Updated References & Errata

Updated References for Doing Good Better: 10th Anniversary Edition

Due to a publishing error, the references in the 10th-anniversary edition are identical to those from the original 2015 version. To ensure readers have access to the data used in the revised text, we have uploaded the necessary updates to the Notes and Selected Sources and Resources sections below, correct as of March 2025.

Updates: Notes

page 9 rarely been applied to the development world: While the use of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) became more widespread in the 1990s, there are examples of the methodology being applied to development projects in earlier decades. These include the 1970s Matlab health and family planning project in Bangladesh and early social programmes in Mexico. Systematic reviews indicate that such applications were significantly less common in previous decades; for instance, randomised trials in education research were ten times less frequent in 1993 than in 2016. See Paul Connolly et al., ‘The trials of evidence-based practice in education: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials in education research 1980–2016’, Educational Research, vol. 60, no. 3, 2018, pp. 276–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2018.1493353. For Michael Kremer’s later applications of these methods to deworming, see ‘Michael Kremer’, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kremer#Deworming.

page 19 while typical household income: Figures for the richest households are difficult to compare across time because data providers often mask the highest earners to preserve anonymity. To maintain consistency, I have used data from a 2023 paper that applies a uniform methodology throughout the period. These figures refer to real equivalised disposable household income, which accounts for inflation, household composition, and government transfers. See Jonathan Heathcote, Fabrizio Perri, Giovanni L. Violante, and Lichen Zhang, ‘More unequal we stand? Inequality dynamics in the United States, 1967–2021’, Review of Economic Dynamics, vol. 50, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2023.07.014.

page 20 as tall as Mount Everest: In the chart on page 20, the average income of the top 1 percent would fit within the page. However, if extended to show the income of the world's richest person, making the simplifying assumption that their income corresponds to their net worth variation, the chart would need to be approximately 8.95 kilometres tall to accommodate Elon Musk's average annual income of $63 billion between 2020 and 2025. For comparison, Mount Everest is 8.85 kilometres tall and the world's tallest building is 0.83 kilometres. See 'The World's Billionaires', Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World%27s_Billionaires; 'Mount Everest', Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Everest; and 'List of tallest structures', Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_structures.

page 21 If you earn above $53,000 per year, then, speaking globally, you are the 1 percent: At the time of writing (March 2025), the latest US median personal pre-tax income figure for 2023 was $42,220, see Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, ‘Real Median Personal Income in the United States’, https://web.archive.org/web/20250327163721/https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N. For poverty line data, see U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ‘Poverty Guidelines’, https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/poverty-guidelines; and Giving What We Can, ‘Global Income Distribution’, https://github.com/owid/notebooks/blob/main/PabloArriagada/global_distribution_giving_what_we_can/pip_global_percentiles.csv.

page 23 earn less than $2.80 a day: The figure for extreme poverty corresponds to the World Bank’s international poverty line of $2.15 per day in 2017 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars, which equals $2.83 adjusted for inflation to March 2025. (Throughout this book, all dollar figures are in US dollars PPP, converted using World Bank PPP conversion factors and inflation-adjusted to March 2025 using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI calculator; recent figures from 2020–2024 are not inflation-adjusted.)  In 2024, the World Bank estimated that approximately 692 million people lived below this threshold. This represents the bottom 8.5 per cent of the global population, based on 2024 population estimates of roughly 8.2 billion people from the World Bank. For the latest poverty headcount data and the transition to the 2025 standards, see World Bank, ‘June 2025 Update to Global Poverty Lines’, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/factsheet/2025/06/05/june-2025-update-to-global-poverty-lines; and World Bank, ‘Poverty and Inequality Platform’, https://pip.worldbank.org/home.

page 23 in poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa it is only sixty-four years: This figure refers to the average life expectancy for Sub-Saharan low income countries. For the underlying historical data and regional comparisons, see World Bank, ‘Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - Sub-Saharan Africa’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=ZG; and World Bank, ‘Life expectancy at birth, total (years) - United States’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.IN?locations=US.

page 24 compiled surveys of thirteen countries: Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, ‘The economic lives of the poor’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 21, no. 1 (Winter 2007), http://doi.org/10.1257/jep.21.1.141. This paper synthesises data from existing household surveys across thirteen developing countries rather than conducting a single new survey. The figure of 1,400 calories per day is quoted from a 1996 study of the bottom 10 per cent of the population in rural Maharashtra. While more recent data suggests some improvement in caloric intake as incomes rise, it often remains below recommended levels. Statistics regarding ownership of chairs (10 percent) and tables (5 per cent) refer specifically to the surveys from Udaipur, India.

page 24 In the United States, because there is little extreme poverty: Since the mid-1990s, the United States has consistently had approximately 1 per cent of its population, roughly 3 to 4 million people, living in extreme poverty. This metric is based on the World Bank’s international poverty line. The shift in wording from ‘no extreme poverty’ in the first edition to ‘little’ in the second corrects an earlier inaccuracy, acknowledging that a small but persistent segment of the US population subsists on significantly less than the World Bank poverty line. For the underlying headcount data by year and country, see World Bank, ‘Poverty and Inequality Platform: United States’, https://pip.worldbank.org/country-profiles/USA.

