Human Progress

Teen driving deaths have fallen sharply over time. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says 2,899 teens ages 13 to 19 died in motor vehicle crashes in 2024, down 67% from 1975. humanprogress.org/graduated-lice…

Many studies have reported on the association between social media use and youth mental health problems. However, a 2024 analysis in JAMA Pediatrics of 143 studies found that links between social media use and poor mental health among youth were small, inconsistent, and drawn mostly from nonclinical community samples. humanprogress.org/screens-arent-…

Read more: humanprogress.org/the-world-cup-…

The 2026 World Cup has highlighted the remarkable abundance of everyday life in the United States, as international visitors have enthusiastically embraced experiences that many Americans take for granted. In an era of endless grousing about the US economy, the ongoing episode has been a welcome, optimistic change of pace and a loud reminder that a nation’s political class is most definitely not the same as its communities and citizens.

My latest in the @washingtonpost, on Europe's refusal to move on from the dark ages before air conditioning. Europe has it wrong. AC is not a luxury, it is a necessity.

What can a vintage refrigerator tell us about capitalism? Quite a lot, actually! Find out more in my latest for @WSJFreeEx

"Nigeria is close to eliminating trachoma as a public health problem." humanprogress.org/nigeria-nears-…

The work of HP Lovecraft reflects an anti-Enlightenment anxiety—a general pessimism about the consequences of the growth of knowledge—that is strikingly similar to the fears of modern AI critics. humanprogress.org/the-ai-debate-…

Explore the data: humanprogress.org/dataset/indivi… Read more about this trend: humanprogress.org/trends/interne…

The internet is one of the greatest inventions of all time. It democratizes knowledge, enhances productivity, and enables easy communication. Thankfully, internet access is rapidly growing. As of 2024, over 70% of humanity used the internet—up from 38% just ten years earlier.

Recent spikes in anxiety, ADHD, and other diagnoses have more than a little to do with economic incentives. From @AdamOmaryPhD: humanprogress.org/behind-the-boo…

"China has successfully landed a reusable rocket for the first time in a major breakthrough for the country's space programme." humanprogress.org/china-successf…

Many people in developed society struggle to find a strong basis for moral conviction. Some advocate for the abolition of moral standards altogether. But doing so would be premature: moral philosophy may still be in its infancy, like physics before Newton or biology before Darwin, and the most important truths about the world are likely not yet discovered. humanprogress.org/heinleins-wage…

Read more: humanprogress.org/reconsidering-…

The "Spaceship Earth" concept assumes that Earth's resources are finite and our goal should be to conserve them. But our planet is not a closed system, and our greatest resource, knowledge, is infinite.

Over the past 50 years, the time price of a Caribbean cruise has dropped over 70 percent. humanprogress.org/cruising-abund…

The time price of a Costco membership has fallen 21% since 1983. humanprogress.org/costco-raises-…

@MichaelRStrain Full interview: humanprogress.org/michael-strain… Read the highlights: humanprogress.org/the-myth-of-am…

Is economic inequality responsible for rising populism? @MichaelRStrain argues its impact is overstated. "Inequality growth was really rapid in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but people didn’t care about it because average wages were growing quickly... Inequality was falling in the decade after the financial crisis, but people were much more concerned about it because the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession were such traumatic events."