FACTFULNESS
      
      [Extracts from Hans Rosling's book with the same title (2018)]


         
          Our historical knowledge is rosy and pink. As a matter of fact, step by step, the world 

is improving, in general. Child deaths per thousand dropped from 242 to 35 in just 33 years 

(by 1995). In 1800 average life expectancy around the world was roughly 30 years. That

 was what it had been through our history. The average life expectancy across the world 

today is 70. In the last 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme 

poverty has almost halved. Today, most people - 75% - live where most of their basic 

human needs are met, in the middle, neither rich nor poor. Just 200 years ago, 85% of 

people lived in extreme poverty.



          Legal slavery in 1800 prevailed in 193 out of 194 countries; in 2017 it prevailed in 

only 3 countries. In 1850, 148 out of 194 countries had cases of smallpox; In 1979 that 

number was zero. In 1800, only 10% of adults were literate; in 2016, 86% were literate.




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