Latest news with #inhabitants
Times
17 hours ago
- Times
The island where marauding goats are a bigger threat than its volcano
The hardy inhabitants of Stromboli have stuck it out for centuries, caring for their olive groves and caper plants even though their tiny island is one large, very active volcano rising out of the Mediterranean Sea. But if lava flows and flying boulders have not deterred them, a new adversary that is said to do far more damage than the volcano is persuading some residents that it is time to leave. 'My family has been here since the 17th century, but if the goats continue to multiply I'm abandoning Stromboli,' said Gianluca Giuffre, a local shopkeeper. Stromboli is the latest island in the Aeolian chain north of Sicily where man is facing off against wild goats, and the goats are winning. As on neighbouring Alicudi , an expanding army of animals on Stromboli is devouring vegetation, reducing ancient stone terracing to rubble, entering homes and even attacking people.
Forbes
12-08-2025
- Business
- Forbes
The Richest Country In The World, According To The Economist Rich List
Wealth is a subjective concept, especially when you consider it geographically. Visit different countries and cities and you'll find the same things can vary wildly in price, from traveling to eating out to souvenir shopping. Prices are typically driven by the wealth of the inhabitants but can also be affected by a place's popularity as a tourist destination. So that begs the question, what is the world's richest country? Europe dominates the list of richest countries. The wealthiest across all GDP indicators is rich in more than just money. getty To find out which countries are truly rich in 2025, The Economist has ranked 178 countries around the world using three GDP measures of wealth: The first covers the country's GDP per person at market exchange rates. Simple, intuitive and widely cited, it does however ignore the price differences between countries. The second uses purchasing-power parity (or PPP) to adjust income levels based on local costs. This creates a more realistic guide to living standards but doesn't account for leisure time—the share of people in work and how many hours they work to earn their wealth. The third incorporates both local prices and hours worked to create a more holistic and realistic overall view of a country's wealth relative to its inhabitants—and visitors. The ranking excludes some places, hence only 178 countries are listed. Some are too small to rank—Bermuda, for example. In others it's almost impossible to get accurate data—Ireland, 'where calculations are polluted by tax arbitrage', and Luxembourg, where commuters flooding in from neighboring Germany, France and Belgium inflate and distort income levels. Elsewhere, particularly in autocracies, the data is simply too unreliable to use. The three measurements of country wealth produce three different results but consistent trends The Economist You can see exact details of how these measures were created, read the full Economist methodology. Each of the three measures of wealth delivers a different country to the top of its rankings. Several appear at or close to the top of all three—Switzerland, Singapore and Norway. In pure dollar terms, the richest country by income is Switzerland with average annual earnings of more than $104,000 in 2024, the only country to average over the $100 mark. Singapore comes in second and Norway third with average earnings of $90,700 and $86,800 respectively for the same year. Visiting Zürich in Switzerland? Best bring plenty of spending money. getty If you've ever been to Switzerland (and if not, you really should—it's one of the world's most spectacular countries), you'll know it's expensive. In fact, it's one of the most expensive countries to live in the world, meaning money doesn't go quite as far. That has a dramatic impact on the relative wealth of its inhabitants, and the travel costs of its visitors. Adjusted to account for the cost of living there, Switzerland drops to fifth place for the second measure of wealth incorporating PPP, with an adjusted GDP per person of $93,800. Here, Singapore takes the top spot with an adjusted GPD of $151,000. Macau and Qatar climb to second and third spots respectively with adjusted GDPs of $128,000 and $126,000. Norway comes in fourth. Looking at the third measure that incorporates not only the local prices but also the amount of time one needs to work to earn that income, Norway moves into the top spot with an adjusted GDP of $115,000. Second place goes to Qatar with an adjusted GDP of $111,000 and third to Denmark with an adjusted GDP of $92,300. In this scenario, Switzerland stays in fifth spot but Singapore drops to eighth, highlighting its long working hours. Singapore isn't shy about showing the world it's wealth. But if you want to get rich here, expect to work long hours. getty The U.S. ranks in the top ten wealthiest countries in the