diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/CoreTableColumns.ts b/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/CoreTableColumns.ts
index 09120f2fba..72bfe436e0 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/CoreTableColumns.ts
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/core-table/src/CoreTableColumns.ts
@@ -269,12 +269,6 @@ export abstract class AbstractCoreColumn<JS_TYPE extends PrimitiveType> {
         return undefined
     }
 
-    @imemo get displayUnit(): string | undefined {
-        return this.unit && this.unit !== this.shortUnit
-            ? this.unit.replace(/^\((.*)\)$/, "$1")
-            : undefined
-    }
-
     // Returns a map where the key is a series slug such as "name" and the value is a set
     // of all the unique values that this column has for that particular series.
     getUniqueValuesGroupedBy(
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/axis/Axis.ts b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/axis/Axis.ts
index a5ec9351ff..193e28782c 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/axis/Axis.ts
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/axis/Axis.ts
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import { AxisConfig, AxisManager } from "./AxisConfig"
 import { MarkdownTextWrap } from "@ourworldindata/components"
 import { ColumnTypeMap, CoreColumn } from "@ourworldindata/core-table"
 import { GRAPHER_FONT_SCALE_12 } from "../core/GrapherConstants.js"
+import { makeAxisLabel } from "../chart/ChartUtils"
 
 interface TickLabelPlacement {
     value: number
@@ -503,21 +504,26 @@ abstract class AbstractAxis {
                 this.axisManager?.detailsOrderedByReference,
         }
 
-        const displayUnit = this.formatColumn?.displayUnit
-        if (displayUnit) {
+        const axisLabel = makeAxisLabel({
+            label: this.label,
+            unit: this.formatColumn?.unit,
+            shortUnit: this.formatColumn?.shortUnit,
+        })
+
+        if (axisLabel.unit) {
             return MarkdownTextWrap.fromFragments({
-                main: { text: this.label, bold: true },
-                secondary: { text: `(${displayUnit})` },
+                main: { text: axisLabel.mainLabel, bold: true },
+                secondary: { text: axisLabel.unit },
                 newLine: "avoid-wrap",
                 textWrapProps,
             })
-        } else {
-            return new MarkdownTextWrap({
-                text: this.label,
-                fontWeight: 700,
-                ...textWrapProps,
-            })
         }
+
+        return new MarkdownTextWrap({
+            text: axisLabel.mainLabel,
+            fontWeight: 700,
+            ...textWrapProps,
+        })
     }
 
     @computed get labelHeight(): number {
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/chart/ChartUtils.tsx b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/chart/ChartUtils.tsx
index 206b71cb57..0a0e7a0ad1 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/chart/ChartUtils.tsx
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/chart/ChartUtils.tsx
@@ -228,3 +228,35 @@ export function byHoverThenFocusState(series: {
     // background series rank lowest
     return 1
 }
+
+export function makeAxisLabel({
+    label,
+    unit,
+    shortUnit,
+}: {
+    label: string
+    unit?: string
+    shortUnit?: string
+}): {
+    mainLabel: string // shown in bold
+    unit?: string // shown in normal weight, usually in parens
+} {
+    const displayUnit = unit && unit !== shortUnit ? unit : undefined
+    const unitInParens = displayUnit ? `(${displayUnit})` : undefined
+
+    if (unitInParens) {
+        // extract text in parens at the end of the label,
+        // e.g. "Population (millions)" is split into "Population " and "(millions)"
+        const [_fullMatch, untrimmedMainLabelText, labelTextInParens] =
+            label.trim().match(/^(.*?)(\([^()]*\))?$/) ?? []
+        const mainLabelText = untrimmedMainLabelText.trim()
+
+        // don't show unit twice if it's contained in the label
+        const displayLabel =
+            labelTextInParens === unitInParens ? mainLabelText : label
+
+        return { mainLabel: displayLabel, unit: unitInParens }
+    }
+
+    return { mainLabel: label }
+}
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/Tooltip.scss b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/Tooltip.scss
index 13c0245cee..2d4d578107 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/Tooltip.scss
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/Tooltip.scss
@@ -117,14 +117,6 @@
                         .unit {
                             font-weight: $medium;
                             font-style: normal;
-
-                            &::before {
-                                content: "(";
-                            }
-
-                            &::after {
-                                content: ")";
-                            }
                         }
                     }
 
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/TooltipContents.tsx b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/TooltipContents.tsx
index a5e6d85c76..620207644a 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/TooltipContents.tsx
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/tooltip/TooltipContents.tsx
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ import {
     TooltipValueRangeProps,
     TooltipContext,
 } from "./TooltipProps"
+import { makeAxisLabel } from "../chart/ChartUtils.js"
 
 export const NO_DATA_COLOR = "#999"
 
@@ -132,22 +133,25 @@ class Variable extends React.Component<{
 
         if (column.isMissing || column.name === "time") return null
 
-        const { displayUnit, displayName } = column,
-            displayNotice =
-                uniq((notice ?? []).filter((t) => t !== undefined))
-                    .map((time) =>
-                        typeof time === "number"
-                            ? column.formatTime(time)
-                            : time
-                    )
-                    .join("\u2013") || null
+        const { mainLabel: label, unit } = makeAxisLabel({
+            label: column.displayName,
+            unit: column.unit,
+            shortUnit: column.shortUnit,
+        })
+
+        const displayNotice =
+            uniq((notice ?? []).filter((t) => t !== undefined))
+                .map((time) =>
+                    typeof time === "number" ? column.formatTime(time) : time
+                )
+                .join("\u2013") || null
 
         return (
             <div className="variable">
                 <div className="definition">
-                    {displayName && <span className="name">{displayName}</span>}
-                    {displayUnit && displayUnit.length > 1 && (
-                        <span className="unit">{displayUnit}</span>
+                    {label && <span className="name">{label}</span>}
+                    {unit && unit.length > 1 && (
+                        <span className="unit">{unit}</span>
                     )}
                 </div>
                 <div className="values" style={{ color }}>