Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

32 More Improvements
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Is the world in your head still getting worse? Then get ready for a challenging
data encounter. I have 32 more improvements to show you.
For each one, I could tell a similar story to those I have told about extreme
poverty and life expectancy. For many of them I could show you that people
are consistently more negative than the data says they should be. (And where
I can’t, it’s because we haven’t asked these questions yet.)
But I can’t fit all these explanations into this book, so here are just the
charts. Let’s start with 16 terrible things that are on their way out, or have
even already disappeared. And then, let’s look at 16 wonderful things that
have gotten better.

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It is hard to see any of this global progress by looking out your window. It
is taking place beyond the horizon. But there are some clues you can tune
into, if you pay close attention. Listen carefully. Can you hear a child
practicing the guitar or the piano? That child has not drowned, and is instead
experiencing the joy and freedom of making music.
The goal of higher income is not just bigger piles of money. The goal of
longer lives is not just extra time. The ultimate goal is to have the freedom to
do what we want. Me, I love the circus, and playing computer games with my

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grandchildren, and zapping through TV channels. Culture and freedom, the
goals of development, can be hard to measure, but guitars per capita is a good
proxy. And boy, has that improved. With beautiful statistics like these, how
can anyone say the world is getting worse?