page 24 for those living below the $2.80-per-day extreme-poverty line: The figure for extreme poverty corresponds to the World Bank’s international poverty line of $2.15 per day in 2017 purchasing power parity (PPP) dollars. Adjusted for inflation to approximately March 2025 using United States government Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, this is equivalent to roughly $2.83, rounded here to $2.80 for narrative clarity. Note that since the time of writing, in June 2025, the World Bank officially updated its primary international poverty line to $3.00 per day to reflect 2021 price levels. For the latest poverty headcount data and the transition to the 2025 standards, see World Bank, ‘June 2025 Update to Global Poverty Lines’, https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/factsheet/2025/06/05/june-2025-update-to-global-poverty-lines; and World Bank, ‘Poverty and Inequality Platform’, https://pip.worldbank.org/home.

page 28 you’re probably lucky enough to be earning $17,000: This figure refers to the 90th percentile of the global income distribution ($17,057) as of data available in March 2025.For the underlying data and percentile methodology, see Giving What We Can, ‘Global Income Distribution’, https://github.com/owid/notebooks/commit/163f3e71e9c7329885849b5203057d4ae12e731f.

page 29 GDP per person per year in America was only $3,700: Historical GDP figures for 1800 are based on Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, ‘Maddison style estimates of the evolution of the world economy: A new 2020 update’, Maddison Project Database [dataset], 2020, https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2020/. The modern figure in March 2025 dollars is $89,295, so “around $90,000” is a better approximation. See FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, ‘Gross domestic product per capita’, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/A939RC0A052NBEA.

page 30 three hundred thousand years ago: For evidence suggesting Homo sapiens emerged approximately 300,000 years ago, see Jean-Jacques Hublin et al., 'New fossils from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco and the pan-African origin of Homo sapiens', Nature, vol. 546, no. 7657, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature22336; Carina M. Schlebusch et al., 'Southern African ancient genomes estimate modern human divergence to 350,000 to 260,000 years ago', Science, vol. 358, no. 6363, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao6266. For a review of this evidence, see Julia Galway-Witham and Chris Stringer, 'How did Homo sapiens evolve?', Science, vol. 360, no. 6395, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat6659. For the vast majority of this history, global income remained remarkably low; per capita income stayed below five dollars per day until the nineteenth century (see Jutta Bolt and Jan Luiten van Zanden, ‘Maddison Project Database 2020’, https://www.rug.nl/ggdc/historicaldevelopment/maddison/releases/maddison-project-database-2020). Despite significant progress, more than half of the world’s population - approximately 4.13 billion people - currently lives on less than eleven dollars per day. This is based on 2024 World Bank data showing this population living on less than $8.50 in 2017 PPP dollars, which is equivalent to roughly $11.19 when adjusted for inflation to March 2025 prices (see World Bank, ‘Poverty and Inequality Platform’, https://pip.worldbank.org/home; and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ‘CPI Inflation Calculator’, https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm).

page 52 for the total annual economic output of the world: For the calculation of global GDP at approximately $106 trillion, see World Bank, ‘GDP (current US$)’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.CD . For the United States Social Security expenditure of $1.5 trillion, see Social Security Administration, ‘Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Overview’, https://www.ssa.gov/budget/assets/materials/2024/2024BST.pdf. The figure for global cosmetics sales is based on annual revenue of approximately $680 billion; see Attest, ‘What is the global beauty and cosmetics market size?’, https://www.askattest.com/blog/articles/beauty-cosmetics-market-size.

page 53 a gain of almost 50 percent: This percentage refers to the increase in life expectancy in sub-Saharan Africa since 1950. While the text notes a gain of almost 50 per cent, the shift from 36.7 years in 1950 to 63 years in 2023 represents an increase of approximately 72 per cent over the baseline. See United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, ‘Life expectancy at birth (years) - Sub-Saharan Africa’, https://population.un.org/dataportal/data/indicators/61/locations/947/start/1950/end/2025/table/pivotbylocation?df=d9b9d51e-ba3e-4c7a-823b-a5a4eb9fa584

page 54 staggering 3.7 million: This figure represents the total fatalities across three categories of organised violence - state-based conflict, non-state conflict, and one-sided violence - recorded by the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) between 1989 and 2023. Datasets prior to 1989 do not include many types of armed conflict such as terrorist attacks, see Bastian Herre, "How major sources collect data on conflicts and conflict deaths, and when to use which one," Our World in Data (2023), https://ourworldindata.org/conflict-data-how-do-researchers-measure-armed-conflicts-and-their-deaths. For the data, see Shawn Davies, Therese Pettersson, and Magnus Öberg, ‘Organized violence 1989–2023, and the threat of nuclear weapons’, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 61, no. 4, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241262912; and ‘UCDP Dataset Downloads’, https://ucdp.uu.se/downloads/

