The Lot of the World's People Continues to Improve

A recent survey asked “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?”. In Sweden 10% thought things are getting better, in the US they were only 6%, and in Germany only 4%. Very few people think that the world is getting better.

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But the facts belie this pessimistic view.

1. The proportion of the world's people living in extreme poverty has declined from 94% in 1820 to 10% now.

2. Literacy worldwide has increased from 10% in 1800 to over 80% now.

3. The proportion of the world's population that dies before the age of 5 has declined from 43% in 1800 to 3% now.

4. The proportion of the world's population living in a democracy has increased from 1% in 1830 to 50% now.

5. More than half of the world's people will complete secondary or post secondary education compared to one third of them just 45 years ago.

To this I'd add a couple of other items:

The rate of population growth is declining world wide.

A greater proportion of the world's people than ever have access to clean water and adequate nutrition.

See it in graphic form.

I thought it was that kind of cynicism that got Trump elected. After all, America wasn't great anymore, but he's gonna make it great again.