world European countries dominate, taking 12 of the top 20 places averaged across all three measures. While the U.S. is the world's biggest economy by GDP, it ranks 4th, 7th and 6th on the respective measures of wealth. Its base GDP is $85,800 and interestingly, this barely wavers over the course of the three different measures—it remains the same adjusted for local prices and climbs slightly to $87,600 when accounting for hours worked as well. Great Britain fares far worse, occupying 19th, 27th and 25th places for each measure respectively, with a significant drop in performance when catering in cost of living and hours worked. Not all countries' rankings reflect their social situations. In countries like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, fewer women get paid to work. This means they rank higher for income based on hours worked than on income alone, as earnings are spread among fewer people. Likewise, some countries are in more transition than others. Italy, for example, has a high retired population, while Nigeria has a high young population not yet old enough to work. In each of these cases, fewer working people are supporting more non-working people. With a majority population under the age of 17, Burundi in East Africa ranks as the poorest country in the world. getty The impact of this can most clearly be seen in Burundi, which appears at the bottom of the wealth list. Incredibly, in Burundi most of the population is under 17 years old (though that by no means makes it the youngest average population in the world—taken by Niger with a median age of just 15). This is reflected in a smaller working population and much lower wages—barely 0.15% of the average Swiss wage. That means, even adjusted to account for local prices, around 100 Burundians would earn the equivalent of just one Swiss wage.
Daily Mail
07-08-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Secrets of Pompeii's survivors, revealed: Study reveals how brave people RETURNED to live in the ruins after the devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Italy 's Mount Vesuvius famously erupted in AD 79, killing thousands of people and leaving the nearby city of Pompeii in ruins. According to popular narrative, in the following 1,500 years until its rediscovery, people stayed away in the fear that the volcano would blow again. However, scientists now say that this wasn't actually the case. New excavations reveal construction of fire pits and cooking areas and the discovery of numerous table and fire pottery, dating from the end of the 1st century AD until the 5th century AD. This shows that people lived in the ruined city in the 400 years after the eruption of AD 79, according to the experts at Pompeii Archaeological Park. This brave new wave of inhabitants was likely aware of the destructive potential of Vesuvius – and fearful that something similar would happen again. In this way, they're comparable to the modern-day Italians who live in the immediate vicinity of Mount Vesuvius. The more than three million people in its shadow could be killed if an eruption of that scale happened again. Pompeii was home to more than 20,000 people before the cataclysmic event, around 2,000 of whom are thought to have lost their lives. The eruption buried Pompeii and its inhabitants beneath a thick layer of pumice and ash, famously preserving the bodies before they eventually decayed. Despite buildings being obliterated, some survivors who could not afford to start a new life elsewhere are believed to have returned to live in the devastated area, the researchers explain. It is possible some were hoping to recover valuable items and personal effects buried in the rubble that were owned by the earlier residents. Survivors may have occupied upper floors of old houses left standing, while ground floors were converted into cellars and caves where ovens and mills were built. But generally Pompeii 2.0 would have been a fairly basic and 'informal' settlement where people lived in 'precarious conditions'. Initially, people lived in a kind of 'ash desert', but vegetation soon flourished again. Pompeii 2.0 probably lacked infrastructure and services typical of a Roman city – such as sanitation, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health. Gabriel Zuchtriegel, archeologist and director of the historic site, compared it with a modern-day 'favela' – a Brazilian word referring to a slum or shantytown. 'Thanks to the new excavations, the picture is now clearer – post-79 Pompeii re-emerges, more than a city, a precarious and grey agglomeration, a kind of camp, a favela among the still recognisable ruins of the Pompeii that once was,' he said. Although the theory that people returned to Pompeii shortly after 79 AD is not new, it has been confirmed by the new excavations, although it's unclear how many people lived there. The number of people who settled there 'must have varied greatly', a spokesperson for Pompeii Archaeological Park told the Daily Mail. 