Sources of the figures

Why this page

The book La Sageocratie, to be published in September 2027, cites figures. Here, for each one, are a short sentence and its source. These sources were checked before the book was printed, in October 2026.

Some figures change every year: they are given as of the date indicated.

Money and debt

• Banks create most of the money by granting loans.
  Source: Bank of England, M. McLeay, A. Radia, R. Thomas, « Money Creation in the Modern Economy », Quarterly Bulletin, 2014 Q1.
• At the end of 2025, debts worldwide (states, companies, households, finance) reached about 348,000 billion dollars, roughly three times what the planet produces in a year.
  Source: Institute of International Finance (IIF), Global Debt Monitor, 2026. February 2026; about 308% of world output.
• The wealth of the richest 1% exceeds that of the poorest 95% combined.
  Source: Oxfam, 2024. Published on 23 September 2024, based on data from the bank UBS.
• The public debt of France exceeds 3,000 billion euros.
  Source: Insee, 2025. About 3,400 billion euros.
• More than half of the French State's debt securities are held by foreign creditors.
  Source: Agence France Trésor (AFT), 2025. 56% at the end of 2025.
• The gold reserves of the Banque de France are among the largest in the world.
  Source: World Gold Council, « Gold reserves by country » (IMF data), 2026. About 2,437 tonnes, fourth in the world.
• In 1932 and 1933, the Austrian town of Wörgl put into circulation a currency that lost value over time, until it was banned at the request of the central bank.
  Source: Land Tirol, Museen in Tirol, « Heimatmuseum Wörgl », 2012 ; Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, exhibition « Freiwirtschaftliche Markierungen ». First issue on 31 July 1932, end in September 1933.
• In 1948, western Germany changed its currency: wages and prices at one for one, debts cut to a tenth, savings almost wiped out, and the same starting sum for everyone, 40 marks and then 20.
  Source: Deutsche Bundesbank, « Währungsreform 1948 », 2008 ; Bundesarchiv, « Währungsreform und Berlin-Blockade » ; German History in Documents and Images, « Währungsreform (20. Juni 1948) ». Reform of 20 June 1948; the frozen savings were later converted at 6.5 per 100 (law of October 1948).
• In 2008, Ecuador stopped paying part of its debt, which it considered illegitimate, then bought most of it back at about a third of its value.
  Source: LatinFinance, « Ecuador buys back at 35 », 27 May 2009 ; LatinNews, June 2009. Buyback at 35% of face value; 91% of the 2012 and 2030 bonds bought back (announced on 11 June 2009).
• Iceland twice refused, by referendum, to make its people pay for the losses of a private bank; the court ruled in its favour in 2013.
  Source: EFTA Court, Icesave, 28.01.2013. Referendums of 2010 and 2011.

Food and land

• Nearly a third of the food produced in the world is lost (about 13%) or wasted (nearly 20%).
  Source: FAO, 2021 ; UNEP, Food Waste Index Report 2024. 13.2% lost; 19% wasted.
• Hundreds of millions of people do not have enough to eat.
  Source: FAO et al., The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI), 2025. 673 million undernourished people in 2024.
• In the hundred largest French urban areas, about 2% of what the inhabitants eat comes from their own territory, and 97% of what is produced there goes elsewhere.
  Source: Utopies, note de position n° 12, 2017.
• France brings in from elsewhere nearly half of the fruit and vegetables it eats.
  Source: Sénat, 2019 ; FranceAgriMer. Fruit: 60 to 71%; vegetables: 28 to 40%.
• In 2021, Sri Lanka's rice harvest fell by nearly 40% in one season.
  Source: USDA. A fall of 36 to 42% depending on the season and the estimate.
• Livestock farming takes up 70 to 80% of the world's agricultural land, and provides less than 20% of calories.
  Source: J. Poore, T. Nemecek, Science, 2018. About 77% of the land and 18% of calories.
• A dairy cow is most often sent to the slaughterhouse at around five or six years old, when it could live some twenty years.
  Source: I. Vredenberg et al., « An Empirical Analysis on the Longevity of Dairy Cows in Relation to Economic Herd Performance », Frontiers in Veterinary Science, 2021. Average age on leaving the herd: 5.87 years (Dutch farms); natural lifespan: about 20 years.
• In Japan, after the Second World War, about a third of the farmland passed to those who worked it, to the benefit of seven farming families in ten.
  Source: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF), « Japan's post-war agricultural land reform and subsequent agricultural land system » ; T. Kawagoe, « Agricultural Land Reform in Postwar Japan: Experiences and Issues », World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 2111, 1999 ; T. Misawa, « Agrarian Reform, Employment and Rural Incomes in Japan », International Labour Review, 1971. 1.74 million hectares bought from the owners and resold to 4.75 million farmers; land farmed by tenants fell from about 40% in 1947 to 9% in 1955.
• In Senegal, a 1964 law placed most of the land outside ownership.
  Source: Loi n° 64-46 du 17 juin 1964 relative au domaine national (Sénégal).

