The World Wisdom
Advice from the elders of every country — in their mother tongue
Tap a country
Who is the oldest person you know?
Qari bilganni pari bilmasElders’ words are rarely written down. When they are gone, the words go with them.
- safe
- endangered
- on the brink
- gone
4,093 of 6,981 living languages are endangered. Another 1,139 are already gone.
Source: Glottolog v5.3, CC BY 4.0
- There are 6,981 living languages on Earth. Each dot is one of them.
- 4,093 of them are endangered.
- 1,139 languages are already gone: no one speaks them any more.
Share of people older than 65
- < 5 %
- 5–10 %
- 10–15 %
- 15–20 %
- 20–25 %
- ≥ 25 %
- no figure
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators; projection: Population Estimates and Projections. CC BY 4.0
- 1960: 5% of people on Earth are older than 65.
- 1990: 6.1% of people on Earth are older than 65.
- 2025: 10.4% of people on Earth are older than 65.
- 2050, projected: 16.3% of people on Earth will be older than 65.
Share of people older than 65 living alone
- < 5 %
- 5–10 %
- 10–15 %
- 15–20 %
- 20–30 %
- ≥ 30 %
- no figure
Share of people older than 65 in collective quarters
- < 0.5 %
- 0.5–1 %
- 1–2 %
- 2–4 %
- 4–6 %
- ≥ 6 %
- no figure
Source: United Nations, Population Division, databases on the living arrangements of older persons (2026) and on older persons in collective living quarters (2022). CC BY 3.0 IGO
- In Uzbekistan 6.1% of people older than 65 live alone. Across the world the middle figure is 13.9%.
- In collective quarters — care homes, hospitals, hostels and the like — the middle figure is 1.1% of people older than 65, across 116 countries with census figures.
Our idea
Mother tongue
Elders speak the language they think in. Nobody translates them on camera.
Subtitles by native speakers
Every translation is checked by someone for whom that language is their own.
Find by country, language and topic
Find advice from your country, in your grandmother’s language, or about what matters to you now.
How it works
Find
Think of the oldest person you know: a grandparent, a neighbour, a teacher.
Record
Ask for one piece of advice and film it on a phone, in their mother tongue.
Translate
Volunteers write the subtitles; a native speaker checks every line.
Publish
The voice appears on the map, and the country lights up.
Call someone older than you tonight
Every person has an elder. And every elder has something to teach.