Since the war in Syria began in 2011, more than 250,000 people have been killed and more than half of Syria’s population has been displaced from their homes. Devastation on this scale is almost impossible to understand in the abstract: What does that kind of disaster do to a country? These numbers on indicators that feel familiar — things like GDP and school attendance rates — can help show how utterly the war has gutted this once-stable nation.
Syria’s collapse, in 7 charts
Zack Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox, where he covers ideology and challenges to democracy, both at home and abroad. His book on democracy, The Reactionary Spirit, was published 0n July 16. You can purchase it here.
1
Syria's economy has totally collapsed
Getting reliable numbers on Syria's economy is tough. But a solid estimate, from a UN-funded study by the Syrian Center for Policy Research, found that Syria's GDP shrank by a staggering 62 percent between 2011 and 2014. Here's some perspective on how bad this is: Between 1929 and 1932, the worst years of the Great Depression, global GDP fell by 15 percent. Syria's depression is more than four times as severe.
Image credit: (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)
4
Syria's health care system is collapsing in real time
As the situation in Syria gets worse, the country becomes less able to provide basic services. Its health care system, in particular, is a disaster. Doctors can't access the medicine they need; some hospitals are damaged or destroyed entirely by the fighting. A full 58 percent of Syrian hospitals are either partially functioning or entirely shut down. This chart shows just the decline over the past few months — surely a fraction of the change since the war began.
Image credit: (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)
5
Basic services like vaccination are declining
As Syria's economic and social infrastructure falls apart, citizens can't get their most basic needs satisfied, and the country slides backward. Polio was officially eradicated from Syria in 1999, yet the collapse in treatment led to an outbreak in 2014. Now experts are warning of a cholera "epidemic" breaking out in Syria, owing largely to the unsanitary conditions many displaced and impoverished Syrians are now forced to live in.
Image credit: (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)
6
Most Syrian kids are no longer in school
The war is doing damage that will last for decades. A generation of Syrians are growing up without access to education, which will make it that much harder for Syria to rebuild a modern economy when the war finally ends.
Image credit: (Zack Beauchamp/Vox)
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