April 1st marks the beginning of #78DaysOfProgress, a thread that will outline seventy-eight different ways the world is getting better. 

If you can't wait that long, you can check out all 78 trends in our bestselling book: https://www.tenglobaltrends.org/


If you can't wait that long, you can check out all 78 trends in our bestselling book: https://www.tenglobaltrends.org/

Compare the historical pace of progress with our response time to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Absolute CO2 emissions have yet to fall outside of economic recessions, but emission efficiency is a step in the right direction.
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Some scholars attribute this trend to TV news, arguing that seeing the horrors of war on-screen made us much more sensitive to war casualties.
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That's great news. Cities lead to growth and innovation and are good for the environment.
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In premodern societies, 300 out of every 1000 infants died before their first birthday.
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The percentage of countries that qualified as democracies rose from 31 percent in 1989 to 49 percent in 2017.
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Since 2012, more than 100 million people per year have gained access to electricity.
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Some regions still lag behind, but increasing urbanization, education, and wealth will likely make people everywhere more tolerant in the future.
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While more people die of cancer today than in the past, the age-adjusted cancer death rate fell 17% between 1990 and 2016.
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Interstate warfare has declined as countries have become wealthier, more democratic, and more economically intertwined.
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It's worth noting that after adjusting for job title, education, and experience, the wage gap in many developed nations becomes insignificant.
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In fact, resources tend to become more abundant over time relative to the demand for them.
Learn more about resource abundance and time prices here: https://www.humanprogress.org/resources-are-more-abundant-than-ever-and-people-are-the-reason/
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Researchers predict 146 million hectares will return to nature by 2060.
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Most executions today take place in China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam.
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The EPA reports that between 1970 and 2018, total emissions of the six principal air pollutants dropped by 74% despite a 275% increase in GDP.
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According to economist Mark J. Perry, the average round-trip U.S. domestic airfare fell 43% between 1979 and 2017.
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At the height of the cold war, there were 64,449 nuclear warheads. In 2018, there were 9,305.
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The FAO reports that the global prevalence of undernourishment fell to a low of 10.6% in 2015.
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The average annual hours worked per worker in 81 developed countries declined from 2,123 in 1950 to 1,732 in 2017.
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According to the ILO, child laborers as a proportion of all children ages 5 to 17 dropped globally from 16% in 2000 to 9.6% in 2016.
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This increase in production took place even though the amount of land used to cultivate food crops only increased by around 15% in the same period.
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Luckily, some of the world's largest economies are setting a good example for the rest of the world.
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As of 2018, global vaccination coverage remains at 85%.
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And meat and dairy aren't as wasteful as people say: 86% of global livestock feed consists of grasses and crop residues that are inedible to humans.
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By making a myriad of older devices obsolete, smartphones can reduce material use by a factor of 300 and power use by a factor of 100.
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In fact, IQ tests are "renormed" every 15-20 years to account for this trend. A person with a score of 100 in 1965 would likely score just 85 points on current tests.
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As such, the average American's living space nearly doubled between 1973 and 2017.
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However, the global prevalence of daily smokers fell from 25.1% to 18.6% between 1980 and 2012.
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Indeed, proven crude oil reserves have nearly tripled since 1980.
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While the press has become freer since the 1980s, recent setbacks make its future uncertain.
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The U.N. estimates that the average life expectancy will be 83 by the end of the century.
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In 2007, Mauritania became the last country to criminalize enslavement.
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Instead, they spent $1.7 trillion.
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By 2013, 87% of white Americans approved of interracial marriage.
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Thanks to falling infant mortality rates, the death rates in some less developed countries are lower than the death rates in richer countries with older citizens.
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Humanity has begun the process of withdrawing from the natural world.
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