Global Trends

The National Intelligence Council published a Global Trends Report.  It exhibits leading intelligence agencies’ future predictions for the year 2025: China’s rising power, new technology developments (especially nanotech), continued struggles over resources.  Here are two notable excerpts taken from the report:

Growing Middle Class

We are witnessing an unprecedented moment in human history:  never before have so many been lifted out of extreme poverty as is happening today.  A stunning 135 million people escaped dire poverty between 1999 and 2004 alone—more than the population of Japan and almost as many as live in Russia today.  

Over the next several decades the number of people considered to be in the “global middle class” is projected to swell from 440 million to 1.2 billion or from 7.6 percent of the world’s population to 16.1 percent, according to the World Bank.

Urbanization

If current trends persist, by 2025 about 57 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, up from about 50 percent today.  By 2025, the world will add another eight megacities to the current list of 19—all except one of these eight will be in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Most urban growth, however, will occur in smaller cities of these regions, which are expanding along highways and coalescing near crossroads and coastlines, often without formal sector job growth and without adequate services.

Global Trends