page 55 foreign aid has saved a life with every $90,000 spent: This calculation is an estimate designed to show the cost-effectiveness of aid even under the extreme assumption that smallpox eradication was its only success. Between 1975 and 2024, total official development assistance (ODA) from donor countries amounted to approximately $6.57 trillion. For the underlying data on global aid spending, see OECD, ‘Official development assistance (ODA)’, https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/official-development-assistance-oda.html. Smallpox was eradicated in 1977; using a low-end estimate of 1.5 million deaths prevented annually (see David A. Koplow, Smallpox: The Fight to Eradicate a Global Scourge, p.1; D.A. Henderson, Smallpox: The Death of a Disease, p. 13), the total lives saved over this nearly 50-year period is approximately 70.5 million. Dividing the total spend by these lives saved yields a cost of roughly $93,000 per life (rounded to $90,000 for the text).

page 55 government departments in the United States will pay: These figures represent the Value of a Statistical Life (VSL), a metric used by federal agencies to determine the cost-effectiveness of safety regulations. Figures are correct as of March 2025, adjusted for inflation. For the EPA’s valuation , see US Environmental Protection Agency, ‘Mortality Risk Valuation’, https://www.epa.gov/environmental-economics/mortality-risk-valuation#whatvalue. For the Department of Health and Human Services (including the FDA) valuation, see US Department of Health and Human Services, ‘Guidelines for Regulatory Impact Analysis’, https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/cd2a1348ea0777b1aa918089e4965b8c/standard-ria-values.pdf. For the Department of Transportation valuation, see US Department of Transportation, ‘Departmental Guidance on Valuation of a Statistical Life in Economic Analysis’, https://www.transportation.gov/office-policy/transportation-policy/revised-departmental-guidance-on-valuation-of-a-statistical-life-in-economic-analysis.

page 55 Annual diarrheal deaths have declined from 3.4 million to 1.2 million: As of March 2025, the figure for annual diarrheal deaths in 1980 was 3.497. For the underlying data extending to 1980, see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), ‘Global Burden of Disease Results’, https://gbd2021.healthdata.org/gbd-results/.

page 58 I had to cut off the graph at $8,700 per year: See global income percentiles from Giving What We Can: https://github.com/owid/notebooks/blob/main/PabloArriagada/global_distribution_giving_what_we_can/pip_global_percentiles.csv. 

page 59 That’s why the world’s average income: For the 2021 global average income, see World Bank, ‘Adjusted net national income per capita (current US$)’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.ADJ.NNTY.PC.CD. The $2,800 median income figure was calculated using the GWWC data for 2022, which was the latest data as of March 2025. See Giving What We Can, ‘Global income percentiles’, https://github.com/owid/notebooks/commit/163f3e71e9c7329885849b5203057d4ae12e731f.

page 63 the cost to save a life in the developing world is about $4,200: The 2023 average cost of saving a life was $4,197 according to the latest GiveWell report; see ‘GiveWell’s 2023 cost per life saved estimates’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z065ab9PPMu9i5KiQ4yLyQJPFQCfEzHSgtHulPiZeBo/edit?gid=334891838#gid=334891838. Comparison of GiveWell’s estimates for the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) with peer-reviewed studies has found that the figures are similar; see ‘Comparison of GiveWell AMF estimates and peer-reviewed studies’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jiSfGwIIsAj0KfrcRYSuu2i81rYOv7pDKDIU3O-BPJk/edit?gid=0#gid=0. The $120 per QALY figure uses the conversion factor implied by the text, although alternative conversion factors from the literature would yield an estimate of $240 per QALY; see Lisa A. Robinson, James K. Hammitt and Lucy O’Keeffe, ‘Estimating the value of a statistical life in 150 countries’, Health Economics, vol. 32, no. 5 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.4697.

page 67 cost of a gallon of water from the tap in New York City: A rate of $5.05 per 748 gallons equals $0.00675 per gallon. If the mandatory sewer charge were included, the cost would be 1.7 cents per gallon; see New York City Water Board, ‘Rates & Regulations’, https://www.nyc.gov/site/nycwaterboard/rates/rates-regulations.page.

page 71 for every person who dies from poverty-related causes worldwide, only $50,000 on average is spent: In the latest recorded year (2023), foreign aid totalled $266 billion; see OECD, ‘Official development assistance (ODA)’, https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/policy-issues/official-development-assistance-oda.html. For cross-national philanthropy, data from forty-seven countries (corresponding to 85 per cent of world GDP) totals $87 billion; see Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, ‘Global Philanthropy Tracker 2023’, https://hdl.handle.net/1805/32365. The combined total for foreign aid and philanthropy is $353 billion. Using the Global Burden of Disease Study, there are 7.1 million poverty-related deaths annually, resulting in an average of $49,718 per death; see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), ‘Global Burden of Disease Results’, https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/.

