Between the climate crisis, natural disasters, the rising cost of living and never-ending housing crises, it can feel like there’s nothing but bad news out there. But on many measures the world is actually getting better.
In Australia and around the world literacy rates are improving, the life expectancy of Australians has increased by more than a year over the past decade (despite a pandemic bump), and the cost of solar energy has dropped significantly.
These improvements aren’t always universal – they often mask or build on top of existing inequalities. Australians are getting wealthier on average but many are still struggling to get by. Falling prices for solar panels only matters if you can afford the initial outlay and own property to put them on.
And for some matters it’s subjective as to whether a trend upwards or downwards represents an improvement or a decline – marriage rates being a good example, alongside the share of people living in cities.
In short, the news is mixed. But the most important factor in how we perceive it is often how it is portrayed in the media.
See how well you can identify the following trends. For each chart draw a line starting at the red dot to show how you think it has tracked. Afterwards we’ll show you what other Guardian readers thought, as well as what actually happened.