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Regions & Countries
Worldwide, people divided on whether life today is better than in the past, current economic conditions a key factor in assessing progress.
Numerous countries found themselves at important crossroads – whether it was military conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors, civil rights and war protests in the U.S., or Soviet tanks crushing Czechoslovakia’s Prague Spring.
How far do people around the globe think they and others like them have come, compared with 50 years ago? Pew Research Center put that question to nearly 43,000 people in 38 countries around the globe this past spring.
At a country level, some of the most positive assessments of progress over the past 50 years are found in Vietnam (88% say life is better today), India (69%) and South Korea (68%) – all societies that have seen dramatic economic transformations since the late 1960s, not to mention the end of armed conflict in the case of Vietnam. A majority in Turkey (65% better) also share a sense of progress over the past five decades. In some of the more developed countries, publics also report that life is better today, including 65% in Japan and Germany, and 64% in the Netherlands and Sweden.
But not everyone is convinced that life today is an improvement over the past. Americans are split on this issue : 41% say life is worse while 37% say better. Meanwhile, half or more in countries ranging from Italy (50%) and Greece (53%) to Nigeria (54%) and Kenya (53%) to Venezuela (72%) and Mexico (68%) say life is worse today.
In general, countries that are more upbeat about their national economy are more likely to say life today is better compared with the past. For example, in Vietnam, where 91% say economic conditions are good, a corresponding 88% say life is better for people like them compared with 50 years ago. And in Venezuela, where only 20% say conditions are good, 10% say life is better for people like them. Overall, the correlation between economic assessments and views of the past is quite strong (+0.68).
These are among the major findings of a Pew Research Center survey conducted among 40,448 respondents in 37 countries from Feb. 16 to May 8, 2017. A separate survey in the U.S. was conducted June 27-July 9, 2017, among 2,505 respondents.
Regional variations in assessments of present vs. past
Latin Americans stand out for their widespread negative assessment of progress over the past half-century. Venezuelans and Mexicans (72% and 68% life is worse) are the most downbeat, but nowhere in the region do more than half say life has improved for people like themselves.
Across the Middle East and North Africa, views of life today compared with 50 years ago vary substantially by country. Turkey reports the most progress in the region, with 65% saying life is better, followed by Israel, where 52% say the same about their country. Tunisians, Jordanians and Lebanese tend to say life has gotten worse for people like them, with Tunisians expressing the most widespread negativity (60%).
In sub-Saharan Africa, comparative assessments of present and past are more evenly divided. A median of 46% say life today is worse than five decades ago, compared with 42% who think life is better. Positive ratings of progress range from 47% “better” in South Africa to 36% in Ghana.
Nigeria and Kenya are the only countries surveyed in the region where more than half say life is worse (54% and 53%, respectively).
Europeans tend to see the past half-century as a period of progress. A regional median of 53% describes life as better today, compared with 30% who take the opposite view. Upbeat assessments are most common in Germany (65% better), the Netherlands (64%), Sweden (64%), Poland (62%) and Spain (60%). Greeks (53% worse) and Italians (50%) are the least convinced that life is better than 50 years ago.
The Asia-Pacific region is home to some of the most favorable assessments of progress. Vietnam (88% better) stands out, but views of life today vs. the past are also quite rosy in India (69%), South Korea (68%) and Japan (65%). Filipinos are the least sanguine about progress, with fewer than half (43%) saying life is better.
In North America, Canadians widely report progress over the past five decades (55%) while fewer Americans (37%) say the same about life in their country. In the U.S., Republicans are more likely to say life is better today , compared with Democrats – an attitudinal shift in the wake of Donald Trump’s election as president in November 2016.
The more educated are more likely to say life is better
The reverse pattern, with less educated more optimistic about life today, is seen in just two countries: Nigeria (by 23 points) and Turkey (9 points).
Age differences also appear in Australia, Sweden, the U.S. and Germany among advanced economies, and in South Africa, Ghana and Peru among emerging economies.
There is a reverse pattern on age in South Korea, where 73% among those 50 and older say life is better now compared with 59% who say this among 18- to 29-year-olds. This pattern is also found in Senegal and Venezuela.
Divisions within countries point to perceived gains and loses
In some countries polled, views about who has gained and lost over the past half-century divide sharply along religious or ethnic lines.
In Nigeria – home to both Muslims and Christians, but now governed by an elected Muslim leader – Muslims are much more enthusiastic about their country’s progress. Nearly three times as many Nigerian Muslims as Christians (62% vs. 22%) say life is better today compared with 50 years ago.
In Israel, 50 years after the Jewish State was victorious in the Six-Day War against a coalition of Arab nations, Israeli Jews are far more convinced than Israeli Arabs that life today is better for people like them. Nearly six-in-ten Jews in Israel say life has improved, compared with only a third of Israeli Arabs who see similar progress.
And in South Africa, there is a sharp racial divide on social progress: Blacks in the country, who a half-century ago were oppressed via the apartheid system, are much more likely to say life is better today for people like them (52%), compared with mixed-race (or “coloured”) and white South Africans (37% and 27%, respectively).
Political divides on life today in Europe
For example, Germans who support the Alternative for Germany party (AfD) are 28 percentage points more likely to say that life is worse off for people like them than those who have an unfavorable view of the anti-immigrant party. This pattern also holds in Sweden among supporters of the Swedish Democrats, in France among those with a favorable view of National Front, in the Netherlands among PVV supporters and in the UK among fans of the UK Independence Party (UKIP).