page 73 cancer kills 9.9 million people: This update reflects an increase from the 8.2 million deaths and 7.6 per cent of QALYs cited in the first edition, based on updated global health modelling. For the data used, see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, ‘GBD Results’, https://gbd2021.healthdata.org/gbd-results/.

page 73 $168 billion per year is spent on cancer treatment: The figure of $168 billion per year represents the projected average annual global expenditure on cancer treatment between 2020 and 2050. See Simiao Chen et al., ‘Estimates and Projections of the Global Economic Cost of 29 Cancers in 204 Countries and Territories From 2020 to 2050’, JAMA Oncology, vol. 9, no. 4, 2023, pp. 465–72, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.7826 (data: eTab. 10, eFig. 7). The previously cited figure of $217 billion in the 1st edition referred to the 2009 global ‘expenditure gap’ rather than total medical costs, which were approximately $151 billion at that time; see Economist Intelligence Unit, The Global Burden of Cancer: Challenges and Opportunities, London: EIU, 2009, https://graphics.eiu.com/upload/eb/EIU_LIVESTRONG_Global_Cancer_Burden.pdf.

page 73 Malaria is responsible for 1.9 percent of QALYs lost worldwide: For the malaria data see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, ‘GBD Results’, https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/. Total global malaria spending was estimated at $4.3 billion in 2018; for these data and the breakdown showing that 19.5 per cent of development assistance was directed specifically toward treatment, see Joseph L. Dieleman et al., ‘Examining the growth in malaria funding and target expenditures, 2000–2016’, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, vol. 19, no. 7 (2019), https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(19)30165-3. Assuming that this 19.5 per cent allocation also applies to government and out-of-pocket expenditures, it would total $0.83 billion, equivalent to $1.07 billion in 2025.

page 74 provides one QALY for less than $100,000 as a good value: A threshold of $100,000 per QALY has been the most frequently used benchmark in the United States since 2010. See James D. Chambers, Matthew Chenoweth, and Peter J. Neumann, ‘The $50,000 per QALY Threshold: A History’, JAMA, vol. 330, no. 10 (2023), https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.1792.

pages 92–93 The average salary of a doctor in the UK is about £74,300: According to 2024 data, the average salary for medical practitioners in the UK is £74,297; see Office for National Statistics, ‘Earnings and working hours by occupation’, https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/datasets/occupation4digitsoc2010ashetable14. At an exchange rate of £1 to $1.3425, this converts to approximately $99,749 per year, or roughly $4 million over a forty-two-year career.

page 93 By pursuing a particularly lucrative speciality: The average base salary for an oncologist in the UK, as of March 2025, was around $140,000. For the latest estimation see Indeed, ‘Oncologist salary in United Kingdom’, Indeed [website], https://uk.indeed.com/career/oncologist/salaries.

page 93 his donations would save dozens: The number of lives saved should be “over a dozen” rather than “dozens”. $70,000 divided by the $5,117 cost of saving a life via bednets as of GiveWell’s 2023 estimate, would save 13.68 lives. See GiveWell, ‘Givewell’s 2023 Summary’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z065ab9PPMu9i5KiQ4yLyQJPFQCfEzHSgtHulPiZeBo/edit?gid=334891838#gid=334891838&range=E22. 

page 93 distributing antimalarial bed nets: According to 2024 calculations, $5,500 pays for the average number of nets required to prevent one death due to malaria; see GiveWell, ‘GiveWell’s 2024 cost per life saved estimates’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z065ab9PPMu9i5KiQ4yLyQJPFQCfEzHSgtHulPiZeBo/edit?gid=334891838#gid=334891838.

page 104 The total spending of the US government is $6.75 trillion per year: In 2024, federal spending reached approximately $6.75 trillion; see US Treasury, ‘Federal Spending’, https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/. Over a four-year period, this totals $27 trillion. When spread over a population of 340 million (see US Census Bureau, ‘U.S. and World Population Clock’, https://www.census.gov/popclock/), the total is $79,412 per person. To maintain the $1,000 benefit figure used throughout the text, the required increase in spending effectiveness is adjusted to 1.25 per cent.

pages 104-105 benefit to all Americans is $340 billion: For population data, see US Census Bureau, ‘U.S. and World Population Clock’, https://www.census.gov/popclock/.

page 112 Total UK government spending in 2024–2025 was £1.28 trillion: For the latest forecasts and historical data on UK public finances, see Office for Budget Responsibility, ‘Public finances: a brief guide’, https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/brief-guides-and-explainers/public-finances/.

page 113 who studied PPE at Oxford influence: There is an error in the text, the calculation should be £14.8 billion annually instead of 14.3 billion annually. This means the influence of each graduate is £296 million instead of £290 million.

page 114 if she simply had £290 million: as above the figure should be £296 million.

page 114 Laura’s expected impact of entering politics is as great as £5.7 million: The figure should be 5.92 million (0.02 x £296m).

