Do you think the world is better than ever?

If you thought to yourself, but the world ISN’T better than ever, you’re definitely not alone in that feeling. A survey done by YouGov found that only 6% of people in the US think that world is better than it’s ever been. France and Australia came in at the worst with only 3% of people believing that’s true. Denmark, Finland, and Norway were a little bit better at 8%. And sweden was the most optimistic, with 10% of people surveyed believing that the world is the best it’s been.

So if you had to pick why, it’d be interesting to know why you thought so. Was it because of technology, or our ability to quickly see and help each other. Or maybe because getting from one place to another is far easier than it’s ever been. With everything going on in the world it’s really easy to not be able to find much. And it’s easy to think that the opposite is actually true altogether.

There’s a lot of data to support the fact the world is actually better than it’s ever been before. An article by Steve Denning in Forbes points out a lot of data that shows we’re actually missing some really important facts about the world. Facts that indeed point to it being much better than we’re realizing. He shows that when it comes to poverty, in 1950 75% of the world were still living in extreme poverty. But today, those living in extreme poverty are now less than 10%. When it comes to our health, he shows that in 1800, more than 40% of the world’s newborns died before the age of five. Now only a tiny fraction die before the age of five. Markers like this in education, freedom and literacy also exist, showing how positively situated we are compared to any living generation before us.

So whether the data is enough to convince you when you see all the terrible things on the news or while scrolling through your newsfeed, we should remember that just because we can see all the bad things, doesn’t mean that all of the things happening out in the world are bad. Whatever your focus on, expands.

Where can you put focus and real energy into making the world better than it’s ever been? Can you volunteer at a school for a few hours a month? Can you make a small donation this week? Can you go pick up trash from your local park or beach? We all have the ability to make our worlds a little better from exactly where we’re at.