- Ghana and Italy excluded due to insufficient sample size on reported income. U.S. excluded because questions were administered on separate Pew Research Center surveys. ↩
- For the purpose of comparing education groups across countries, we standardize education levels based on the United Nations’ International Standard Classification of Education. The lower education category is below secondary education and the higher category is secondary or above in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, Philippines, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Turkey, Venezuela and Vietnam. The lower education category is secondary education or below and the higher category is postsecondary or above in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UK and U.S. ↩
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Table of contents, what makes life meaningful globally, answers sometimes vary by age, where americans find meaning in life has changed over the past four years, where people around the world find meaning in life, what makes life meaningful views from 17 advanced economies, how americans feel about the satisfactions and stresses of modern life, most popular.
About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .
Lifestyle – Then and Now
Lifestyle is the way a person lives. The human body and mind have adequately adapted to their changing lifestyle. Many factors have affected the lifestyle of a person - technology, health, environment, culture, society, etc. One of the biggest changes that affected mankind has been the discovery of fire and the wheel. Many years and discoveries later, it was the invention of electricity. Due to electricity, technology developed. Technology has changed all the fields such as - warfare, agriculture, transportation - air, sea and land travel, , manufacturing, medicine, communication, information, etc.
With the advancement of the human race, many new inventions and discoveries were added to the ever growing list. But along with the advantages, it brought some disadvantages as well. Earlier people had more interaction with each other. There was no TV or computer to distract them. They were able to spend time with each other and they were more relaxed. The TV and the computer have become a kind of addiction for most of the people now and they find it hard to stop using it. Now most of the time both the parents would be working long hours and there is no time for them to be with their family.
They are stressed out most of the time and are too tired to talk even when they get some free time. In earlier days not many people had a car. There might be one car in the whole neighbourhood. It was something that only the rich could afford. Most people used the public transport or walked if they wanted to go somewhere. Walking was a part of life and not considered to be a great task. Many people lived as joint families in large houses with many children, aunts, uncles, and other relatives.
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There was always someone to talk to, someone to share the household chores with, etc. With the advancement of technology, nuclear families have emerged. It has brought with it more independence for the individual but more loneliness as well. All in all, lifestyle has changed significantly from the days of the early caveman to the present day technology savvy man. There have been both positive and negative changes that have happened. In the years ahead, many more changes will still take place. The human race will continue to adapt and evolve to embrace these changes.
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Comparing Life in 1800s and Now Essay
In the 1800s, the world entered into the first industrial revolution. Industries were growing enormously due to new inventions and innovations. Since 1800s, the world has gone through four phases of industrial revolutions (Pozdnyakova et al., 2019). Each revolution affected the way of earning livelihood, movement, and communication. The purpose of this paper is to compare the life during the 1800s and now based on the fact that the two eras coincide with two epochs of industrialization.
People’s life started changing in 1800s following a series of inventions and innovations which appeared in industrial revolution. The era created brilliant opportunities for society, such as the realization of mass production, cost reduction, and quality products through technological innovation. People started getting jobs, and their living standards improved. The discovery of new products made it easier for people to live a healthier life. The life expectancy increased due to invention of medicine. It is also during this time that transport and mobility improved. Nicolaus Otto invented an internal combustion engine that used petroleum as an energy source (Popkova et al., 2019). In 1877, Daimler inherited the technology and obtained a patent (Popkova et al., 2019). Internal combustion engines, which have higher thermal efficiency and are easier to miniaturize than steam engines, have promoted innovation in industrial machinery and enabled the invention of automobiles and aircraft. With the spread industries, mass production of the manufacturing industry has greatly advanced, and capitalists have gained enormous wealth. Additionally, during 1800s, people could use electricity for the first time. Edison put an incandescent light bulb into practical use in 1879 (Pozdnyakova et al., 2019). In 1882, the world’s first power plant began operations on Pearl Street in New York to promote electricity (Pozdnyakova et al., 2019). Edison’s inventions became widespread around the world in the 1880s. In addition, the war of the currents with Nikola Tesla revitalized the industry. It was also during this period that electrical communication technology was born, such as the invention of the telephone by Bell in 1876.
Today’s life is much different from what happened in 1800s. The world is like a global village as mobility has become even much better. A person in Africa can do business with a person in Europe without any geographical barrier. People can access efficient services due to higher degree of automation of intellectual activities brought about by technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (Popkova et al., 2019). The developed AI not only works according to human programming, but also learns autonomously and can perform advanced tasks such as stock price fluctuation prediction and car driving. In the world after the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is said that robots will be able to perform in areas such as production control and design that only humans could do in the past. Furthermore, by utilizing internet of things (IoT) and big data, it is possible to deliver custom-made products according to current customer needs.
To conclude, it is clear that the life of citizens started improving since 1800s when the world experienced first industrial revolution. Today, the world is going through the fourth industrial revolution and the life of people is becoming even better and more convenient. People can work at the comfort of their homes using laptops. Citizens from one continent can do business with citizens from another continent. A university in the United States can offer lectures to students in Asia.
Pozdnyakova, U. A., Golikov, V. V., Peters, I. A., & Morozova, I. A. (2019). Genesis of the revolutionary transition to industry 4.0 in the 21st century and overview of previous industrial revolutions. In Industry 4.0: Industrial Revolution of the 21st Century (pp. 11-19). Springer.
Popkova, E. G., Ragulina, Y. V., & Bogoviz, A. V. (2019). Fundamental differences of transition to industry 4.0 from previous industrial revolutions. In Industry 4.0: Industrial Revolution of the 21st Century (pp. 21-29). Springer.
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Home / Essay Samples / Life / Life Goals / Contrasting Life in the Past and Now
Contrasting Life in the Past and Now
- Category: Life
- Topic: Finding Yourself , Life Goals
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Technology and innovation, communication and connectivity, education and learning, societal norms and values.
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