- 28% of all the wealth mankind has ever created (measured as GDP per capita), was created in these ten years
- Extreme poverty more than halved, from 18.2% to 8.6%. The number of poor was reduced by 158,000 – every day
- The child mortality rate was reduced by a third. As a result, 2.1 million children’s deaths were prevented this year
- Life expectancy increased from 69.5 to 72.6 years. So every day in the past decade, the average life span increased almost 8 hours
- The share of people governed by laws criminalising consensual same-sex acts declined from 40% to 27% (down from 74% in 1969)
- The share of countries with laws protecting women from violent partners increased from 53% to 78%
- The global death rate from indoor and outdoor pollution declined 19%
- Despite global warming, deaths from climate-related disasters declined by a third, to 0.35 per 100,000 people. A reduction by 95% since the 1960s
- Many rich countries have reached “peak stuff”. The consumption of 66 out of 72 resources tracked by the US Geological Survey is declining
- Despite setbacks and strongman nostalgia, the share who live in a “not free” country declined from 34% to 26% (down from 42.5% in 1980)
Yes, I know the next decade doesn’t start till January 1st 2021. But for everyone but the most pedantic, it starts tomorrow. I expect it to be even better than the decade we are leaving.
Looking further back, when I was born, 60% of the World’s population lived in poverty, 36% in extreme poverty. Those shares are now 26% and 8.6%, respectively.
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