diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrap.tsx b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrap.tsx
index d32897f7c1e..4f0ece86fa4 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrap.tsx
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrap.tsx
@@ -1,12 +1,7 @@
-import {
-    isEmpty,
-    max,
-    stripHTML,
-    Bounds,
-    FontFamily,
-} from "@ourworldindata/utils"
+import { max, stripHTML, Bounds, FontFamily } from "@ourworldindata/utils"
 import { computed } from "mobx"
 import React from "react"
+import { Fragment, joinFragments, splitIntoFragments } from "./TextWrapUtils"
 
 declare type FontSize = number
 
@@ -16,6 +11,7 @@ interface TextWrapProps {
     lineHeight?: number
     fontSize: FontSize
     fontWeight?: number
+    separators?: string[]
     rawHtml?: boolean
 }
 
@@ -81,6 +77,9 @@ export class TextWrap {
     @computed get text(): string {
         return this.props.text
     }
+    @computed get separators(): string[] {
+        return this.props.separators ?? [" "]
+    }
 
     // We need to take care that HTML tags are not split across lines.
     // Instead, we want every line to have opening and closing tags for all tags that appear.
@@ -127,26 +126,27 @@ export class TextWrap {
     }
 
     @computed get lines(): WrapLine[] {
-        const { text, maxWidth, fontSize, fontWeight } = this
+        const { text, separators, maxWidth, fontSize, fontWeight } = this
 
-        const words = isEmpty(text)
-            ? []
-            : // Prepend spaces so that the string is also split before newline characters
-              // See startsWithNewline
-              text.replace(/\n/g, " \n").split(" ")
+        // Prepend spaces so that the string is also split before newline characters
+        // See startsWithNewline
+        const fragments = splitIntoFragments(
+            text.replace(/\n/g, " \n"),
+            separators
+        )
 
         const lines: WrapLine[] = []
 
-        let line: string[] = []
+        let line: Fragment[] = []
         let lineBounds = Bounds.empty()
 
-        words.forEach((word) => {
-            const nextLine = line.concat([word])
+        fragments.forEach((fragment) => {
+            const nextLine = line.concat([fragment])
 
             // Strip HTML if a raw string is passed
             const text = this.props.rawHtml
-                ? stripHTML(nextLine.join(" "))
-                : nextLine.join(" ")
+                ? stripHTML(joinFragments(nextLine))
+                : joinFragments(nextLine)
 
             const nextBounds = Bounds.forText(text, {
                 fontSize,
@@ -154,18 +154,23 @@ export class TextWrap {
             })
 
             if (
-                startsWithNewline(word) ||
+                startsWithNewline(fragment.text) ||
                 (nextBounds.width + 10 > maxWidth && line.length >= 1)
             ) {
                 // Introduce a newline _before_ this word
                 lines.push({
-                    text: line.join(" "),
+                    text: joinFragments(line),
                     width: lineBounds.width,
                     height: lineBounds.height,
                 })
                 // ... and start a new line with this word (with a potential leading newline stripped)
-                const wordWithoutNewline = word.replace(/^\n/, "")
-                line = [wordWithoutNewline]
+                const wordWithoutNewline = fragment.text.replace(/^\n/, "")
+                line = [
+                    {
+                        text: wordWithoutNewline,
+                        separator: fragment.separator,
+                    },
+                ]
                 lineBounds = Bounds.forText(wordWithoutNewline, {
                     fontSize,
                     fontWeight,
@@ -179,7 +184,7 @@ export class TextWrap {
         // Push the last line
         if (line.length > 0)
             lines.push({
-                text: line.join(" "),
+                text: joinFragments(line),
                 width: lineBounds.width,
                 height: lineBounds.height,
             })
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.test.ts b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.test.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..6cae2e6092e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.test.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+#! /usr/bin/env jest
+
+import { joinFragments, splitIntoFragments } from "./TextWrapUtils"
+
+it("splits text correctly into fragments", () => {
+    expect(splitIntoFragments("")).toEqual([])
+    expect(splitIntoFragments("word")).toEqual([
+        { text: "word", separator: "" },
+    ])
+    expect(splitIntoFragments("an example line")).toEqual([
+        { text: "an", separator: " " },
+        { text: "example", separator: " " },
+        { text: "line", separator: "" },
+    ])
+    expect(splitIntoFragments("high-income countries")).toEqual([
+        { text: "high-income", separator: " " },
+        { text: "countries", separator: "" },
+    ])
+    expect(splitIntoFragments("high-income countries", [" ", "-"])).toEqual([
+        { text: "high", separator: "-" },
+        { text: "income", separator: " " },
+        { text: "countries", separator: "" },
+    ])
+})
+
+it("splits and joins text correctly into fragments", () => {
+    const examples = [
+        "",
+        "word",
+        "an example line",
+        "an example    spaced   out text",
+        "an example-with-hyphens",
+        "an example - with - a - differennt - kind-of - hyphen",
+        "hyphen at the end -",
+        "a mixed-bag - ok",
+    ]
+    for (const text of examples) {
+        expect(joinFragments(splitIntoFragments(text))).toEqual(text)
+        expect(joinFragments(splitIntoFragments(text, [" ", "-"]))).toEqual(
+            text
+        )
+    }
+})
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.ts b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c9b6bbe94be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/components/src/TextWrap/TextWrapUtils.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+import { isEmpty } from "@ourworldindata/utils"
+
+export type Fragment = {
+    text: string
+    separator: string
+}
+
+export function splitIntoFragments(
+    text: string,
+    separators = [" "]
+): Fragment[] {
+    if (isEmpty(text)) return []
+    const fragments: Fragment[] = []
+    let currText = ""
+    for (const char of text) {
+        if (separators.includes(char)) {
+            fragments.push({ text: currText, separator: char })
+            currText = ""
+        } else {
+            currText += char
+        }
+    }
+    fragments.push({ text: currText, separator: "" })
+    return fragments
+}
+
+export function joinFragments(fragments: Fragment[]): string {
+    return fragments
+        .map(({ text, separator }) => text + separator)
+        .join("")
+        .trim()
+}
diff --git a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/slopeCharts/SlopeChart.tsx b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/slopeCharts/SlopeChart.tsx
index f4b50cfd839..b359d5472b6 100644
--- a/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/slopeCharts/SlopeChart.tsx
+++ b/packages/@ourworldindata/grapher/src/slopeCharts/SlopeChart.tsx
@@ -925,6 +925,7 @@ class LabelledSlopes
                 ...valueLabelProps,
                 maxWidth,
                 fontWeight: 700,
+                separators: [" ", "-"],
             }
             const leftEntityLabel = new TextWrap({
                 text,