2020s


The 2020s is the current decade that began on 1 January 2020 and will end on 31 December 2029.
During the early part of this decade, the world population grew from 7.7 billion to over 8.2 billion people. In 2023, India overtook China to become the most populous country in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath marked the early 2020s. The first reports of the virus were published on 31 December 2019, though the first cases are said to have appeared nearly a month earlier. The pandemic led to [COVID-19 recession|a global economic recession], 2021–2023 [inflation surge|sustained rise in global inflation], and supply chain crisis. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global state of emergency. With multiple extreme weather events and ecological crises continuing to escalate, several world leaders have called the 2020s the "decisive decade" for climate action. The years 2023 and 2024 both broke yearly global temperature records, with 2024 breaching 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Politically, the 2020s marked a period of democratic backsliding in countries such as the United States, India, and Israel, while previously authoritarian nations such as Russia or China witnessed a further slide into totalitarianism. The decade is also marked by the rise of right-wing populist and anti-democratic movements across the world, such as Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy, which formed the first far-right government in Italy since the fall of Benito Mussolini's fascist dictatorship; Javier Milei's La Libertad Avanza in Argentina, which elected the first libertarian head of state in the world; Alternative for Germany, which became the leading opposition party in Germany after the 2025 German federal election; and the Republican Party in the United States shifting towards national conservatism. The 2020s also saw a decline of establishment politics as centrist parties, such as the Democratic Party's defeat in the 2024 United States elections, or Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance losing to the left-wing New Popular Front and the far-right National Rally in the 2024 French legislative election.
Anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred, such as the Gen Z protests including the "Asian Spring" in Asian countries, predominantly led by the eponymous Generation Z, in response to inequality, declining standards of living, corruption, democratic backsliding and authoritarianism. Social media has been a common tool for activism and coordination. Protests against responses to COVID-19, against racism and police brutality by the Black Lives Matter movement, and against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption, and authoritarianism occurred; along with citizen riots throughout the United States and Brazil attempting to overturn election results, seen by supporters as stolen, taking place. Among democracies in 2024, its elections saw 80% of incumbent parties lose support worldwide, as with the 2024 United States presidential election. In 2025, Trump triggered a global trade war, marking a new era of economic nationalism.
Ongoing military conflicts include those in Myanmar, Ethiopia, Mali, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. The year 2021 saw the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, ending nearly War in [Afghanistan (2001–2021)|20 years of war]. The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in a refugee crisis, global trade disruptions, and economic inflation. In 2023, Hamas carried out the October 7 attacks in Israel, killing over 1,200 Israelis and taking 250 as hostages. This led to the Israeli invasion, bombing of the Gaza Strip|bombing], blockade, and starvation of the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 65,000 Palestinians and has been characterized as a genocide by a wide consensus of scholarship. The Gaza conflict spilled over, with Houthi attacks on commercial vessels triggering the Red Sea crisis and Israel invading Lebanon amid its conflict with Hezbollah. In 2024, a quick and renewed rebel offensive during the Syrian civil war led to the toppling of Bashar al-Assad and the fall of his regime. In 2025, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran's military and nuclear facilities, prompting Iran to retaliate and the U.S. to join with its own strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. Meanwhile, in the context of the war on cartels, the war on terror and the economic crisis in Venezuela, the U.S. launched Operation Southern Spear in the Caribbean starting in September 2025 with the aim of combating large-scale drug trafficking and narcoterrorism; the U.S. captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro in January 2026.
Technology has continued to evolve in the 2020s. There have been breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field. Generative AI-based applications, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, allow users to instantly generate sophisticated texts, images, art, and video. Other advances made during this decade include the widespread use of teleconferencing, online learning, e-commerce and food delivery services to compensate for lockdowns ordered by governments around the world during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services, such as Disney+ and HBO Max, have increased in popularity during the decade, with cable television continuing to fall out of usage. 5G networks launched around the globe at the start of the decade and became prevalent in smartphones. Research into outer space further evolved, with the United States mainly leading space exploration, including with the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity helicopter, and Artemis program. Virtual reality and augmented reality are being used for remote collaboration, meetings, and training. Contactless payments, including mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, have grown in popularity. The growth of cryptocurrencies and AI led to the cryptocurrency bubble and AI bubble, with both involved in a circular flow of investments believed to be artificially significantly inflating their actual values.