page 119 the social cost of one metric ton: The figure of $350 per tonne represents a 2024 synthesis of over 1,800 estimates from 147 recent studies, resulting in a mean social cost of carbon of $283 in 2020 dollars, which is approximately $350 in 2025 prices. Modern assessments increasingly reject the simple ‘CO2-equivalent’ (CO2eq) conversion for social costs because methane and nitrous oxide have distinct impact profiles. The social cost of methane is currently estimated at approximately $3,000 per tonne, while nitrous oxide is valued at roughly $82,000 per tonne. For the social cost of carbon synthesis, see Frances C. Moore et al., ‘Synthesis of evidence yields high social cost of carbon due to structural model variation and uncertainties’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 121, no. 52, 2024, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410733121. For foundational research on the divergence between CO2-equivalence and social cost ratios, see Alex L. Marten et al., ‘Incremental CH4 and N2O mitigation benefits consistent with the US Government's SC-CO2 estimates’, Climate Policy, vol. 15, no. 2, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2014.912981. For more on gas-specific social costs, see U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Report on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases: Estimates Incorporating Recent Scientific Advances, Washington, DC: EPA, 2023, https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-12/epa_scghg_2023_report_final.pdf.

page 119 the harm they cause every year is only $1,800: See https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14054503, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2410733121, and https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2023-12/epa_scghg_2023_report_final.pdf:

In 2023, the UK emissions were:

CO2: 0.31515378 Pg = 315153780 t, at $350/t = $110,303,823,000

CH4: 1.7017162 Tg = 1701716.2 t, at $2975/t = $5,062,605,695

N2O: 0.10662854 Tg = 106628.54 t, at $81818/t = $8,724,133,886

Total: $124,090,562,581

Divided by UK population in 2023 (see https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/bulletins/annualmidyearpopulationestimates/mid2023): 124,090,562,581/68,265,209 = $1817.77 per capita.

page 120 a 5 percent probability of temperature rises greater than 5.7ºC by 2100: Under its highest emission scenario (SSP5-8.5), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates a mean warming of 4.4ºC by 2100, with a 5 per cent probability that temperature rises will exceed 5.7ºC by 2100 and 14.1ºC by 2300; see IPCC, ‘Summary for Policymakers’, in Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.

page 125 shipped more than 62 million books: These figures reflect the organisation's cumulative impact since its founding in 1988. See Books For Africa, https://www.booksforafrica.org/.

pages 128–129 As of 2014, of every dollar that’s been donated to GiveDirectly: For an updated (2023) analysis showing a global average transfer ratio of 83 cents per dollar, see GiveWell, ‘2023 GiveWell cost-effectiveness analysis — version 1 (public)’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnKTKE8x2KgJJqJBrZdTVBnX8kkobhR8FCw6RlBN_xM/edit?gid=1680005064#gid=1680005064.

pages 135 It costs GiveDirectly one dollar: For an updated (2023) analysis showing a global average transfer ratio of 83 cents per dollar, see GiveWell, ‘2023 GiveWell cost-effectiveness analysis — version 1 (public)’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnKTKE8x2KgJJqJBrZdTVBnX8kkobhR8FCw6RlBN_xM/edit?gid=1680005064#gid=1680005064.

page 135 it costs DMI around one dollar per listener: GiveWell found that a $2.1 million campaign in Burkina Faso reached 31 per cent of the country's 9.2 million women, resulting in a cost of $0.76 per woman reached (approximately $1 in 2025); see GiveWell, ‘Cost-effectiveness analysis of DMI’, https://blog.givewell.org/files/DWDA%202009/DMI/GiveWell_cost-effectiveness_analysis_of_DMI_2014_(corrected).xlsx and World Bank, ‘Population, female - Burkina Faso’, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.IN?locations=BF. DMI’s own randomized controlled trial in Burkina Faso estimated reaching 2.4 million people at an annual cost of $1.8 million, or $0.75 per listener ($1 in 2025); see Satish S. Murray et al., ‘Effect of a radio campaign on lives saved: a cluster randomised trial in Burkina Faso’, BMJ Global Health, vol. 3, no. 4 (2018), http://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-000809.

pages 135–136 recipients spent 39 percent of the transfer on assets: GiveWell estimates that roughly 39 per cent of cash transfers are invested in assets, with a wide range of returns from 7 to 48%; see GiveWell, ‘2023 GiveWell cost-effectiveness analysis’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnKTKE8x2KgJJqJBrZdTVBnX8kkobhR8FCw6RlBN_xM/edit?gid=1680005064#gid=1680005064 and ‘Cash Transfers’, https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/cash-transfers. 

page 136 killing 370,000 children every year: In 2023, diarrhoea killed approximately 370,000 children aged fourteen and under. This update reflects a significant decrease from the 760,000 deaths cited in the first edition. For these data, see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, ‘GBD Results’, https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/. A Boeing 747-400 typically seats 416 people (see ‘Boeing 747’, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_747); a death toll of 370,000 is therefore equivalent to more than two jumbo jets crashing every day.

