https://ourintel.org/stories Source-audited scrollytelling data stories on health, housing, economy, environment, and civic life. Every claim carries an audit status; every correction is published. Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:19:50 GMT https://ourintel.org/stories/global-development-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/global-development-gap Wed, 26 Aug 2026 02:19:50 GMT From HDI of 0.966 in Norway to 0.381 in South Sudan — the numbers behind global inequality. https://ourintel.org/stories/aging-america https://ourintel.org/stories/aging-america Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT By 2030, every Baby Boomer will be over 65. The US has never aged this fast — and the country's care infrastructure, retirement systems, and labor market are unprepared. https://ourintel.org/stories/air-quality-disparities https://ourintel.org/stories/air-quality-disparities Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Air pollution kills 100,000 Americans a year. But the burden is not distributed equally — the data reveals that race and income predict who breathes clean air and who does not. https://ourintel.org/stories/banking-deserts https://ourintel.org/stories/banking-deserts Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 5.9 million American households have no bank account. 18.7 million more rely on payday lenders and check cashers. The data reveals a two-tier financial system — and who gets trapped in the expensive one. https://ourintel.org/stories/child-welfare-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/child-welfare-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 368,530 American children are in foster care on any given day. More than 19,000 age out of the system every year with no family — and half will be arrested, homeless, or unemployed within 2 years. https://ourintel.org/stories/childcare-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/childcare-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 51 million American children under 13 need care. The system designed to provide it has collapsed — leaving families with a $25,000-a-year bill and workers earning poverty wages. https://ourintel.org/stories/clean-energy-transition https://ourintel.org/stories/clean-energy-transition Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT The US is in the midst of the largest energy transformation in a century. The Inflation Reduction Act unleashed $369 billion for clean energy. But not everyone will benefit equally. https://ourintel.org/stories/climate-heat-burden https://ourintel.org/stories/climate-heat-burden Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT As extreme heat becomes America's deadliest weather hazard, the data reveals that who lives where determines who survives. https://ourintel.org/stories/climate-justice https://ourintel.org/stories/climate-justice Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT The countries that emitted the least are suffering the most. Inside the US, the communities with the smallest carbon footprints bear the heaviest burden of extreme weather, pollution, and displacement. https://ourintel.org/stories/dementia-care-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/dementia-care-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 6.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. 11.5 million are caring for them — unpaid, largely unsupported, and overwhelmingly women. The cost is $345 billion a year and rising. The care system is not ready. https://ourintel.org/stories/digital-divide https://ourintel.org/stories/digital-divide Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 21 million Americans lack access to broadband — and the gap is widening the inequalities in health, education, and opportunity. https://ourintel.org/stories/disability-access-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/disability-access-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Over 70 million Americans live with a disability. The ADA turns 35 this year — yet barriers to employment, housing, healthcare, and civic life remain pervasive. https://ourintel.org/stories/domestic-violence https://ourintel.org/stories/domestic-violence Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 10 million Americans experience domestic violence every year. It is the most under-reported violent crime in the country. The shelter system is full. The legal protections are inadequate. And the COVID-19 pandemic made everything worse. https://ourintel.org/stories/drug-pricing-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/drug-pricing-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Americans spend $4,500 per person per year on prescription drugs — 3× more than any peer nation. The same insulin that costs $30 in Canada costs $300 in the US. The data reveals a system designed to protect prices, not patients. https://ourintel.org/stories/early-childhood-education https://ourintel.org/stories/early-childhood-education Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 90% of adult brain size is reached by age 5. Yet millions of American children arrive at kindergarten already behind — not because of ability, but because of zip code. https://ourintel.org/stories/education-equity-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/education-equity-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Where you're born determines your school's resources. The public data reveals just how stark the divide is. https://ourintel.org/stories/food-insecurity-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/food-insecurity-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 44 million Americans don't know where their next meal is coming from. The public data reveals who they are and where they live. https://ourintel.org/stories/gender-pay-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/gender-pay-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Women earn 84 cents for every dollar men earn. Black women earn 67 cents. Latina women earn 57 cents. The gap isn't closing — it's shifting shape. https://ourintel.org/stories/gig-economy https://ourintel.org/stories/gig-economy Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 59 million Americans did gig work last year. They have no employer health insurance, no unemployment insurance, no workers' comp. When the algorithm cuts your hours, there's no HR department to call. https://ourintel.org/stories/global-refugee-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/global-refugee-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 117 million people are forcibly displaced — the highest number ever recorded. The global refugee system is under a strain it was never designed to bear. https://ourintel.org/stories/gun-violence https://ourintel.org/stories/gun-violence Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 45,222 Americans died from gun violence in 2020 — more than any other high-income nation. The data reveals a public health emergency hiding in plain sight. https://ourintel.org/stories/homelessness-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/homelessness-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT