Category: Trends: Social
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Calmly Considered: 2022 Review, 2023 Preview
Allan Bevere and I look back at 2022 and forward to 2023.
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Christian Nationalism – Christ AND Caesar?
Here is the August dialog between Allan Bevere and me about Christian nationalism and its implications.
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Calmly Considered: Global Living Conditions– Better or Worse?
Are global living conditions getting better or worse? There are three simultaneous truths: Living conditions are awful for a great many. Living conditions are better than they ever have been, by far. Living conditions can be improved and the trajectory is in a positive direction. Join Allen Bevere and me as we calmly consider global…
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The World Is Becoming A Better Place To Live For Most People
The great majority of people throughout most of human history have precariously been able to subsist. (See Level 1 below.) A great divergence began just over two centuries ago. Global life expectancy at birth has more than doubled, and abject poverty as a percentage of the population has declined. The average life expectancy at birth…
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Maternal Mortality Rates Are 27 Times Higher Globally Than In Europe. Why That Is A Good Thing
The chart below is based on maternal mortality rates, the number of women per 100,000 who die from pregnancy-related causes in a year. The first bar shows how many women die each year, while the second bar shows how many would die if they had Europe's living standards. What conclusions would you draw? The global…
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Why Population Control Is Not The Answer to Climate Change
Population control is sometimes championed as a way to fight climate change. Bernie Sanders recently raised this idea. The world population is growing. There are 7.7 billion people today. According to United Nations estimates, there will be nearly 11 billion in 2100. Extra people mean extra CO2 emissions. While two children per woman may seem…
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Global Childhood Deaths In Steep Decline
Worldwide, there were 12.6 million deaths of children under five in 1990. As of 2017, there were 5.4 million. Keep in mind that the world population grew by 50% during this time. Had death rates continued at the 1990 rate, there would have been about 19 million childhood deaths. (Where in the world are children…
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Extreme Poverty is Vanishing. What Does That Mean in Practical Terms?
Throughout human history, 90% of people have lived at a subsistence level – at or under what economists today call the extreme poverty line. Between 1820 and 1980, that percentage shrank by half to 44%. Between 1980 and 2005, it halved again to about 22%. During the next ten years, it has more than halved…
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World Social Indicators: Child Mortality
Alongside life expectancy, a second measure of prosperity demographers frequently use is the child mortality rate. The child mortality rate is the number of children that die between birth and their fifth birthday per 1,000 live births. Because the first years of life are when human beings are most vulnerable, their ability to survive the…
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World Social Indicators: Life Expectancy
Demographers commonly use life expectancy rates as a measure of societal well-being. Life expectancy is the number of years someone is expected to live when born based on actuarial science. Long life is a universal indicator of prosperity across cultures and time. It is an important measure to demographers because achieving it requires a complex…