page 137 it costs about ten dollars to provide one QALY: The estimate of approximately $4,200 to save a life via bed nets is based on the 2023 average cost per life saved across top-rated charities; see GiveWell, ‘GiveWell’s 2023 cost per life saved estimates’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z065ab9PPMu9i5KiQ4yLyQJPFQCfEzHSgtHulPiZeBo/edit?gid=334891838#gid=334891838. For a comparison of GiveWell’s estimates for the Against Malaria Foundation (AMF) with peer-reviewed data, see ‘Comparison of GiveWell AMF estimates and peer-reviewed studies’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jiSfGwIIsAj0KfrcRYSuu2i81rYOv7pDKDIU3O-BPJk/edit?gid=0#gid=0.

page 144 their latest figure was 0.2 percent in 2021: Historically, as of 2016, roughly 0.3 per cent of recipients reported being asked for a bribe; see GiveDirectly, ‘Quality of Service’, https://web.archive.org/web/20160118202259/https://www.givedirectly.org/quality-of-service.html. More recent data from 2021 shows that total losses to fraud amounted to 0.228 per cent of transfers, with bribes specifically accounting for 0.023 per cent; see GiveDirectly, ‘A summary of fraud in 2021’, https://www.givedirectly.org/2021-fraud/.

page 144 These programs also receive substantial support from Gavi: The figure representing the actual contributions and proceeds received as for 2016-2025 from the financial reports should be $31.1bn, not the £22bn figure stated in the book is just for 2021-2025. See Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, ‘Annual contributions and proceeds’, 31 December 2024, https://www.gavi.org/news/document-library/annual-contributions-and-proceeds-31-december-2024. The target of $7.4 billion refers to the specific funding goal set in 2020.

https://www.gavi.org/news/document-library/annual-contributions-and-proceeds-31-december-2024

page 150 One dollar in donations results in eighty cents delivered: For an analysis showing a global average transfer ratio of approximately 83 per cent of total costs, see GiveWell, ‘2023 GiveWell cost-effectiveness analysis — version 1 (public)’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnKTKE8x2KgJJqJBrZdTVBnX8kkobhR8FCw6RlBN_xM/edit?gid=1680005064#gid=1680005064.

page 161 average earnings of sweatshop workers in Brazil were $3,400 per year: These figures are based on data from 2007 and have been adjusted for inflation to 2025 values. For the original comparative analysis of earnings in Brazil and Bolivia, see Benjamin Powell, ‘Don’t Cry for Me, Kathie Lee’, in Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (2014), https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139342704.005.

page 161 average earnings among sweatshop workers: For earnings of $7.65 in Bangladesh, $13.17 in Haiti, and $7.68 in India, see Benjamin Powell, ‘Don’t Cry for Me Kathie Lee’, in Out of Poverty: Sweatshops in the Global Economy (2nd Edition), https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009505321.005. These figures are based on data corrected for inflation from 2017 to 2025.

page 164 First, the producers are guaranteed a certain minimum price: In March 2023, Fairtrade International announced an increase in the minimum price for washed Arabica coffee (the most common variety) from $1.40 to $1.80 per pound, effective from August 2023. The social premium, which supports democratically chosen community programmes, remained at $0.20 per pound. These adjustments were made to better support farmers facing increased costs of living and volatile market rates. For the specific price breakdown across different coffee varieties, see Fairtrade International, ‘Fairtrade Coffee Price Announcement’, 30 March 2023, https://www.fairtrade.net/content/dam/fairtrade/fairtrade-international/standards/2023-03-30_Coffee-Price-Announcement_EN.pdf.

page 164 Demand for Fairtrade products: This figure represents the total global retail sales of Fairtrade-certified products in 2018. This marks a significant increase from the $6.9 billion reported in 2014. For the full financial breakdown and regional sales data, see Fairtrade International, Choosing a Fairer Future Through Trade: Annual Report 2018–2019, Bonn: Fairtrade International, 2019, https://www.fairtrade.net/library/2018-19-annual-report-choosing-a-fairer-future-through-trade.

pages 175–176 the average American will consume the following: These updated figures are derived from the 2023 FAO dataset. The calculation accounts for total animals slaughtered annually, net imports and exports, and the average lifespans of layer hens and dairy cattle. For the underlying data, see Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ‘FAOSTAT’, https://www.fao.org/faostat/.

page 176 the number of animal years needed to sustain the average American’s diet: The values are derived from the average livestock population for each species in the United States; see Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ‘FAOSTAT’, https://www.fao.org/faostat/.

page 209 From 2009 to 2023, GiveDirectly has raised more than one billion dollars in donations: For the annual financial statements and tax forms, see GiveDirectly, ‘Financials by year’, https://www.givedirectly.org/financials-by-year/.

