Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

2016 has been one of the greatest years ever for humanity

Nothing better sums up the aloofness of the chattering class, their otherworldliness in fact, than their blathering about 2016 being the worst year ever. It’s the refrain running through every Brexitphobic column, every historically illiterate comparison of Trump to Hitler, every tear-sodden list of the big-name celebs who’ve died this year. 2016 is ‘the f–king worst’, says Brit comic in America John Oliver. These people don’t know what they’re talking about. The worst? 2016 has been one of the best years yet for humankind.

This year it was announced that global life expectancy is increasing at a faster rate than at any time since the 1960s. The World Health Organisation revealed in May that life expectancy — that brilliant, basic measurement of how mankind is doing in terms of food production, medicine and technology — has increased by five years since 2000. The world average is now 73.8 years for women and 69.1 years for men. In 1970 it was less than 60. Even in Africa life expectancy is shooting up. Thanks to ‘better child survival, malaria control and the availability of drugs to keep HIV at bay’, there has been a ‘significant rise’ in life expectancy in Africa, says WHO: it has gone up by 9.4 years since 2000. It’s magnificent, among the greatest news in this great year

It didn’t end there. In October, a global UN summit confirmed that half of humanity now lives in urban areas, and it’s estimated that two billion more people will live in cities by 2035. That great progressive schlep of mankind from the land to the city, from the unforgiving world of subsistence farming to the sprawl of opportunities that is city life, continues unabated. Our forefathers did it 200 years ago, when the Industrial Revolution dragged them from the field into the new Jerusalems of London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester, and now vastly more human beings are making the same chaotic but enlightened hike.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in