Happy Friday! In a world of constant cynicism and fear, here’s 36 datapoints about many major positive trends in the world (OC)
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1. Child mortality has fallen by [more than half since 1990](https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/under-five-mortality). If you look at developing regions, the gains are even more impressive. In Africa, 17 percent of children died before reaching age 5 in 1990. By 2015, that was down to 8 percent.
2. The portion of women who were married as children globally has [dropped 15% in the last decade](https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/06/health/unicef-child-marriage/index.html)
3. Children’s involvement in child labor and hazardous work globally has [dropped by 50% since 2000](https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575499.pdf). That’s 134 million fewer children in hazardous work.
4. Reports of [missing children are down 40%]https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/14/theres-never-been-a-safer-time-to-be-a-kid-in-america) since 1997
5. Arrests of juveniles (ages 10-17) has [declined 72%](https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/JAR_Display.asp?ID=qa05200) from 1996
6. The violent crime rate in the US has [fallen over 51% from 1991-2018](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/10/17/facts-about-crime-in-the-u-s/)
7. The [property crime rate](https://www.statista.com/statistics/191237/reported-property-crime-rate-in-the-us-since-1990) in the US has fallen over 57% from 1990 to 2018
8. [All motor vehicle deaths in the US](https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/historical-fatality-trends/deaths-and-rates) have fallen from 22.7 people per 100k in 1979 to 11.4 in 2017. A nearly 50% drop
9. The number of [deaths from malaria](https://ourworldindata.org/malaria) has declined from 840k in 2000 to 438k in 2015. The largest improvement has been in children under 5. In 2003, they had a death rate of nearly 100 deaths per 100,000 children. It’s fallen to 52 deaths per 100,000 children in 2017
10. We are in early stages, but [CRISPR gene editing](https://www.labiotech.eu/tops/crispr-technology-cure-disease/) / gene therapy technology shows immense promise to both fix any genetic disease as well as prevent any genetic diseases from being passed through heredity. This link shows 7 major diseases that could be cured (include Cystic Fibrosis, blood disorders, blindness, MD, Cancer and others. And this isn’t just theoretical. They are testing eradicating Lyme disease in Nantucket right now (https://tuftsmagazine.com/issues/magazine/fighting-lyme-disease-gene-editing) and Malaria (https://www.wired.com/story/heres-the-plan-to-end-malaria-with-crispr-edited-mosquitoes/)
11. [Houses with malaria nets](https://www.vox.com/2014/11/24/7272929/global-poverty-health-crime-literacy-good-news) have gone from 50% to over 80% in sub Saharan Africa just in this decade
12. Numerous [infections diseases have been effectively eradicated from the planet](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/05/7-deadly-diseases-the-world-has-almost-eradicated/). This link is a bit old, because since even 2017, Guinea worm and polio have been completely eradicated and there is now a vaccine for Ebola – which killed over 10,000 people in the most recent outbreak in 2014. But the measles rate has dropped 75% since 2000 and Rubella has been eliminated from the Americas
13. [Primary school enrollment globally is at over 89%](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR). Less than 25 years ago, it was under 82%
14. [Global illiteracy has fallen from 30% of the world](https://ourworldindata.org/literacy) in 1980 to under 14% of the world now
15. Death rates from air pollution per 100,000 people has [dropped from 116 in 1990 to 66 in 2017](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rate-by-source-from-air-pollution)
16. Epstein didn’t kill himself
17. The [cost to generate wind power has fallen 23% since 2010](https://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2018/01/13/renewable-energy-cost-effective-fossil-fuels-2020/#74b3d3504ff2), while the cost from solar power has decreased 73% this decade. With production increases and Moore’s Law technology improvements continue, renewable energy will be consistently cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020
18. [Americans have more leisure time](https://www.heritage.org/jobs-and-labor/report/upwards-leisure-mobility-americans-work-less-and-have-more-leisuretime-ever). Since the mid-60s, the average American works 8 fewer hours per week, while time on leisure has gone up by 7 hours per week