Politics and wars

Major conflicts

The prominent wars of the decade include:

Revolutions and major protests

Successful revolutions and otherwise major protests of the decade include, but are not limited to:
EventDateCountryEvents
Dutch farmers' protests1 October 2019 – presentNetherlands

Terrorist attacks

Note: To be included, entries must be notable and described by a consensus of reliable sources as "terrorism."
The most prominent terrorist attacks committed against civilian populations during the decade include, but are not limited to:
EventDateCountryDeathsInjuries
Koshebe massacre28 November 2020Nigeria

Political trends

The 2020s marked the end of the Post-Cold War era, particularly in post-communist Eastern Europe, east of the former Iron Curtain. Pasokification marked the decline of Centre-left and centre-right politics throughout the Western world during the decade, led by demographic changes such as increased tertiary education and ethnic diversity as well as the waning influence of religion and the rise of identity politics. At this time, centr-right parties drifted rightward towards libertarianism, right-wing populism, national conservatism, or were supplanted by new far-right parties. Centre-left politics has not declined to the same extent, but centrist politicians have faced significant challenges, most notably Joe Biden. Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Ukraine is also struggling, with the next Ukrainian presidential election indefinitely postponed due to the Russo-Ukrainian war.
A deep political divide has arisen in the United States, which has seen acute political polarization, with stark divides along race and ethnicity, educational attainment, and political polarization among states. The 2024 United States presidential election was decided by 1.5%, in one of the closest presidential elections in American history. In 2024, Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris after Harris previously defeated Trump in 2020 as the Vice presidential candidate, in a quasi-rematch.
Western Europe, Canada, and Oceania have largely avoided democratic backsliding and the rise of far-right politics, but even there political instability and polarization has increased. Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom has seen his approval ratings fall precipitously, and Emmanuel Macron of France has faced a French political crisis due to a hung parliament. However, in the 2025 Dutch general election the liberal Democrats 66 party won the most seats.
In East Asia, political instability has also increased, particularly in Japan and South Korea. South Korea had a martial law crisis in 2024, while in Japan the Liberal Democratic Party lost its majority in both houses of the National Diet. The Gen Z protests in Asia began in 2024, with the July Revolution in Bangladesh being described as the world's first Generation Z revolution. Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York City in 2025 at the age of 34, becoming the first Muslim, Indian-Ugandan, and millennial mayor of New York City.

Political economic trends

The 2021-2023 inflation surge discredited or weakened nearly all governing parties and leaders during the early 2020s, across ideological lines. In 2025, Trump triggered a global trade war, repudiating neoliberalism and free trade, in favor of mercantilism and protectionism. This was a sea change in Republican Party ideology, raising tariffs to the highest levels since the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act of 1930.
Despite being a capitalist country, the relationship between income and voter support in the United States inverted in 2024, because of educational polarization. Kamala Harris won voters making over $100,000 and $200,000 a year, but lost the election. Similar trends have occurred in Canada and the United Kingdom, as centre-left parties lose the support of those without college degrees, including many with lower incomes. The right-wing populist Reform UK party has attracted lower-income voters who tend to be older, did not graduate from university, and male. As early as 2018, French economist Thomas Piketty had predicted that centre-left parties would come to represent women, the highly educated and high-income, and ethnic minorities, instead of those with low incomes. Kamala Harris's strongest voters were women with graduate degrees and Black women, herself a Black woman with a Juris Doctor.
In particular, high-income and high-education women now vote for liberal parties, while low-income and low-education men now vote for conservative parties, as shown in the graphs. This is a complete reversal from the 20th century. Lower-income men are more conservative than higher-income men, and higher-income women are more liberal than lower-income women. High-income men still vote for conservative parties, and low-income women still vote for liberal parties.
  • The Republican Party's core demographics changed to becoming a party primarily of men without college degrees, including Hispanic men. The Democratic Party's core demographics changed to becoming a party primarily of women with college degrees and Black women. Hispanic men voted to the right of White women in 2024. Women without college degrees and men with college degrees were both fairly evenly split.
Former communist countries, particularly in the former Eastern Bloc, have pivoted towards national conservatism and far-right politics. This includes Russia itself under the authoritarian dictatorship of Vladimir Putin. Putin launched the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine with irredentist motives. The Russo-Ukrainian war (2022–present) represents the deadliest war in Eastern Europe since the Eastern Front of World War II and the Russian Civil War. But the trend was broader, also including Viktor Orbán in Hungary, the Law and Justice party in Poland, and the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which is strongest in the New states of Germany that once comprised East Germany.