Health

• Nearly four cancers in ten are linked to causes that can be avoided.
  Source: WHO / IARC, Fink et al., Nature Medicine, 2026. 37.8% of new cancers in 2022; published in February 2026.
• Several cancers affect more and more adults under fifty.
  Source: BMJ Oncology, 2023 ; The Lancet Oncology, 2024, 2025.
• Dozens of studies link ultra-processed food to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
  Source: The BMJ, 2024. Meta-analyses, which bring together many studies.
• More than one adult in five sleeps six hours or less, and one in three complains of insomnia.
  Source: Santé publique France, « Sommeil : temps moyen sur 24 heures et plainte d'insomnie », Baromètre de Santé publique France 2024. Published on 11 December 2025; 21.5% of adults aged 18 to 79.
• In France, men live on average to 80 and women to over 85; without disability, until about 64.
  Source: Insee, Bilan démographique 2025 ; DREES, Études et Résultats n° 1363, 2026. 80.3 and 85.9 years; without disability: 63.7 and 64.1 years (2024 data).
• The World Health Organization's definition of health appears in its Constitution, in force since 1948.
  Source: Constitution of the World Health Organization, 1946. Adopted in New York in July 1946, in force on 7 April 1948.
• In Japan, the authorities have encouraged “forest bathing” since 1982; in Canada, doctors can prescribe time in nature.
  Source: Forestry Agency (林野庁), Japan, 1982 ; PaRx (Canada), 2020.

Housing, energy and land use

• France has about 31 million main residences, and more than 3 million empty homes.
  Source: Insee. About 3.1 million empty homes.
• France has never started building more than about 550,000 homes in a single year.
  Source: CREDOC, 1986 ; Journal de l'année Larousse, 1973. Record of 1972-1973: from 554,000 to 556,000 housing starts.
• Several million main residences are rated F or G: they let their heat escape.
  Source: Observatoire national de la rénovation énergétique (ONRE). About 4 to 5 million.
• A passive house needs about ten times less energy for heating than an old home.
  Source: S. Peper, W. Feist, Passivhaus Institut, « Energy efficiency of the Passive House Standard: Expectations confirmed by measurements in practice », 2015. Measured saving of about 90%; heating demand capped at 15 kWh per m² per year.
• Oil and gas provide more than half of the energy consumed in France.
  Source: SDES, 2024. Final consumption: oil about 39%, gas about 18%.
• Since 2016, the “bail réel solidaire” lets people buy a home whose land stays with a non-profit body.
  Source: Ordonnance du 20 juillet 2016 (France).
• In 2021, France set itself by law the goal of no longer building over land by 2050 without returning as much to nature.
  Source: Loi Climat et résilience, 2021 (France). The “zero net land take” goal.
• Since 1896, Amsterdam has leased most of its land on long-term ground leases instead of selling it.
  Source: Gemeente Amsterdam, « Wat is erfpacht » ; Rekenkamer Amsterdam, « Canonherziening einde tijdvak en Verlengde afkoop erfpacht ». The City owns about 80 to 85% of the municipality's land.
• In Vienna, nearly half of the inhabitants live in municipal housing or in housing owned by a non-profit body.
  Source: Stadt Wien, Integrationsmonitor 2023, chapter 9.3 (Mikrozensus 2019-2022). About 45% of the inhabitants; counting all subsidised housing, the City puts it at about 60%.
• In Burlington (Vermont), a community land trust founded in 1984 keeps thousands of homes out of speculation.
  Source: Champlain Housing Trust (Burlington Community Land Trust, 1984). About 2,800 to 3,000 homes.
• In Germany, the Mietshäuser Syndikat network has taken nearly two hundred houses and buildings off the market.
  Source: Mietshäuser Syndikat (Freiburg, 1992). 191 projects in June 2024.

