Signals: The 27 Trends Defining the Future of the Global Economy

"The state of humanity has always been in flux, but to be able to quantify any of these changes is a much more recent development. With today's data, there are a multitude of ways we could examine the nearly eight billion people on the planet. However, the clearest signals about society stem from data that is robust and far-reaching: Where do people live globally, and how is this changing? Where will tomorrow's consumers come from? Is wealth growing or shrinking, and is this happening equally? How does a rapidly aging population factor into all of this? In this chapter, we take a 10,000-foot view of society to help set the context for the rest of this book. The macro forces you are about to see are perpetually at work in the background, affecting almost every other signal and outcome you can imagine"--