Levels of poverty, violence, and disease are shrinking – here are the numbers to prove it

Based on headlines in 2017, you might think the world is getting worse by the day, but statistics for poverty, violence and disease actually show that it’s getting better.

Every day, 300,000 more people gain access to electricity, and 285,000 get clean drinking water for the first time. An estimated 137,000 fewer people live in extreme poverty each day. The mortality for children under 5 has fallen by 53 percent since 1990, the World Health Organization reported in 2015.

A movement called the “New Optimists” comprises intellectuals who want to remind people that food; sanitation; life expectancy; cleanliness of air and water; literacy; equality before the law; and conditions of childhood “have all globally improved dramatically,” Yaron Brook explained on this week’s episode of “The Yaron Brook Show.”

These New Optimists are led by people like author Steven Pinker, who wrote “The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined” to explore how violence has been reduced worldwide.

“The basic idea that the new optimists are advocating for is that we under-report and don’t seem to value all the good news that is happening all around us all the time,” Yaron said.

See more from Yaron onTheBlaze Contributors channel and listen to “The Yaron Brook Show” live every Sunday from 2pm-4pm ET, only on TheBlaze Radio Network.