Electoral trends

Having suffered decline in the years after the Great Recession, the centre-left politics and the 1990s political model experienced a resurgence across Europe and the Anglosphere in the early 2020s, with New Statesman suggesting various causes, including natural shifts in the electoral cycle and conservatives' unpopularity among university graduates and voters under the age of 40.
The 2020 United States presidential election saw the election of Kamala Harris as vice president was widely regarded as a historic milestone, as the first woman and multicultural to hold the office, reflecting broader trends toward increased diversity and representation in American politics, culture and society. She was conceded defeat as a presidential candidate at the 2024 United States presidential election to Donald Trump.
Following the election of Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election, the mid-2020s saw the resurgence of right-wing populism and the 1980s political model.
Political polarization has risen in other Western countries, not just the United States. while those who have very unfavorable opinions of the opposing party are at record highs as of 2022. The New York Times characterized this as part of a "new global divide", between national conservatism, social conservatism, and right-wing populism versus social democracy, liberalism, and pro-Europeanism or ethnic minorities such as African Americans. The 2020s saw rise of far-right, ultranationalist, libertarian, and right-wing populist political parties in the Western Bloc, such as the People's Party of Canada, Liberal Party of Brazil, National Rally, Alternative for Germany, Reform UK, Reform Party, Sanseitō, and the Trump-faction of the Republican Party. Incumbent parties in all 10 major counties that held elections in 2024 lost, the first time this has ever happened since 1905. All 50 states and the District of Columbia shifted towards the Republican Party in the 2024 U.S. presidential election.

Deaths

Sitting leaders that died such as Qaboos bin Said of Oman, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Amadou Gon Coulibaly of the Ivory Coast, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain, John Magufuli of Tanzania, Idriss Déby of Chad, Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, Nguyễn Phú Trọng of Vietnam, Didier Guillaume of Monaco and Pope Francis.

Prominent political events

Coups

Coups d'état against ruling governments during the decade include:
EventDateCountry
2020 Malian coup d'état18 8 2020Mali

Africa

EventCountryDateDescription
Western Saharan clashes (2020–present)Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic

Americas

EventCountryDateDescription
First impeachment of Donald TrumpUnited States

Asia

EventCountryDateDescriptionReference
2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisisIran

