Human Progress in 9 Charts
If a picture is worth 1000 words, here are 9,000.
Risk & Progress| A hub for essays that explore risk, human progress, and your potential. My mission is to educate, inspire, and invest in concepts that promote a better future for all. Subscriptions are free but paid subscribers gain access to the full archive, including the Pathways of Progress essay series.
With all the negativity of the media and popular culture, it can be very difficult to accept that are indeed living in the best time in human history. To truly see and understand the depth and breadth of human progress in these past few centuries, we best turn to charts, graphics, and data. Only with our eyes can we visualize the whirlwind of positive change that has enabled unparalleled human prosperity and greater personal opportunity.
Education
We begin this examination with literacy, as it is one of the key metrics of human progress and individual potential. The ability to read and write unlocks the capability of learning from others through books and written works. From the chart below, we can see that global literacy soared over the last two centuries, inverting the proportion of people who are literate and illiterate. In other words, we went from 12 percent literate in 1820 to 12 percent illiterate in 2020.
