Contrary to what we read and hear, the world is not going to hell in a hand­basket.

When a book bearing the title Getting Better appeared, I viewed it with skepticism.

“What is getting better?” I asked. “Who but a sentimental sensationalist would say that?”

In fact, the author, Charles Kenny is a senior economist at the World Bank. He analyzes long-term trends and reaches startling conclusions. His book is an antidote to pessimism.

Bill Gates writes in the foreword, “Fifty years ago half the world’s population struggled with getting enough daily calories. By the 1990s, that figure was below 10 percent.”

Infant mortality is down. Life expectancy is up. Ninety percent of the world’s children are enrolled in primary schools, compared with 50 percent in 1950. Literacy in sub-Saharan Africa has doubled since 1970.

Kenny documents the improvements the world has seen within the lifetimes of most of us.

People are living longer and better. At a meeting of senior men, I asked, “How many are older than their father was when he died?” Almost all hands went up. When I asked how many had outlived their father by more than 10 years, many hands were still raised. Women’s life expectancy has increased even more.

We are bigger and stronger. We run faster and jump higher. Where will it stop?

Healthier, more peaceful

Nowhere is the improvement more evident than in health. Measles, diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis and polio have been brought under control. Some have been eradicated. Cholera, which claimed the lives of 250,000 Europeans in the 1880s, is now rare. Smallpox devastated the native inhabitants of the Americas, killing an estimated 3.5 million Aztecs. It has been eradicated.

Scientists confidently seek cures for Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Medical workers quashed Ebola before it became a pandemic. My grandson is completing a doctoral degree focused on connecting the brain with computers to restore the function of an injured limb.

The world is more peaceful. There is a movement to stop violence against women, including rape. A professional football player was sanctioned for whipping his son in a fashion not uncommon in my youth.

The world has survived for almost 70 years without using the nuclear weapons that are stockpiled in great numbers. While regional wars abound, we have averted a third world war.

During the lifetime of some of us, the world’s population has tripled, and food production has remarkably kept pace.

In spite of gridlock and petty politics, democracy has spread. Central American dictators have been deposed and succeeded by a generation trying to fashion democratic forms. The same is happening in Africa. While we are unsure where Russia is headed, Vladimir Putin is mild compared to Josef Stalin. Adolf Hitler and Pol Pot are distant memories.

Kenny sees a strong role for governments. It is difficult to imagine much of this progress without stable governments.

Why have we allowed ourselves to view the world in such a pessimistic fashion? First, adversity and conflict feed the 24-hour news cycle. Second, we rely on economic measures that are not complete. They measure money and wealth. But a World Bank economist reminds us life is more than money and wealth.

Violence, abuse of power and privilege abound. But God is our refuge and strength, a present help in trouble. We are not forsaken. It is with this assurance that we welcome a new year.

Edgar Stoesz served with Mennonite Central Committee and lives in Akron, Pa.