A quick quiz from the book Factfulness by Hans Roling…
- In the last 20 years, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty worldwide has…?
A. Almost doubled
B. Remained more or less the same
C. Almost halved - How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A. 80%
B. 50%
C. 20% - How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
A. More than doubled
B. Remained more or less the same
C. Decreased to less than half
If you’re like most, you answered 1.) A 2.) B or C and 3.) A.
And if you’re like most, you’d be wrong.
Breaking it down
Turns out the number of people living in extreme poverty has almost halved in the last 20 years alone. In addition, over 80% of 1-year-old children have been vaccinated, and the number of deaths due to natural disasters is less than half of what it was 100 years ago.
Don’t feel bad though, almost no one gets the answers correct.
Hans’ book goes on to give plenty more examples related to everything from life expectancy to education. You can take the short 13 question quiz to see how you do (although keep in mind you’ve been primed to choose the right answers now, so the results will not likely be as surprising).
Regardless if you take the quiz or not, the moral of the story is that life on Earth has gotten incredibly better for most in a short amount of time. You can probably see signs of this around you as well if you think about it. I know have in my field.
Being a product manager at a software company, I spend much of my time helping develop tools to help students who struggle. Because of this, I know that if you are in elementary school and struggle with reading because of dyslexia or because English isn’t your primary language, there are lots of software supports that can help.
On the other hand, if you were in elementary school 20 years ago under similar circumstances your experience would be entirely different. Chances are that you would perform badly in school, end up unemployed or in a low wage job, or even in prison. There are of course success stories that we read about often of those who defied the odds, but these are the exception to the rule.
So what’s the takeaway?
Next time you watch the news and it’s all doom and gloom, remember that for the most part things are much better in the world than they were not that long ago.
Also, remember that just because things are getting better does not mean things are good. There are still millions of people who live in extreme poverty and that is very bad, but things have gotten much better and will likely continue to do so.
At a more granular/personal level, it’s important to know that small changes over time make a big difference. For example, if you leave your money in a savings account at 1% interest, it will still double in 70 years. That may not sound like much if you’re in your 50s now, but when it comes to history 70 years is a short time. And of course, big changes can make a big difference even quicker (If you earn 10% interest you’ll double your money in only 7 years).
This same idea holds true with diet and exercise, job hunting, and having a successful marriage. Small changes can really add up. This is why I always list the small things that will help me achieve the big things when planning my goals for the year.
Are any of the stats I listed surprising to you? Do you often feel like things are much worse than they really are after watching the news? Any small steps you are taking to help make a big change? I’d love to hear about it in the comments area below if so.