Europe

EventCountryDateDescription
BrexitUnited Kingdom

Oceania

EventCountryDateDescription
2021 Samoan constitutional crisisSamoa

Assassinations and attempts

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:
DateDescriptionReference
3 January 2020Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general, and leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, is killed in an airstrike conducted by the United States near Baghdad International Airport.
27 November 2020Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior official in the nuclear program in Iran, is killed in an ambush against his motorcade in Absard.
22 February 2021Luca Attanasio, Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is killed by gunmen while traveling in North Kivu.
20 April 2021Idriss Déby, 6th President of Chad, is killed while commanding forces against rebels during the Insurgency in Northern Chad, and is succeeded by transitional president and military general, Mahamat Kaka.
6 May 2021Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of the Maldivian People's Majlis, is wounded in an explosion alleged by Maldivian authorities to have been conducted by religious extremists.
7 July 2021Jovenel Moïse, 43rd President of Haiti, is killed by gunmen at his private residence. First Lady Martine Moïse is severely wounded.
15 October 2021David Amess, British Conservative Party MP, is killed by an Islamic terrorist during a constituency surgery.
7 November 2021Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister of Iraq, survives a drone attack that injures six in his security detail.
3 February 2022Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 2nd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed in Atme during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in north-western Syria.
8 June 2022Brett Kavanaugh, a United States Supreme Court Justice, is the target of an assassination plot in which the alleged assassin was motivated by a leaked Supreme Court decision that was poised to overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion as a right.
8 July 2022Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan, is killed while giving a campaign speech by a former navy sailor who held a grudge against the South Korean-based Unification Church.
31 July 2022Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi-jihadist group al-Qaeda, is killed by a drone strike conducted by the US-based CIA in Kabul, Afghanistan.
12 August 2022Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British-American novelist, is stabbed multiple times as he is about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, United States. Rushdie has been the subject of a fatwā written by Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death since 1989.
1 September 2022Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, then vice president and former president of Argentina, survives an attempt on her life after the assailant's weapon malfunctions.
15 October 2022Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 3rd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed by wearing and detonating a suicide vest during battle against Free Syrian Army rebels in the city of Jasim in Daraa Governorate, Syria. He is succeeded by Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi.
28 October 2022Nancy Pelosi, who at the time was Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is the target of a failed assassination attempt when a man armed with a hammer breaks into her residence. He instead assaults her husband, causing serious injuries as she was not home at the time of the attempt.
3 November 2022Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, is shot in the leg while traveling in a convoy in Wazirabad amid anti-government protests.
15 April 2023Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, is alleged to have been the target of an assassination attempt and survived by a bomb explosion in the fishing port of Saikazaki, Wakayama, Wakayama Prefecture, in the Kansai region to give a campaign stump speech for the 2023 Wakayama 1st district by-election.
9 August 2023Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuadorian politician and candidate for President of Ecuador, is shot to death following a campaign event in Quito.
23 August 2023Key figures in the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, including its founder and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, are killed in a plane crash widely believed to have been an assassination carried out by the Russian government after an attempted rebellion by Prigozhin earlier in the summer.
9 November 2023Alejo Vidal-Quadras Roca is shot in the face in Madrid by a person on a motorbike.
2 January 2024South Korean opposition leader-turned president Lee Jae-myung is stabbed in the neck during a visit to Busan.
3 March 2024A convoy carrying Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, in the city of Odesa are targeted by a Russian missile strike that kills at least five people with at least one missile reportedly missing them by 150 meters.
15 May 2024Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia is shot while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.
13 July 2024Donald Trump, former president of the United States, is shot at a presidential campaign rally he held near Butler, Pennsylvania.
31 July 2024Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran in an attack widely believed to have been conducted by Israel.
15 September 2024Donald Trump, former President of the United States and Republican Party nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election, is the subject of a second assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after nearly being killed in Butler, Pennsylvania two months prior.
27 September 2024Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, is killed in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force in Beirut.
16 October 2024Yahya Sinwar, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is killed in Rafah in a military operation conducted by Israel, two months after the assassination of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh.
4 December 2024Brian Thompson, American businessman and CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shot and killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan, New York City. The suspected assassin, Luigi Mangione, received support and was celebrated, by many online, as a folk hero.
16 December 2024Igor Kirillov, Russian NBC Protection Troops commander Lieutenant-General, is assassinated by a scooter bombing in Moscow.
18 March 2025Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the President of Somalia, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by the militant group Al-Shabaab at his presidential palace in Mogadishu while his entourage headed for Aden Adde International Airport.
12 April 2025Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, survives an assassination attempt and a bomb plot by an angry man while providing relief to Myanmar earthquake victims during the Songkran festival in Bangkok.
7 June 2025Miguel Uribe Turbay, Colombian senator and presidential candidate, is shot at a campaign event in Bogotá, later pronounced dead from his injuries on 11 August.
14 June 2025Melissa and Mark Hortman, a political couple, are assassinated during a series of home invasions and manhunts in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, while State Senator John Hoffman survives an assassination attempt in Champlin.
30 August 2025Andriy Parubiy, member and former chairman of the Ukrainian parliament, is shot and killed in Lviv by a gunman disguised as a delivery driver, who flees on an e-bike.
10 September 2025Charlie Kirk, American conservative political activist, is assassinated during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University.
1 November 2025Carlos Manzo, Mexican politician and mayor of Uruapan, Michoacán, is assassinated in Day of the Dead of Mexico because of his hardline policies against organized crime.
18 December 2025Osman Hadi, Bangladeshi political activist, is assassinated in the Paltan area of Dhaka. He was airlifted to the Singapore General Hospital on 15 December, where pronounced dead three days later, and a planned coup by the loyal Bangladesh Army led to a major political violence.