'Reoccupation probably began almost immediately after the eruption, perhaps in the following months or at least within a few years,' they said. Mr Zuchtriegel thinks the reoccupation of the city has been largely overlooked or ignored because most studies focus on the famous eruption. 'Faint traces of the site's reoccupation were literally removed and often swept away without any documentation,' he said. 'The momentous episode of the city's destruction in 79 AD has monopolised the memory.' By the fifth century, Pompeii was completely abandoned and remained largely undisturbed until its rediscovery in the late 16th century. After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD eruption, bodies of the victims at Pompeii were preserved in a protective shell of ash before they eventually decayed - but the voids that these bodies left behind were filled with plaster casts to recreate their final moments (pictured) Man in sitting position, killed in the eruption, in storage at Pompeii. Remains of the city are now one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy In the 19th century, plaster casts were made of the victims using the technique developed by the archaeologist Giuseppe Fiorelli. Today, it's estimated as much as third of the lost city, equating to 22 hectares, has still to be cleared of volcanic debris. Mount Vesuvius, meanwhile, is still considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. It is still active and could erupt again – but predicting when volcanoes will blow is an extremely difficult task for volcanologists. Apart from being potentially fatal again for Italians living in the Bay of Naples, such an eruption could also affect aviation passengers. In AD 79, Mount Vesuvius' plume of ash and gas reached 21 miles (34km) in height, more than triple the cruising altitude of most commercial jets. How Pompeii and Herculaneum were wiped off the map by devastating eruption of Mount Vesuvius 2,000 years ago What happened? Mount Vesuvius erupted in the year AD 79, burying the cities of Pompeii, Oplontis, and Stabiae under ashes and rock fragments, and the city of Herculaneum under a mudflow. Mount Vesuvius, on the west coast of Italy, is the only active volcano in continental Europe and is thought to be one of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world. Every single resident died instantly when the southern Italian town was hit by a 500°C pyroclastic hot surge. Pyroclastic flows are a dense collection of hot gas and volcanic materials that flow down the side of an erupting volcano at high speed. They are more dangerous than lava because they travel faster, at speeds of around 450mph (700 km/h), and at temperatures of 1,000°C. An administrator and poet called Pliny the younger watched the disaster unfold from a distance. Letters describing what he saw were found in the 16th century. His writing suggests that the eruption caught the residents of Pompeii unaware. He said that a column of smoke 'like an umbrella pine' rose from the volcano and made the towns around it as black as night. People ran for their lives with torches, screaming and some wept as rain of ash and pumice fell for several hours. While the eruption lasted for around 24 hours, the first pyroclastic surges began at midnight, causing the volcano's column to collapse. An avalanche of hot ash, rock and poisonous gas rushed down the side of the volcano at 124mph (199kph), burying victims and remnants of everyday life. Hundreds of refugees sheltering in the vaulted arcades at the seaside in Herculaneum, clutching their jewelry and money, were killed instantly. As people fled Pompeii or hid in their homes, their bodies were covered by blankets of the surge. While Pliny did not estimate how many people died, the event was said to be 'exceptional' and the number of deaths is thought to exceed 10,000. What have they found? This event ended the life of the cities but at the same time preserved them until rediscovery by archaeologists nearly 1700 years later. The excavation of Pompeii, the industrial hub of the region and Herculaneum, a small beach resort, has given unparalleled insight into Roman life. Archaeologists are continually uncovering more from the ash-covered city. In May archaeologists uncovered an alleyway of grand houses, with balconies left mostly intact and still in their original hues. Some of the balconies even had amphorae - the conical-shaped terra cotta vases that were used to hold wine and oil in ancient Roman times. The discovery has been hailed as a 'complete novelty' - and the Italian Culture Ministry hopes they can be restored and opened to the public. Upper stores have seldom been found among the ruins of the ancient town, which was destroyed by an eruption of Vesuvius volcano and buried under up to six meters of ash and volcanic rubble. Around 30,000 people are believed to have died in the chaos, with bodies still being discovered to this day.
