Over at Think Progress, five major reasons are provided as to why “2013 was, in fact, the best year on the planet for humankind”:

1. Fewer people are dying young, and more are living longer

2. Fewer people suffer from extreme poverty, and the world is getting happier

3. War is becoming rarer and less deadly

4. Rates of murder and other violent crimes are in free-fall

5. There’s less racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in the world

There is more that could be said (and I’m not sure that the final graph really captures the full impact of its headline, though it does demonstrate a major softening in the public’s view on homosexuals). I’m not entirely surprised that globalization and the spread of capitalism were barely mentioned as major reasons for these trends (yes, even same-sex marriage). Nonetheless, just another example of how the world is largely getting better. I could almost title this “Good News, Pope Francis: Part II.”