Disasters

Natural disasters

Earthquakes and tsunamis

Note: This table is a chronological list of earthquakes reported with 7.5 or greater or that have reported at least 100 fatalities.
EventDateCountryDescription
2020 Caribbean earthquakeCARICOMM|Wdts|30 October 2020

Tropical cyclones

EventDateCountryDescription
Cyclone Amphan16–21 May 2020Bangladesh

Tornadoes

EventDateCountryDescription
2021 South Moravia tornadoCzech Republic

Floods, avalanches, and mudslides

Note: This section reports only floods with 200 or more deaths and avalanches and landslides involving 30 or more deaths.
EventDateCountryDescription
2020 Neelum Valley avalancheJanuary 2020Pakistan

Droughts, heat waves, and wildfires

EventDateRegionDescription
2018–2021 Southern African droughtOctober 2018 – October 2021South Africadts|June 2019dts|May 2020

Other natural events

Beginning in 2019 until 2022, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Economics

The 2020s were marked by economic troubles, beginning from the COVID-19 recession was a major global economic crisis which has caused both a recession in some nations, and in others a depression. The economic crisis began due to the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first major sign of a recession was the collapse of markets during the 2020 stock market crash, which began in late February and lasted through March. As of September 2020, every advanced economy is in a recession or depression, whilst all emerging economies are in recession. Modeling by the World Bank suggests that in some regions a full recovery will not be achieved until 2025 or beyond.
Due to the 2021–2023 inflation surge, many countries reported the highest inflation rates in decades. The inflation surge has been attributed to various causes, including pandemic-related economic dislocation; the fiscal and monetary stimulus provided in 2020 and 2021 by governments and central banks around the world in response to the pandemic were also instrumental. The effect of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine on global oil prices, natural gas, fertilizer, and food prices further exacerbated the situation. Higher gasoline prices were a major contributor to inflation as oil producers saw record profits. Debate arose over whether inflationary pressures were transitory or persistent, and to what extent price gouging was a factor.
American technology billionaires are largely the wealthiest individuals in the world, including Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, and Jensen Huang. Jensen Huang is the CEO of Nvidia, the most valuable company in the world, and the wealthiest person of Asian descent. Alice Walton is the wealthiest woman in the world. Elon Musk became the first person to reach a net worth of $500 billion, becoming the wealthiest person in human history, and may become the first trillionaire by 2030. Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay plan for Musk in November 2025, provided Tesla achieves certain financial milestones.

Trade

The World Trade Organization reported that trade growth had stagnated and that trade restrictions were increasing as the decade began. The sectors most affected by import restrictions were mineral and fuel oils, machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical machinery and parts, and precious metals. Regional trade agreements were also found to be increasing.
United States President Donald Trump announced 2 April 2025 to be "liberation day", beginning to enforce tariffs on numerous nations in the following week. This triggered an ongoing economic trade war as well as the 2025 stock market crash. It is currently the largest decline in the global stock market since the 2020 stock market crash, which was part of a recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. From January to April 2025, the average applied US tariff rate rose from 2.5% to an estimated 27%—the highest level in over a century. The Supreme Court of the United States heard the case Learning Resources v. Trump on 5 November 2025 to determine the legality of some of Trump's tariffs.
Trump's tariffs represented a repudiation of neoliberalism and free trade, instead returning to mercantilism and protectionism. Tariffs have a long history in the United States, dating back to the Import-Export Clause of the U.S. Constitution and even the Navigation Acts when the United States was a British colony.

Science and technology

Below are the most significant scientific developments of each year, based on the annual Breakthrough of the Year award of the American Association for the Advancement of Science journal Science.

Artificial intelligence

The AI boom is an ongoing period of rapid progress in the field of artificial intelligence that started in the late 2010s before gaining international prominence in late 2022 with the public release of ChatGPT and DeepSeek in early 2025. Examples include large language models and generative AI applications developed by OpenAI as well as protein folding prediction led by Google DeepMind. This period is sometimes referred to as an AI spring, to contrast it with previous AI winters.

Communications and electronics

  • 5G became increasingly widespread during the decade.
  • By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.
  • 8K resolution and 4K resolution becomes prevalent in consumer electronics.