page 211 Annual global remittances are nearly $1 trillion: Global remittances are projected to reach $913 billion by 2025, including $690 billion flowing to low- and middle-income countries; see World Bank, ‘Migration and Development Brief 40: Remittances Recent Developments and Outlook’, (2024), http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/099714008132436612.

page 220 has distributed more than 340 million long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets: Figures for total funds raised and nets distributed are from the Against Malaria Foundation’s live data dashboard; see Against Malaria Foundation, ‘Donations’, https://www.againstmalaria.com/Donations.aspx. The estimate of lives saved is using GiveWell’s average cost per death averted from 2011–2023, $750 million would save approximately 160,000 lives. For the cost-effectiveness data, see GiveWell, ‘GiveWell’s cost-effectiveness analyses’ [spreadsheet], https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jiSfGwIIsAj0KfrcRYSuu2i81rYOv7pDKDIU3O-BPJk/edit?gid=0#gid=0

page 225 is a bigger problem than malaria: Estimates as of March 2025 indicate that cancer accounts for 8.8 per cent of all ill health worldwide, whereas malaria accounts for 1.9 per cent. This reflects a shift from the first edition’s figures of 7.6 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively. For the underlying data, see Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, ‘GBD Results’, https://vizhub.healthdata.org/gbd-results/.

page 229 74.16 million Americans living in relative poverty: Relative poverty is commonly defined as living on less than 60 per cent of a country’s median income; see ‘Poverty threshold’, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty_threshold#Relative_poverty. In the US in 2022, that corresponds to $18,000 per year with 74.16 million people living below this threshold. For global extreme poverty figures see World Bank, ‘Poverty and Inequality Platform’, https://pip.worldbank.org/home.

page 229 In 2023, $4 trillion was spent on welfare in the United States: This total includes federal expenditure on Social Security, Medicare, health, income security, veterans’ benefits, and education, accounting for approximately 60 per cent of the $6.75 trillion in total federal spending. By comparison, total net official development assistance (foreign aid) received by low-income countries in 2023 was $54.28 billion. For a breakdown of US federal spending by category, see US Treasury, ‘Federal Spending’, https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ and USAspending.gov, ‘Budget Function’, https://www.usaspending.gov/explorer/budget_function. For data on global aid flows, see Our World in Data, ‘Official development assistance: How much aid do low-income countries receive?’, https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/foreign-aid-received-net.

page 234 nine hundred million people worldwide would migrate if they were able to: For the latest data on global migration desire, see Julie Ray and Anita Pugliese, ‘Desire to Migrate Remains at Record High’, Gallup News (31 October 2024), https://news.gallup.com/poll/652748/desire-migrate-remains-record-high.aspx.

page 234 Increased levels of immigration are incredibly unpopular in developed countries: For these data, see Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/international-question-search/. This database allows for a comparison of attitudes across dozens of countries, showing that the preference for reduced immigration generally outweighed the preference for increased immigration across most developed nations surveyed.

page 235 Eighty-five billion animals are raised and slaughtered in factory farms every year: This represents a significant increase from the 50 billion figure used in the first edition, following a decade of intensified global livestock production. In 2023, more than 85 billion land animals, including chickens, cattle, pigs, ducks, geese, rabbits, hares, turkeys, goats, and sheep, were raised and slaughtered for food.This total excludes fish, which would drive the figure substantially higher. For the underlying data, see Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ‘FAOSTAT’, https://www.fao.org/faostat/ (navigate to Data → Production → Crops and livestock products → Regions: World Total; Elements: Producing Animal/Slaughtered; Items: Meat of [each animal]; Years: 2023).

pages 235–236 amounting to 7 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 2022: This figure accounts for emissions from the factory farming of cattle, chickens (meat and eggs), pigs, goats, and sheep, which totaled 3.6 billion tonnes of CO2-eq in 2022. For these data, see Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, ‘FAOSTAT: Emissions Totals’, https://www.fao.org/faostat/. This represents approximately 6.75 per cent of the 53.3 billion tonnes of total global greenhouse gas emissions for that year; for the global total, see M. W. Jones et al., ‘National contributions to climate change due to historical emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide’, Zenodo (2024), https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14054503.

page 236 The total expenditure from nonprofits on factory farming practices was $205.7 million: This figure represents a significant increase in funding since the first edition, though the cause remains relatively neglected compared to other global issues. The data is derived from an unpublished dataset by Andrew Rowan sent via personal communication on 6 July 2022, tracking animal protection expenditures globally.

page 243 a donation of $5,100: This represents a significant increase from the $3,400 figure used in the first edition, reflecting updated cost-effectiveness modelling across top-rated charities. For the estimate of $5,100 to save a life via the distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, see GiveWell, ‘GiveWell’s Cost-effectiveness Analyses’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1z065ab9PPMu9i5KiQ4yLyQJPFQCfEzHSgtHulPiZeBo/edit?gid=334891838#gid=334891838. The cost of $1.06 to deworm one child is a population-weighted average across several programmes; for these data and the figures regarding the average annual income of GiveDirectly recipients ($286), see GiveWell, ‘2024 GiveWell cost-effectiveness analysis’, https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OnKTKE8x2KgJJqJBrZdTVBnX8kkobhR8FCw6RlBN_xM/edit?gid=472531943#gid=472531943.