19. Nearly 60% of the world is online right now, which has [more than doubled in just this decade alone](https://www.internetworldstats.com/emarketing.htm)
20. [There is a substantial increase in global freedom](https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/05/14/more-than-half-of-countries-are-democratic/). In 1976, only 25% of the world’s governments were democratic, while 72% were autocratic. Now 57% of the world’s governments are democratic and only 13% autocratic
21. [Over 70% of the world’s population are used safely managed drinking water services.](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.H2O.SMDW.ZS). Up from 61% in 2000
22. [Smoking is down in the US by half](https://news.gallup.com/poll/1717/tobacco-smoking.aspx). In 1989, 30% of Americans had a cigarette in the past week. 2019, it’s under 15%
23. Undernourishment has fallen from 15.1% of the world’s population in 2003 to 10.8% in 2016. [A 30% decrease](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/prevalence-of-undernourishment?tab=chart&country=OWID_WRL)
24. Share of children under 5 who are [underweight for their age has declined from 25%](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-children-younger-than-5-who-are-underweight-for-their-age?time=1990..2017&country=OWID_WRL) in 1990 to 13.5% today
25. Life expectancy has steadily grown throughout the entire world, especially developing regions over the past 100 years. [Global average life expectancy has grown from 66 in 1999 to 72.6 in 2019](https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy#life-expectancy-has-improved-globally)
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26. [Global suicide rates have declined by 1/3 since 1990](https://time.com/5523659/global-suicide-rate-decrease/)
27. [Teen birth rate down over 60% since 1990.](https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/adolescent-development/reproductive-health-and-teen-pregnancy/teen-pregnancy-and-childbearing/trends/index.html) Birth rate per 1,000 females 15-19 has gone down from 60 in 1990 to under 20
28. [Drug and alcohol rates have fallen among school children steadily since 2002](https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/cbhsq-reports/NSDUHNationalFindingsReport2018/NSDUHNationalFindingsReport2018.pdf). 17.6% of children aged 12-17 had alcohol in the last month in 2002. It was 9% in 2018. 2.1% had used cocaine. .5% in 2018. .2% used heroin compared to statstically 0% in 2018. And for those ready to say “because they are all smoking pot and taking pills instead!”, the 2002 usage rate for pot was 1.4% in 2002 compared to 1.3% in 2018. Opiod misuse is only tracked on this report from 2015, but it’s dropped from 3.9% of children aged 12-17 to 2.8% in 2018
29. [Death of the mother during birth has steadily decreased, especially in developing nations](https://www.who.int/gho/maternal_health/mortality/maternal/en/index2.html). It has fallen from 342 per 100k births in 2000 to 211 in 2019. That’s a 40% decline
30. [Cancer deaths in US down 27% over last 25 years](https://www.wsj.com/articles/cancer-deaths-decline-27-over-25-years-11546959600)
31. Extreme poverty has fallen. 650 million people live in “extreme poverty” globally (less than $10 per day). This compares to 1.7 billion living in “extreme poverty” in 2000. [A 62% decrease.](https://ourworldindata.org/extreme-poverty)
32. The people experiencing homelessness has fallen from [647k people in 2007 to 553k people in 2018](https://files.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2018-AHAR-Part-1.pdf)
33. US homicide rates have dropped from 10.4 per 100,000 people to 5.4. [Nearly 50% decline in the murder rate in 30 years](https://ourworldindata.org/homicides#the-homicide-rate-in-the-usa)
34. [There is a reduction of war and violence globally.](https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/09/Bubble-and-lines-FINAL-03.png) The number of deaths from conflict/war is down to lowest level in over 600 years
35. Violent Crime in the US has dropped from 758 instances per 100k people in 1992 to 369 in 2018. [An over 50% decline in less than 30 years.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/191219/reported-violent-crime-rate-in-the-usa-since-1990/)
36. Violent crimes against children aged 12-17 has fallen from a rate of 42.4 per 1,000 juveniles in 1993 to 6.4 in 2016. [An 85% decline](https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/victims/qa02501.asp?qaDate=2016)
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