Global living standards are moving in the wrong direction

LIFE IN THE 2020s is tough. In most developed countries the pandemic created the biggest fall in life expectancy since the second world war. A deadly conflict in Ukraine is pushing up the cost of everything from energy to a loaf of bread. And amid all of the acute challenges, long-term ones have not gone away: climate change is a growing threat, as record droughts, heatwaves and floods in various parts of the world show.

To see just how tough, look at the UN’s latest Human Development Index (HDI), released on September 8th. The composite gauge of living standards—which includes measures of life expectancy, education and income per person—fell in 2021 for a second year running. It is the biggest consecutive decrease since the index was started in 1990, wiping out any gains since 2016 (see map).