On a single night in January 2023, 653,104 people experienced homelessness in America — a 12% increase from 2022, the largest single-year surge on record. The data reveals who they are, why the number keeps rising, and why the solutions work — when we let them. https://ourintel.org/stories/housing-affordability-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/housing-affordability-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Rent has outpaced wages in nearly every US metro. The public data tells a stark story. https://ourintel.org/stories/income-inequality-states https://ourintel.org/stories/income-inequality-states Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Why median income alone doesn't tell the full story of economic wellbeing in US states. https://ourintel.org/stories/indigenous-communities https://ourintel.org/stories/indigenous-communities Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 3.7 million American Indians and Alaska Natives face poverty, health, and housing crises rooted in policy — but tribal sovereignty and self-determination offer a path forward. https://ourintel.org/stories/infrastructure-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/infrastructure-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT America's roads, bridges, water pipes, and power grid are aging out. The 2021 Infrastructure Act is the largest investment in 70 years — but the backlog runs deeper. https://ourintel.org/stories/labor-rights-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/labor-rights-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Wage theft costs workers $50 billion a year — more than all property crime combined. The data reveals who pays the price when worker protections fail. https://ourintel.org/stories/lead-pipes-water https://ourintel.org/stories/lead-pipes-water Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Approximately 4 million homes still receive water through lead service lines. There is no safe level of lead exposure for children. The failure to replace these pipes is measured in IQ points, learning disabilities, and shortened lives. https://ourintel.org/stories/lgbtq-health-disparities https://ourintel.org/stories/lgbtq-health-disparities Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT LGBTQ+ Americans face dramatically higher rates of depression, suicide, homelessness, and barriers to care. The data shows this isn't biology — it's the measurable cost of discrimination, stigma, and a healthcare system that wasn't built for them. https://ourintel.org/stories/loneliness-epidemic https://ourintel.org/stories/loneliness-epidemic Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Half of Americans report measurable loneliness. The Surgeon General calls it a public health crisis as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. The data reveals a society coming undone from within. https://ourintel.org/stories/mass-incarceration https://ourintel.org/stories/mass-incarceration Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT The United States incarcerates more people than any country on Earth. The data reveals who pays the price. https://ourintel.org/stories/maternal-mortality-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/maternal-mortality-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate of any wealthy nation — and the racial disparities are among the most severe in the world. https://ourintel.org/stories/medical-debt-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/medical-debt-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 100 million Americans carry medical debt. It is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy. It destroys credit, delays care, and falls hardest on the people who are already sickest. No other wealthy nation allows this to happen. https://ourintel.org/stories/mental-health-access-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/mental-health-access-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 160 million Americans live in mental health provider shortage areas — a crisis compounded by cost, stigma, and a collapsing workforce. https://ourintel.org/stories/opioid-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/opioid-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Over 80,000 Americans die of drug overdoses each year. The opioid epidemic has reshaped death, disability, and family structure across entire regions of the country. https://ourintel.org/stories/prison-reentry-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/prison-reentry-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 600,000 people leave US prisons every year. Two-thirds will be rearrested within three years. The barriers they face — to housing, employment, voting, education, and public benefits — are not collateral consequences. They are policy choices. https://ourintel.org/stories/rural-health-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/rural-health-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Rural Americans die younger, live farther from hospitals, and face a growing shortage of doctors. Over 180 rural hospitals have closed since 2010 — and hundreds more are at risk. https://ourintel.org/stories/student-debt-crisis https://ourintel.org/stories/student-debt-crisis Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT $1.77 trillion in student debt. 43 million borrowers. A generation priced out of homeownership, delayed in family formation, and trapped in a system that punishes ambition. https://ourintel.org/stories/us-health-divide https://ourintel.org/stories/us-health-divide Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Where you live determines how long you live. A data story about health disparities across 3,143 US counties. https://ourintel.org/stories/veterans-care-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/veterans-care-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 17 million veterans. A VA system serving fewer than half of them. And a suicide rate twice the civilian average. https://ourintel.org/stories/water-sanitation-gap https://ourintel.org/stories/water-sanitation-gap Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT 2.2 billion people lack safe drinking water. 3.5 billion lack safely managed sanitation. Clean water is the foundation of every other development outcome — and the gap between rich and poor countries has never been more visible. https://ourintel.org/stories/wealth-inequality https://ourintel.org/stories/wealth-inequality Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT The richest 1% own more wealth than the entire bottom 90% combined. The racial wealth gap is wider today than in 1968. The data reveals an economy of two Americas. https://ourintel.org/stories/youth-mental-health https://ourintel.org/stories/youth-mental-health Sat, 25 Jul 2026 23:54:51 GMT Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide among children and teenagers have risen sharply for a decade. The US Surgeon General has issued two advisory warnings. The system built to help them was already broken before demand doubled.