1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
A) 20%
B) 40%
C) 60%
2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
A) Low-income countries
B) Middle-income countries
C) High-income countries
3. In the past 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has…
A) Almost doubled
B) Remained more or less the same
C) Almost halved
4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
A) 50 years
B) 60 years
C) 70 years
5. There are 2 billion children in the world, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100, according to the United Nations?
A) 4 billion
B) 3 billion
C) 2 billion
6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason for this?
A) There will be more children (age below 15)
B) There will be more adults (age 15 to 74)
C) There will be more very old (75 and older)
7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
A) More than doubled
B) Remained about the same
C) Decreased to less than half
8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Where do they live?
A) 1 billion in Americas, 1 billion in Europe, 1 billion in Africa, 4 billion in Australia and Asia
B) 1 billion in Americas, 1 billion in Europe, 2 billion in Africa, 3 billion in Australia and Asia
C) 2 billion in Americas, 1 billion in Europe, 1 billion in Africa, 3 billion in Australia and Asia
9. How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vaccinated against some disease?
A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 80%
10. Worldwide, 30-years old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A) 9 years
B) 6 years
C) 3 years
11. In 1996, tigers, giant pandas and blach rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today?
A) Two of them
B) One of them
C) None of them
12.How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
A) 20%
B) 50%
C) 80%
13. Global climate experts believe that, over the next 100 years, the average temperature will…
A) get warmer
B) remain the same
C) get colder
Answers and source at the bottom of the article.
The world isn’t as bad as it seems
The world is in pain, we have war, natural disasters, violence, corruption and to top that off, we also got a global pandemic, yay! The rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer and we will soon run out of resources if we don’t change things drastically. This is the picture most of the people in the west have about this situation, but the world is not as bad as it seems.
What people forget is that, even though we have all these bad things happening, we are also making a whole lot of process. If you’re not familiar with Hans Rosling – a famous statistician and physician who corrected a lot of people’s worldview. You got familiar with him in the quiz at the start of this article.
There is a lot of focus on what is wrong in the world. Nobody is talking about the fact that a lot of people live a healthy life and not in extreme poverty. Do you know how many percent of the world’s population live in extreme poverty? In 1940, 60% of the world’s population lived in poverty. By 2017 that number has decreased to… 40? 30? 20? No – 9%. And only in the last 20 years it almost halved.
The vast majority live a more normal life (as we know it), their kids go to school, get vaccinated, but that is not the western media’s picture of it. They are showing a whole other picture, people struggling with poverty and life expectancy to help people in need. It feels like a never ending story. A few days ago, I realized that the world is improving a lot, but where is the good news? Poverty is decreasing and life expectancy has doubled over the last two centuries.
To clarify, me telling the world is getting better is not equal to telling the world is fine. But to ignore the bad things would be just as dumb to ignore the improvements, don’t you think? Have you, for example, ever heard of a company managing their operation in this way – only talking about the bad things and not the good – no! The struggle is that people lose their belief in helping if they never get to see or hear the good results. It feels like we are helping without it doing anything for the world. It’s an evil spiral that makes people lose hope, and the loss of hope can be devastating for our future progress!
Answers to the quiz:
1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?
C) 60%
2. Where does the majority of the world population live?
B) Middle-income countries
3. In the past 20 years, the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has…
C) Almost halved
4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?
C) 70 years
5. There are 2 billion children in the world, aged 0 to 15 years old. How many children will there be in the year 2100, according to the United Nations?
C) 2 billion
6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people. What is the main reason for this?
B) There will be more adults (age 15 to 74)
7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years?
C) Decreased to less than half
8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today. Where do they live?
A) 1 billion in Americas, 1 billion in Europe, 1 billion in Africa, 4 billion in Australia and Asia
9. How many of the world’s 1-year-old children today have been vacinated against some disease?
C) 80%
10. Worldwide, 30-years old men have spent 10 years in school, on average. How many years have women of the same age spent in school?
A) 9 years
11. In 1996, tigers, giant pandas and blach rhinos were all listed as endangered. How many of these three species are more critically endangered today?
C) None of them
12.How many people in the world have some access to electricity?
C) 80%
13. Global climate experts believe that, over the next 100 years, the average temperature will…
A) get warmer
The quiz is based on the book ‘Factfulness’ by Hans Rosling with Ola Rosling and Anna Rosling Rönnlund.
