AI-tracked · Human-verified · Updated monthly

Has the World
Kept Getting Better?

A real-time report card for humanity

Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now (2018) documented progress across 15 dimensions of human well-being. This tracker updates those trends continuously — so you can see whether progress has continued, stalled, or reversed since the book was published.

Showing data for

9 dimensions tracked · 60+ indicators · Last verified August 2026

Nine dimensions of progress since 2018

World · Full time series · 2018 marker on
Healthy
↑ Improving
'18
73.4 yrs
Global avg. life expectancy — up from 52 yrs in 1960
WHO · IHME · OWID Explore →
Wealthy
↑ Improving
'18
8.5%
In extreme poverty — down from 36% in 1990
World Bank · OECD · OWID Explore →
Wise
↑ Improving
'18
8.8
Global avg. years of schooling, adults 25+ — up from 8.5 in 2018
UNDP HDR · OWID Explore →
Peaceful
→ Mixed
'18
↓ 80%
Battle deaths per 100,000 (UCDP/PRIO, state-based) — since 1946
UCDP · PRIO · OWID Explore →
Safe
↑ Improving
'18
↓ 50%
US homicide rate since 1990s peak (FBI / CDC)
UNODC · FBI · BJS · NHTSA Explore →
Free
↓ Worsening
'18
55
Countries retaining death penalty — down from 100+ in 1970
V-Dem · Polity · Amnesty Intl. Explore →
Equal
↑ Improving
'18
0.71
Equal protection of rights across social groups (V-Dem, 0–1)
V-Dem · Our World in Data Explore →
Happy
↑ Improving
'18
5.74
Global avg. life satisfaction (0–10 scale, WHR)
WHR · WVS · GSS · WHO Explore →
Clean
↓ Worsening
'18
39,633 Mt
CO₂ emissions — solid rising; carbon intensity (CO₂/GDP) dashed, still falling
World Bank · EDGAR · IEA Explore →

About this project

A real-time check on
Enlightenment Now

In 2018, Steven Pinker published Enlightenment Now — a comprehensive account of how humanity has made measurable progress across health, wealth, knowledge, peace, safety, freedom, equal rights, happiness, and the environment. The book made a data-driven case: despite appearances, the world has been getting better for a long time.

Progress Updates asks a simple follow-up question: has it kept getting better? Each card on this site tracks one of Professor Pinker's nine dimensions in real time, pulling the most recent figures from the institutions that compile them — sometimes directly from that institution, sometimes via Our World in Data, which republishes their series. Where possible we use the same institution the book originally cited; where a better or more current source has since become available, we switch to that instead (see Methodology below for how and why).

The site is built in direct collaboration with Professor Pinker, who guided the selection of indicators and the framing of each trend. The goal is honest reporting: when the data shows progress, we say so. When it doesn't, we say that too.

How the data works

Each month, an AI system queries primary data sources — the World Bank, UNESCO, UNODC, UCDP, ILGA World, NORC, and others — for newly released figures. Results are compared against prior years for consistency, then reviewed by a human before any update is published.

Where a source has been updated or superseded since 2018 (for example, the World Bank's revised international poverty line), we note the change and explain our reasoning. We always use whichever source has the most recent data available. For the full picture of how sources are chosen, verified, and (occasionally) changed, see Methodology.

Methodology

How this site decides
what to show

Every card traces back to a specific figure in Enlightenment Now — Professor Pinker's original chart and page number are recorded for each one. Where a better, live-updating source has since become available, we switch what actually drives the card — but we never delete the book's original citation. It stays on record as the correct citation for what Professor Pinker originally showed, even after a card's live driver has moved on to a different source.

Trend badges (↑ Improving / → Mixed / ↓ Worsening)

By default, computed from a linear fit over the most recent ~15 years of data, compared against which direction counts as improvement for that metric. A small number of cards override this default to show "Mixed" for indicators with sharp single-year volatility — for example, conflict deaths, which can spike because of one war — rather than a steady trend.

Country vs. World comparability

Wherever possible, a card's country-level and World figures come from the exact same dataset, so switching the region selector never silently changes what's being measured. Where that isn't possible, we say so rather than present two different things as if they were one. The Peaceful card shows no country figures at all, because battle deaths are counted per conflict rather than per country of residence, and a national rate would be an artefact of that. The Wise card keeps the OECD's adult-skills scores in their own clearly labelled slot on its detail page rather than blending them into the main series, because they measure something different from years of schooling. Each card's detail page sets out its own case.

Where the data is fetched from

Three cards pull straight from the originating institution's own API: Healthy (UN Population Division), and Wealthy and Clean (World Bank). The other six — Wise, Peaceful, Safe, Free, Equal and Happy — are fetched through Our World in Data, which republishes the figures compiled by the UN Development Programme, UCDP/PRIO, UNODC, V-Dem (for both Free and Equal) and the World Happiness Report respectively. We use it because it publishes these series in a consistent, machine-readable form with a genuine World aggregate, which the original publishers don't always provide.

That means Our World in Data is a real link in the chain for those six cards, not a citation of convenience, and it is worth being precise about what that does and doesn't mean. In most cases it is republishing the primary institution's numbers unchanged. In two cases it is not just passing them through: the World figures on the Free and Equal cards are Our World in Data's own population-weighted averages across countries, a calculation they perform rather than one V-Dem publishes. Each card's detail page names both the originating institution and the route the data takes to us.

We move a card whenever doing so is demonstrably better, in whichever direction that points. Healthy moved to the UN Population Division and Clean to the World Bank, the latter because Our World in Data's version of that series was held back by a slower-updating GDP input. Wise moved the other way: it once drew adult literacy directly from UNESCO, but literacy is not comparable between rich and poor countries and UNESCO does not survey it in high-income countries at all, so the card had no figures for the four countries shown here. It now uses mean years of schooling, which is measured on one scale everywhere — and that series reaches us through Our World in Data. Being one step removed is a cost we will pay for a better measure. New sources are tested against real, live data before being wired into the site.

Monthly review

Data refreshes automatically once a month. Separately, an automated monthly scan checks whether a better or more current source has become available for any of the 9 cards and logs suggestions for human review — nothing is ever swapped in automatically.

Data sources

Where every number
on this site comes from

Every number traces back to the institution named below. Four cards fetch straight from that institution's own API; the other five come via Our World in Data, which republishes their figures — the entries below say which is which. Full citations, indicator codes, and update frequency are on every card's detail page (click any card to see them) — this is the short list.

Healthy UN World Population Prospects (WPP), direct from the UN Population Division Visit source →
Wealthy World Bank Poverty & Inequality Platform (PIP) Visit source →
Wise UNDP Human Development Report, via Our World in Data — mean years of schooling Visit source →
Peaceful Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) · PRIO, via Our World in Data Visit source →
Safe UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), via Our World in Data Visit source →
Free Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), via Our World in Data Visit source →
Equal Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), via Our World in Data Visit source →
Happy World Happiness Report, via Our World in Data Visit source →
Clean World Bank, built on EDGAR (Joint Research Centre) and IEA data — CO₂ emissions (Mt); carbon intensity is the card's secondary line Visit source →

For journalists & researchers

Get in touch

For interview requests, questions about a specific figure, or anything else — send a note below and a human will reply.