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| About the author | |
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| Introduction | |
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| The problem with maps | |
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| Acknowledgements | |
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| Who We Are | |
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| The States of the World: Most states are relatively recent creations | |
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| Population: Global population continues to grow but the rate of increase is slowing | |
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| Life Expectancy: Average life expectancy is higher than ever before and rising | |
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| Ethnicity and Diversity: People divided by ethnic difference live side by side in peace more often than they fight | |
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| Religious Beliefs: Difference within religions are often as intense as differences between them | |
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| Literacy & Education: More teachers are needed if the trend towards greater school enrolment is to continue | |
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| Urbanization: For the first time in history, most people live in cities | |
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| Diversity of Cities: Cities reflect the diversity of the world | |
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| Wealth & Poverty | |
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| Income: Economic growth continues to outpace the growth in world population | |
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| Inequality: While 2.6 billion people live in poverty, there are more billionaires than ever | |
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| Quality of Life: Rich countries inevitably offer a high quality of life | |
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| Transnationals: The revenues of the largest corporations outstrip those of many countries | |
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| Banks: Despite everything, bankers continue to reap huge financial rewards | |
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| Corruption: Corruption is pervasive, some countries run on it | |
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| DEBT: Debt has soared but not everybody, everywhere is equally in debt | |
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| Tourism: Tourism is predicted to rise, bringing much-needed income to many smaller economies | |
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| Goals for Development: Development progress is real but patchy | |
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| War & Peace | |
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| Wars in the 21st Century: This is an era of growing peace, despite the wars that persist | |
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| Warlords, Ganglords, & Militias: Armed conflicts fought between non-state armed forces are proliferating | |
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| Military Muscle: Despite the global economic crisis, military spending remains buoyant | |
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| The New Front Line: Warfare has evolved and is now entering cyber space | |
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| Casualities of War: Data on war deaths are incomplete and contentious | |
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| Refugees: 30 million people are refugees from war and repression | |
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| Peacekeeping: After a period of rapid increase, the number of peacekeeping missions has started to decline | |
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| Global Peacefulness: Understanding what makes societies peaceful is a significant step towards the world becoming more peaceful | |
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| Rights & Respect | |
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| Political Systems: The global trend is for more countries to become democratic | |
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| Religious Rights: Almost a quarter of the world�s states have formal links to a religion | |
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| Human Rights: In some countries the greatest menace citizens face comes from the state | |
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| Children�s Rights: Although respect for children�s rights is increasing, millions still stuffer terrible abuse | |
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| Women�s Rights: Thought gender equality is advancing, women worldwide remain financially and politically disadvantaged | |
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| Gay Rights: Gay people experience varying degrees of acceptance from fellow citizens and authorities | |
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| Health of the People | |
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| Malnutrition: Many of the world�s poor suffer from diets deficient in calories and/or vital nutrients | |
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| Obesity: Many of the world�s rich suffer from diets deficient in nutrients, but over-packed with unnecessary calories | |
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| Smoking: Between a third and a half of smokers die from tobacco-related diseases | |
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| Cancer: As countries become more prosperous, and their lifestyles and diets are changing, their cancer rate is rising | |
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| HIV/AIDS: Education and treatment are beginning to slow the rate of new HIV/AIDS infections and deaths | |
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| Mental Health: Poor countries lack the resources needed to treat mental and behavioural disorders | |
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| Living with Disease: Years of healthy life are lost to disease and disability | |
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| Health of the Planet | |
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| Warning Signs: Things are changing in the natural world-and not many of the changes are to the good | |
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| Biodiversity: Efforts to slow the loss of species of animals and plants have not been successful so far | |
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| Water Resources: By 2025, two-thirds of the world population will have an inadequate supply of water | |
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| Waste: Waste, especially plastic waste, is a serious global problem on both land and sea | |
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| Energy Use: World energy use is increasing, especially in the most rapidly developing economies | |
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| Climate Change: The build-up of carbon emissions has reached a critical point | |
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| Planetary Boundaries: There are limits beyond which human impact on the Earth�s balanced ecosystems will have as yet unknown consequences | |
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| Vital Statistics | |
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| World Tables | |
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| Notes & Sources | |
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| Index | |