Many people would like to forget 2020. It was a year filled with a deadly pandemic, a severe economic downturn, natural disasters such as wildfires and hurricanes and an election that many in the nation do not realize is over. Early in the pandemic, actor John Krasinki started a YouTube channel called “Some Good News” that highlighted good news in a pandemic. In that spirit, let’s look at some good news to focus on as this year of bad news comes to a close.
One piece of good news is that the wish of many people to end world hunger is steadily being accomplished. According to a report by the United Nations, the proportion of undernourished people around the globe has fallen by a third over the past 20 years. There are still many people in the world — approximately 690 million — who suffer from malnutrition. That is far too many. However, it is hundreds of millions less than did so just two decades ago.
The decline in malnutrition is related to the rise in household incomes in many nations known for their abject poverty. For example, over the past 40 years, per capita income in India has more than tripled. Similarly, in China, household disposable income has increased by approximately 700% over the past 20 years.
Another example of progress in raising people out of poverty is Indonesia, where the poverty rate has dropped below 10% and one-fifth of Indonesians are now considered middle class. Even more dramatic is the change in Brazil. In 1981, 60% of Brazilians were living below the poverty rate. In 2020, that figure was 20%.
Economic progress has not been uniform. There are still nations with high poverty rates such as the Central African Republic, Burundi and Haiti. And the pandemic has worsened their situation.
While there is still much to be done, we all should remember that the world has made significant progress in reducing the number of its citizens living in poverty. A combination of globalization that disperses jobs throughout the globe, national policies that have fostered free trade and stimulated business, and the willingness of wealthier peoples and nations (including the United States) to provide economic assistance has provided the benefits of jobs and incomes to hundreds of millions of people who used to be much poorer.
Granted, the pandemic has set back progress in many of these areas of economic gain by creating a worldwide economic recession. However, the infrastructure that created the improvements is still in place. We can expect our progress towards making people’s lives better will continue soon.
As people’s economic status has improved, so has their life expectancy. According to the United Nations, three decades ago, the average life expectancy across the globe was 64 years. Today, it is 72 years. One explanation is the dramatic decline in infant mortality across the globe, but particularly in areas of poverty. In Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the infant mortality rate has fallen by 50% over the past 20 years.
Another source of progress is closer to home. That is the nation’s crime rate. According to the FBI, violent crime in the United States fell by 49% between 1993 and 2019. Similarly, property crime rates fell by 55% over the same time period. That is not a statistic that you will hear about often in the news. But it is an indication that the Americans are safer now than they were three decades ago.
Still another piece of good news in the United States is the increasing educational levels of Americans. The percentage of Americans with a college degree has risen from about 10% fifty years ago to 36% today. The gain has been particularly dramatic for women. In 1960, less than half of women graduated from high school. Today, that figure is over 90%.
Those are just a few areas where we have made progress — both as a nation and a global society. There has been plenty of bad news this year. But it may be helpful to keep in mind as well what has been getting better and how dramatically lives are improving.
Richard Davis is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University.