can be found here: ourworldindata.org/grapher/annu...
November 29, 2024 at 12:14 PM
spoonerf.bsky.social

Wildfires and forestry (logging) are the main drivers of tree cover loss in Europe and North America.

Commodity-driven deforestation is a key cause in Asia and South America. Shifting agriculture is the dominant driver of tree cover loss in Africa.

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...
“Bar charts titled ‘Tree cover loss by dominant driver’ showing estimated tree cover loss from 2015 to 2023 across six continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America). Each bar is divided into five colors representing different drivers of tree cover loss: commodity-driven deforestation (brown), forestry (blue), shifting agriculture (green), wildfire (orange), and urbanization (purple). The charts highlight variations in tree cover loss among continents, with notable trends such as a significant spike in wildfire-related loss in North America in 2023, and consistent high levels of commodity-driven deforestation in South America from 2015 to 2018. Data source: Global Forest Watch (2024).”
August 22, 2024 at 10:29 AM