The large, global market research firm Ipsos recently released its Global Trends 2020 study. It's based on extensive surveys and interviews across 33 countries and updates similar efforts conducted in 2013 and 2016.
The study covers a lot of ground (the study report is 120 pages long) and identifies 12 key trends that Ipsos believes will dominate the world in the 2020s. These are:
Climate emergency and antagonism
- A world divided by its values
- Choices over healthcare
- Reactions to uncertainty and inequality
- Capitalism’s turning point
- Peak globalization
- Data dilemmas
- Conscientious health
- Authenticity is king
- The search for simplicity and meaning
- The tech dimension: technophilia and technophobia
- The enduring appeal of nostalgia
One of the interesting findings of this study is how much of an outlier the U.S.is on many of these trends.
For example, 55% of Americans agreed that unequal wealth distribution is bad for society. This was the lowest percentage agreeing of the 33 countries in the survey. The global average agreeing with this statement was 76%.
America also came in last on a question about climate change. Only 66% of Americans agreed climate change is mostly being caused by human activity. Globally, 82% agreed.
Americans have always gone their own way.
But it's easy to see based on the study findings why "a world divided by its values" is one of the 12 dominant trends.
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