2021: The year in charts

In 2020, the mortality rate from COVID-19 in the US was eightfold higher than that from influenza in a typical season. Heading into 2021, cases of SARS-CoV-2 persisted even with the approval and distribution of vaccines, largely due to the proliferation of virus variants and public resistance to the injections, mask wearing, and other personal behaviors. COVID-19 will never be eradicated, but it could become more like the common cold or flu—if much more of the population gets vaccinated.

Published in March

New drug development typically takes about ten years. Vaccines for COVID-19, though, were granted emergency-use approval in less than a year. The nature of the global crisis caused regulators and governments to accept higher levels of risk and carry out process steps in parallel rather than sequentially. As COVID-19 variants such as Omicron take hold, drugmakers may have to turn to these streamlined processes again and create vaccines specifically tailored to these variants.

Published in May

A global logistics task of unprecedented scale has so far proven insufficient in the push toward herd immunity against COVID-19. Manufacturers have distributed billions of vaccines worldwide, yet many countries have vaccination rates that remain well below 80 percent. This is due to a variety of challenges, including logistics capabilities to physically distribute the vaccines (especially in rural areas), a shortage of ancillary supplies such as personal protective equipment in the distribution areas, and vaccine misinformation and lack of motivation to receive it by some in the population.

Published in February

Herd immunity in several countries by summer seemed possible if they had faced only the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 virus and if a high percentage of those eligible to receive the vaccine had taken it. Instead, the more infectious Delta variant spread globally, and now the Omicron variant (with unknown contagiousness so far) has been detected in dozens of countries. Click through the interactive to see our projections from the fall—before Omicron emerged—in the quest for herd immunity.

Published in September

The shift to remote work at the start of the pandemic was abrupt. Organizations had to quickly implement virtual work or a hybrid model. But as leaders looked toward a postpandemic work environment, their messages—or lack thereof—about what this vision entailed left employees confused and anxious about whether their needs would be met.

Published in June

Business leaders who presumed they could ensure their workers stuck around just by offering bonuses but ignored the human aspects of work likely saw some of the Great Attrition in action. Flexible work schedules and time to care for family ranked high on the list of important factors for employees, which didn’t necessarily align with what organizations thought their workers valued.

Published in October

Americans who were already struggling financially before the pandemic faced even more economic instability. Lower-income workers, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ+ community cut back on spending more than other groups. Click through to see how people were affected on five financial dimensions.

Published in June

Frontline workers were deemed essential at the height of the pandemic and helped ensure Americans stayed fed, clothed, and cared for medically. Our analysis found that large shares of Black workers in these industries earn less than $30,000 annually.

Published in March

Black employees hold a disproportionate share of frontline jobs and encounter “broken rungs” on the corporate ladder, leading to a lack of Black leaders in organizations. There are only four Black CEOs at Fortune 500 companies.

Published in April

Women have made gains in corporate America but they remain underrepresented. Today, women still make up less than 25 percent of executive-level positions. And now, burnout from the pandemic has forced even more women to leave the workforce altogether.

Published in October

Remote work allowed for more flexibility but also resulted in more employee burnout as workers waited for their companies to provide better communication about the future of postpandemic work. Nearly half of all survey respondents indicated they were at least somewhat burned out at work since the start of the pandemic.

Published in April

The pandemic quickly changed how businesses get work done. According to our latest global survey on reskilling, many organizations increasingly prioritized the development of soft skills—reskilling workers to cultivate empathy, leadership, and adaptability skills.

Published in May

Working toward a sustainable future is no longer optional. And while there is no singular, clear answer to build a global economy that incorporates sustainability with inclusion and growth, there are powerful forces that link these three elements. Leaders and strategists can find the solutions by first asking the right questions—and by acknowledging that those three factors can’t be viewed as trade-offs.

Published in November

Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to climate change, but methane emissions are a close second: up to 50 percent of CH₄ emissions are the result of agricultural practices. Methane stays in the atmosphere for only a decade, but it traps more heat than CO₂ does.

Published in November

Sustainability efforts that protect natural habitats don’t just benefit the creatures living there. They help local economies thrive and could even reduce the risk of a future pandemic. Our edition of McKinsey for Kids on the value of nature explores why conserving mangrove forests has wide-reaching benefits, including preservation of the species shown in these illustrations.

Published in May

Protein alternatives stand a real chance to reduce emissions produced by agriculture, which contribute significantly to global warming. It could take as much as ten years for consumers to pay less for cultivated meat than they do for traditional proteins, but some buyers are already willing to pay extra for products deemed more sustainable.

Published in July

It’s miles away from the climate-change calamity, but it’s not shielded from humans’ messes. Space is cluttered with tens of thousands of pieces of debris, some of which have collided with other objects—such as the International Space Station. Cleaning up space junk will require a multitrack approach with collaboration among agencies and governments.

Published in October

What’s trendy in tech for execs? Advanced automation and going green. Cutting-edge digitization will use machine learning to automate programming tasks, interpret data in real time, and accelerate decision making. Click through to see which ten trends are most relevant to competitive advantage and tech investment.

Published in July

Advances in digitization are reliant upon semiconductors, found in everything from smartphones to cars. Shortages of these materials have left the supply chain in a lurch, forcing manufacturers to rethink how these chips are sourced. Our analysis found new paths through which many OEMs would shoulder more of the design and development work themselves.

Published in August

E-commerce is the ticket for businesses seeking to stay competitive during the pandemic. Retailers with strong digital footprints outperformed other industries during COVID-19 lockdowns. Companies that didn’t prioritize e-commerce may not catch up.

Published in July

Data breaches are becoming more sophisticated, prompting some industries—especially banking and healthcare—to enhance their cybersecurity measures. Protection efforts vary widely across sectors, despite increasing awareness and expectations among consumers. The seriousness of cyberthreats is so great that it prompted Nicole Perlroth, author and winner of the 2021 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year, to leave her position at the New York Times to join a new committee with the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Published in September