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Errata for Doing Good Better (1st edition)

Specific mistakes

• p. 4: Two damning reports were released, one by UNICEF and one by the Swiss Resource Centre and Consultancies for Development (SKAT).
  Although the first report carries the UNICEF logo on its cover, it was not approved by UNICEF. Vanesa Tobin, from UNICEF, clarifies in a private letter forwarded to me by Colin Morris, Director of Roundabout Water Solutions: "The report is based on pre-assessment field visits as part of a joint World Vision/UNICEF internal review conducted in August 2007. However, the UNICEF report was issued erroneously. It is UNICEF practice to share draft assessment reports with all concerned parties for their comments prior to issuing a final report. This was not done."

• p. 41: The primary recipient of the Fistula Foundation's revenue is the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
  I had intended this sentence to refer to the Fistula Foundation as of 2009, when the story I was telling was set. However, I understand it could easily be interpreted as referring to the Fistula Foundation now, in which case it would be inaccurate. An accurate and unambiguous sentence would be: "In 2009, the primary recipient of the Fistula Foundation’s revenue was the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia." The reasons I did not in 2009 think that the Fistula Foundation was the most cost-effective charity had nothing to do with the size of the charity or the locations it operated in, but instead were to do with the cost per fistula surgery.

• p. 48: The numbers in the horizontal axis should be: 51, 53.8, 56.6, 59.4, 62.2, 65, 67.8, 70.6, 73.4, 76.2, 79. (This typo appears only in the US hardcover edition.)

• p. 59: The Haitian earthquake, by comparison, caused 150,000 [deaths].
  The citation for this number is here, though the study estimates the death toll to be 160,000, and there is controversy over the number of casualties from the earthquake.

• p. 59: Per person, Japan was thirty times richer than Haiti. As a whole, the country was a thousand times richer.

  In 2010, Japan was 22 times richer than Haiti in terms of GDP per capita (source), and 861 times richer than Haiti in terms of GDP (source).

• p. 61: The figure for Kaposi's sarcoma should be 0.02, not 0.2. (This typo appears only in early printings of the UK edition.)

• p. 61: Every year, cancer… is responsible for 7.6 percent of all deaths and ill health worldwide (measured in terms of QALYs lost).

  Cancer (all forms) accounted for 8.13% of worldwide QALYs in 2013 (source).

• p. 71: [The 2008 Sichuan] earthquake… killed eighty-seven thousand people. 

  69,000 people were reported dead, and over 18,000 were listed as missing as of July 2008 (2 months after the disaster hit) (source).

• p. 73: Malaria is responsible for 3.3 percent of QALYs lost worldwide.

  In 2017, Malaria was responsible for 1.8% of all QALYs lost worldwide (source).

• p. 73: In reality, only $1.6 billion per year is spent on malaria treatment.

  According to this WHO report, “In 2018, an estimated US$ 2.7 billion was invested in malaria control and elimination efforts globally by governments of malaria endemic countries and international partners – a reduction from the US$ 3.2 billion that was invested in 2017.” 

• p. 80: In 1966, Ohio-born doctor D.A. Henderson became the leader of the WHO’s Global Smallpox Eradication campaign ... he was fifteen years younger than everyone else in the program…

  According to Henderson’s book, he was very young for a unit chief (“few of whom were then under fifty”) but the difference in age between him and other members of the unit was not as large as my passage stated (“Dr. Isao Arita… was about my own age”). 

• p. 81: Henderson’s success resulted in a string of accolades. He won more than a dozen major awards, including the Public Welfare Medal, the National Medal of Science, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom—the highest civilian award in the United States. He received honorary degrees from 17 different universities ...

  The correct source for this information is this obituary.

• p. 81: immediately after 9/11 he became President George W. Bush’s lead expert on bioterrorism. 

  The correct source for this information is this article in the Smithsonian.

• p. 81: [Henderson] was even knighted by the king of Thailand.

  Henderson was not knighted by the king of Thailand but he did receive the Prince Mahidol Award.

• p. 82: Since smallpox was an exclusively human disease, [Zhdanov] argued, it would be easier to eradicate than mosquito-born infections such as malaria.

  The correct source for this information is Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox.

• p. 83: For the first time in its history, the WHO agreed to form a campaign to completely eradicate a disease.

  The WHO supported a malaria eradication campaign before approving the smallpox eradication campaign (source).

• p. 141: [Bailey Norwood] rates beef cattle at 6 and dairy cows at 4. In contrast his average rating for broiler chickens is –1, and for pigs and caged hens is –5.
  Norwood's estimates are found on Table 8.2 (p. 229) of Compassion, by the Pound (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011):