Few things make a bigger or stronger impact than a shocking fact or statistic. Numbers are also powerful in illustrating the magnitude of a problem. Add a colourful and interestingly designed book to the mix and you’ve got an all-in-one visual journey through some of the world’s biggest problems.

Jonathan Barnbrook’s The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts (published by Fiell) is a collection of some of the most startling global facts, covering everything from the arms trade to sanitation, globalisation and poverty.

While the book is a feast to look at, and something that can really be appreciated from a design perspective, it does raise serious questions about the status quo of global politics and highlights the various forms of inequality that are rampant in the world today. For example: '”For every $4 of aid provided to less economically developed nations, the major industrialised countries take back $1 through the imposition of trade restrictions” and “Every year 10 -14 billion units of small arms ammunition are produced - that's two units each for every person on the planet”.

No two spreads in this 192-page book are the same and the facts are cleverly divided into different sections, including trade, environment, human rights, war, arms trade and illicit drugs.