By many measures, a revolution in living conditions is sweeping the world. Most people today are better fed, clothed, and housed than their predecessors two centuries ago. They are healthier, live longer, and can read and write. Women's lives are less centered on bearing and raising children, and political democracy has gained a foothold. Western Europe and its offshoots have been the leaders of this advance in the human condition. Most of the less developed world joined in the twentieth century, with the newly emerging nations of sub-Saharan Africa the latest to participate. Although the picture is not one of universal progress, it is the greatest advance in the condition of the world's population ever achieved in such a brief span of time.
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