Spaceflight

The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit is expected to continue. Vulcan is replacing its more expensive predecessors. Since 2023, SpaceX is testing its fully reusable Starship with orbital missions. In 2024, Blue Origin plans the maiden flight of New Glenn with a reusable first stage and Ariane 6 is expected to replace the retired more expensive Ariane 5.
Mars stays a focus for missions to other planets, with three missions launched in 2020 and at least one mission planned for 2024, 2026 and 2028.
In 2028, as part of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission, NASA plans to launch a Sample Retrieval Lander. In 2027, ESA plans to launch the Earth Return Orbiter, which will transport the retrieved samples from Mars to Earth by 2033. China is also planning to retrieve samples from Mars by 2031.
NASA plans a return of humans to the Moon by 2026. The first uncrewed launch of the Space Launch System happened in 2022. The first crewed launch is planned for February 2026. In addition NASA plans to assemble the Lunar Gateway in lunar orbit. A crewed exploration of Mars could follow in the mid-2030s. SpaceX, a private company, has also announced plans to land humans on Mars in the 2020s, with the long-term goal of enabling the colonization of Mars.
India plans to launch its first crewed flight with a spacecraft called Gaganyaan on a home-grown GSLV Mark III rocket in 2025. The mission would make India the fourth nation to launch a crewed spaceflight after Russia, the US and China. India also plans to launch its second Mars probe, Mars Orbiter Mission 2.
The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021. NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will have a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, between October 2026 and May 2027.
NASA's NEO Surveyor, scheduled to launch no later than June 2028, is expected to be capable of detecting at least 90% of near-Earth objects larger than, a goal mandated by the US Congress in 2005.
The number of small satellites launched annually was expected to grow to around one thousand, mainly communication satellites in large constellations but launches quickly exceeded this estimate, mainly due to the rapid deployment of the Starlink and OneWeb constellations. From 2020 to 2022, around 3500 Starlink satellites and 500 satellites by OneWeb were launched.
The number of total satellites reached 10,000 for the first time in 2024.

Software and electronic platforms

Technology

  • The BBC reports that for the "first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely... because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine".
  • Sales of electric vehicles have grown significantly and this is expected to continue through the decade.
  • NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days. The NFT market experienced rapid growth during 2020, with its value tripling to million. In the first three months of 2021, more than million were spent on NFTs, and in the early months of 2021, interest in NFTs increased after a number of high-profile sales and art auctions. However, by 2022 this market was in the process of rapid collapse. A report in September 2023 concluded that 95% of collected NFTs now possess zero market value, and that "79% of all NFT collections remain unsold".

Society

Social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

Medical experts advised, and local authorities often mandated stay-at-home orders to prevent gatherings of any size. Such gatherings would be replaced by teleconferencing, or in some cases with unconventional attempts to maintain social distancing with activities such as a balcony sing-along for a concert, or a "birthday parade" for a birthday party. Replacements for gatherings were seen as significant to mental health during the crisis. Social isolation among alcohol users also adopted a trend towards Kalsarikänni or "pantsdrunking", a Finnish antisocial drinking culture.
Low-income individuals were more likely to contract the coronavirus and to die from it. In both New York City and Barcelona, low-income neighborhoods were disproportionately hit by coronavirus cases. Hypotheses for why this was the case included that poorer families were more likely to live in crowded housing and work in jobs deemed essential during the crisis, such as supermarkets and elder care. In the United States, millions of low-income people may lack access to health care due to being uninsured or underinsured. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance after losing their jobs. Many low-income workers in service jobs became unemployed.
The coronavirus pandemic was followed by a concern for a potential spike in suicides, exacerbated by social isolation due to quarantine and social-distancing guidelines, fear, and unemployment and financial factors. Many countries reported an increase in domestic violence and intimate partner violence attributed to lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial insecurity, stress, and uncertainty led to increased aggression at home, with abusers able to control large amounts of their victims' daily life. Midlife crisis is a major concern in domestic violence, social implications and suicides for middle-aged adults amid the pandemic. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a domestic violence and midlife crisis "ceasefire".

