The news can be pretty awful between, wars, natural disasters, and government actions. At times like this it can be useful to take a step back and look at the big picture. There is hopefully news about people’s perceptions. This isn’t just a story of how much progress the world has made in the last couple of generations. There are empirically grounded (i.e., based on observable data) reasons to hold onto optimism even about what is happening nowadays.
Do People Feel Like They Are Thriving?
Gallup, a well-known polling and research company, looked at whether people thought things are going well. They used the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale which asks two simple questions about people’s perceptions. Basically, how are the respondents doing now, and where do they think they will be in five years?
Gallup’s Life Evaluation Index, based on the Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale, asks people to rate their current and future lives on a ladder from 0 (worst) to 10 (best). Those scoring 7+ for the present and 8+ for five years ahead are “thriving,” while those rating both 4 or below are “suffering.” Everyone else is “struggling.”
Vigers, 2025
The headline is that in the median country (the middle country arranged by level of thriving), 33% see themselves as thriving. It isn’t 100%, which is a shame, but it isn’t nothing. It is also much higher than the comparable figure for suffering. When asked people seemed pretty positive about the future in the median country.
Why Did They Use Countries Not a Global Average?
They chose to arrange countries by their level of thriving and take the middle country. They could, of course, have taken a sample of the world and taken the average (mean) level of thriving across respondents. (For an exercise they did that and it was slightly lower at 28%). The reason to complicate things with the median is that such global measures tend to be heavily influenced by the performance of the massive countries, e.g., China and India. The idea is the median tells us how countries are doing for their people. (Plus, it helps us zero in on which countries have more positive people).
Hopeful News About People’s Perceptions
As with a lot of measures the actual approach used may be less important than the trends over time. The measure might not be perfect but if things are going up that is a good sign. Indeed, thriving is going up in many countries. (Rates of thriving have declined a little in the US and Western Europe, it isn’t all good news, but the decline isn’t massive, and the levels in those rich areas are still pretty high).
Rates of thriving have risen consistently across demographics. Men and women, young and old, all now rate their lives better than they did in the past. As thriving has increased, rates of suffering have inched downward. In 2024, a median of 7% globally were classed as suffering in life, matching the lowest point on record going back to 2007, and significantly lower than a decade ago (12% in 2014).
Vigers, 2025
Of course this does not mean all is well in the world. Still, it is helpful to remember that there are things that are going well, even if you sometimes have to look a little beyond the US. More good things please.
For more positive views of the world see A Positive View Of The World Using Facts, Leapfrogging Towards A Better World, and Denial, Doom, Or Informed Optimism
Read: Benedict Vigers (2025) More People Globally Living Better Lives, Gallup, July 28
