Only 6% of Americans Think the World Is Getting Better: 12 Charts That Say Otherwise

The World Bank counts people as living in extreme poverty if they have less than $3 a day, adjusted for prices and living costs. By that line, 43.4% of the world’s people were extremely poor in 1990. By 2015 the share was 13.4%, and in 2024 about 10.1%.

The bank raised the line from $2.15 to $3 in 2025, so older articles quote different numbers. The direction of the line is the same either way.

In 1950, a baby born anywhere on Earth could expect to live 46.4 years on average. By 2023, the number was 73.2, according to UN estimates compiled by Our World in Data.

That’s about 27 extra years, added within a single human lifetime. In 1990, the figure was 64.

In 1990, about 1 in 11 children in the world didn’t reach their fifth birthday. That share fell from 9.4% in 1990 to 3.7% in 2024, so more than 96 in 100 children now live to see age five, according to the UN’s child mortality estimates.

The chart shows the same data turned around: the share of children who make it to five, going back to 1800.

In 1820, only about 12 in 100 adults in the world could read and write a simple statement about their everyday life. By 1900 it was 21 in 100, by 1960 about 42, and in 2024, 87.7.

The long-run series comes from UNESCO and other sources. The chart itself notes that definitions changed over time, so the oldest numbers are estimates, but the direction of the curve is clear.

Women aged 25 and older around the world had spent an average of 5.4 years in school in 1990. By 2000 it was 6.6 years, and in 2023, 8.4.

That’s three more years in a classroom, on average, for women everywhere. The data comes from the UN Development Programme’s Human Development Report.

Our World in Data counts a person as having electricity if they have at least enough for basic lighting, charging a phone or running a radio for four hours a day. By that measure, 78% of the world’s people had electricity in 2000, 87% in 2015 and 92% in 2024.

The world added well over a billion people in those years, and the share with power still went up.

In 2000, less than half the world, 47%, cooked mainly with clean fuels such as gas or electricity instead of wood, coal or dung. By 2024, it was 75%.

Over the same years, the share using safely managed drinking water rose from 61% to 74%. That means water at home, available when it’s needed and free from contamination, according to the WHO and UNICEF monitoring program.

In 1970, there were 6.46 fatal airliner accidents for every million commercial flights. By 1990 the rate was 2.88, by 2010 0.89, and in 2022, 0.48.

That’s roughly a 13-fold improvement per flight, during decades when the number of flights grew enormously. The figures come from the Aviation Safety Network and the International Civil Aviation Organization.

In 1961, the world’s farms grew an average of 1.35 metric tons of cereal grain per hectare. In 2024, it was 4.21, more than three times as much from the same land.

The amount of food available per person rose too: from 2,184 calories a day in 1961 to 3,006 in 2023, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

In 1870, the average worker in the United States put in about 3,096 hours a year. By 1950 it was about 2,020, and in 2023, about 1,790.

That’s about 40% fewer hours on the job than 150 years ago. The early numbers cover full-time production workers outside farming; the modern ones cover the whole economy.

In 2010, 28.4% of the world’s people had used the internet in the previous three months. By 2015 it was 39.9%, by 2020 60.1%, and in 2025, 73.6%.

In 15 years, the internet went from something most people had never used to something most people use, according to the International Telecommunication Union.

In 2015, the pollster YouGov asked 18,235 adults in 17 countries, “All things considered, do you think the world is getting better or worse, or neither getting better nor worse?” In the U.S., only 6% said better. In France and Australia, it was 3%.

In a separate survey of 26,489 people in 28 countries, 52% said the share of people in extreme poverty was rising. As the first chart in this article shows, it was falling fast.