Society, democracy and justice

• A survey published in 2024, of nearly 130,000 people in 125 countries: a large majority want action on the climate, but each believes the others are less ready.
  Source: P. Andre et al., Nature Climate Change, 2024.
• The commune of Saillans, in the Drôme (France), involved its inhabitants in its decisions from 2014 to 2020, with a collegial municipal team.
  Source: Reporterre, G. d'Allens, « Dans la Drôme, la dynamique des listes citoyennes portée par l'exemple de Saillans », 27 June 2020 ; Politis, February 2020. The list « Autrement pour Saillans… Tous ensemble » was elected in March 2014 and lost in 2020 by 18 votes.
• France's Citizens' Convention for Climate brought together 150 citizens drawn by lot, from October 2019 to June 2020.
  Source: Conseil économique, social et environnemental (CESE), « Après 8 mois de travail, la Convention Citoyenne pour le Climat a rendu ses propositions », 30 June 2020. 149 proposals handed to the Government on 21 June 2020.
• In Ireland, an assembly of citizens drawn by lot examined the question of abortion in 2016 and 2017, before the 2018 referendum.
  Source: The Citizens' Assembly, « First Report and Recommendations of the Citizens' Assembly: The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution », 29 June 2017 ; Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution Act 2018. Referendum of 25 May 2018, approved by 66.4% of voters.
• In the 2024 OpenResearch study (an income paid with no conditions), working time fell by a little over one hour a week.
  Source: OpenResearch, 2024 ; NBER Working Paper w32711. 1.3 hours a week.
• The Mondragón cooperatives, in the Basque Country, limit the pay gap: the highest salary does not, in principle, exceed six times the lowest.
  Source: International Labour Organization (ILO), interview with L. Mugerza Garate, President of the Mondragon Congress, 12 December 2023. A gap of 1 to 6 in principle; some cooperatives go up to 1 to 9.
• In France, the social security system was created less than two years after the programme of the National Council of the Resistance.
  Source: Programme du CNR, « Les Jours heureux », adopted on 15 March 1944 ; ordonnance n° 45-2250 du 4 octobre 1945 portant organisation de la sécurité sociale ; Conseil d'État, « Les 80 ans de la Sécurité sociale », Droits et Débats n° 49.
• Since 2024, the freedom to have an abortion has been written into the French Constitution.
  Source: Loi constitutionnelle n° 2024-200 du 8 mars 2024 (Article 34 of the Constitution), Journal officiel of 9 March 2024.
• In a quarter of a century, nearly forty countries have opened marriage to same-sex couples.
  Source: Pew Research Center, « Same-Sex Marriage Around the World », 2 June 2025. First country: the Netherlands, in 2001.
• Uncle Tom's Cabin sold, in its first year, 300,000 copies in the United States and more than a million worldwide.
  Source: Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (Hartford), « Uncle Tom's Cabin ». 10,000 copies in the first week; 1.5 million in one year in Great Britain. The author's visit to Lincoln dates from 1862.
• On 9 October 1989, in Leipzig, about 70,000 people marched without violence after the prayer for peace at St. Nicholas Church, held every Monday since 1982.
  Source: German History in Documents and Images (German Historical Institute, Washington), « Prayer for Peace at St. Nicholas Church in Leipzig (October 9, 1989) ». Estimates range from 70,000 to more than 100,000 people.
• In France, nearly two in three people leaving prison are convicted again within five years.
  Source: Ministère de la Justice, SSER, 2024. 62.9%, December 2024. Measurement methods differ from one country to another.
• Norway has one of the lowest reoffending rates: about one in five people leaving prison there is convicted again within two years.
  Source: R. Kristoffersen (ed.), Correctional Statistics of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden 2013-2017, University College of Norwegian Correctional Service (KRUS), 2019. 18% in 2013, 20% in 2014; Denmark, Finland and Sweden between 33 and 38%. Measurement methods differ from one country to another.
• New Zealand brought repair into its juvenile justice system as early as 1989.
  Source: Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act 1989 (New Zealand).
• Finland, at the top of the first PISA rankings in the early 2000s, has fallen back markedly since.
  Source: OECD, « Knowledge and Skills for Life: First Results from PISA 2000 », 2001 ; OECD, « PISA 2022 Results », 2023 ; Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö (Finland), December 2023. Reading: 546 points and first place in 2000; mathematics: 548 points in 2006, 484 in 2022.
• Iceland has been ranked first in the world, every year since 2009, for equality between women and men.
  Source: World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report. 16 editions in a row in 2025.
• More than twenty countries, often small ones, live without an army.
  Source: C. Barbey, « Non-Militarisation: Countries without Armies », Åland Islands Peace Institute, 2015. At least 26 countries.
• Costa Rica abolished its army in 1948 and produces electricity that is very largely renewable.
  Source: Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), 2024. About 90% in 2024, a year of drought.
• Costa Rica protects about a quarter of its territory in parks and reserves.
  Source: Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación (SINAC-MINAE), Mapa de Áreas Silvestres Protegidas 2023. 152 protected areas; 13,031.87 km², or 25.5% of the land territory.
• The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in 2017 by 122 countries, and came into force in 2021.
  Source: Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (United Nations), 2017.
• Bluefin tuna: an international plan came into force in 2007; some fifteen years later, the population had become healthy again.
  Source: ICCAT, Recommendation 06-05 ; ICCAT stock assessment, 2022.
• The European Court of Human Rights accepts that a reform carried out for greater social justice may pay less than the market price.
  Source: European Court of Human Rights, James and Others v. the United Kingdom (21.02.1986) ; Lithgow and Others v. the United Kingdom (08.07.1986).

Rights of nature and history

• The Whanganui River, in New Zealand, has been recognised as a legal person since 2017.
  Source: Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017.
• Ecuador wrote the rights of nature into its Constitution in 2008.
  Source: Constitución de la República del Ecuador, 2008.
• The canton of Zurich had, for nearly twenty years, an animal advocate in its courts.
  Source: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, S. Ellner, « Die Stimme der Tiere verstummt », 16 December 2010. The post was approved in 1991 by 83% of voters and abolished at the end of 2010.
• At Nebelivka (Ukraine), about 6,000 years ago, a town of several thousand inhabitants; at Teotihuacan (Mexico), around the year 300, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants.
  Source: D. Graeber, D. Wengrow, The Dawn of Everything, 2021. Nebelivka: 80 radiocarbon datings. The interpretation of Teotihuacan is still debated.