Population

Gender

24.3% of all national parliamentarians were women as of February 2019. 11 women were serving as elected and appointed female heads of state and government|head of state] and 12 as head of government in June 2019. 20.7% of government ministers were women as of January 2019. There are wide regional variations in the average percentages of women parliamentarians. As of February 2019, these were: Nordic countries, 42.5%; Americas, 30.6%; Europe excluding Nordic countries, 27.2%; sub-Saharan Africa, 23.9%; Asia, 19.8%; Arab States, 19%; and the Pacific, 16.3%. Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide, 61.3% of seats in the lower house. About 26% of elected local parliamentarians are women.
Many states swore in their first female leaders during the 2020s, including Presidents Katerina Sakellaropoulou, Samia Suluhu Hassan, Sandra Mason, Xiomara Castro, Katalin Novák, Dina Boluarte, Nataša Pirc Musar, Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova and Prime Ministers Rose Christiane Raponda, Victoire Tomegah Dogbé, Kaja Kallas, Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa, Robinah Nabbanja, Najla Bouden, Magdalena Andersson, Giorgia Meloni, Judith Suminwa, Chairwoman Borjana Krišto, and Sanae Takaichi.
Despite this, nearly all of the world's wealthiest individuals are male, as are the heads of state of most countries.

Environmentalism

The effects of climate change manifested in 2020 with a record 30 named Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes; the highest heat in 80-years recorded at 54.4 Celsius; massive wildfires in Australia, the Western United States, and the Arctic; and the second-lowest annual Arctic sea ice coverage. The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative—involving 30 fund management companies managing $9 trillion—pledged investment portfolios to be carbon-neutral by 2050.
In July 2024, in each month in a 12-month period, Earth's average temperature exceeded 1.5 °C above the pre-industrial baseline, and the highest daily global average temperature is recorded at, surpassing the previous record of on 6 July 2023.

LGBTQ rights

Global goals and issues

Development in global goals and issues—including goals or progress related to the largest causes of human death—during the decade, according to reports that systematically track, quantify or review associated progress.
As of 2022:

Popular culture

Fashion

The fashion of the early 2020s was characterized by a variety of styles and influences from different eras. During this period, the trend towards individuality and self-expression in clothing continued. Young millennials and Generation Z has witnessed and enjoyed a notable resurgence of fashion styles from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s in the fashion industry. A prominent example of this is the revival of trends such as crop tops, baggy jeans, and elements from the Y2K aesthetic.
Sustainable fashion practices gained significance, with an increased awareness of environmentally friendly materials and production processes. Influences from social media culture were also unmistakable, as influencers and celebrities exerted a strong influence on fashion trends. The popularity of online platforms like Instagram and TikTok contributed to the rapid spread of trends, while simultaneously allowing niche styles and subcultures to flourish.

Film

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted film releases especially early in the decade, resulting in a drastic drop in box office revenue as well as many films postponing their release or shifting it to a streaming services. Avatar: The Way of Water is the highest-grossing film of the decade so far, and currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Other financially successful films at the box office include Top Gun: Maverick, Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two, and the Wicked film duology. Superhero films mostly continued to do well financially, such as most successes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, continuing with its "Multiverse Saga". Several successful horror films included M3GAN, the X trilogy, Barbarian, and Sinners.
In 2023, the films Barbie and Oppenheimer were both released on the same day, which led to the creation of the double feature phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer". Both films became critically and commercially successful with both receiving a nomination for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards, and the latter winning both the award and nabbing Christopher Nolan's first Best Director award.
Critically successful films nominated for awards include Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hundreds of Beavers, Licorice Pizza, The Fabelmans, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, Elvis, Belfast, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, The Substance, RRR, Better Man, The Brutalist, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Complete Unknown, and Anatomy of a Fall.
Critically successful animated films include Wolfwalkers, Encanto, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Inside Out 2, Ne Zha 2, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, The Boy and the Heron, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Nimona, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, Luca, Once Upon a Studio, KPop Demon Hunters, The Wild Robot, Robot Dreams, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Memoir of a Snail, Flow, Suzume, Scarlet, Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc, Flee, Jumbo, Zootopia 2, The First Slam Dunk and Chicken for Linda!.
2025 became the year of highest-grossing animated films in Asia, such as Ne Zha 2 and Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Infinity Castle, to gross $3 billion in a successful box office of the year, Japanese anime films became dominant for 15 years since Arrietty.

Television

The 2020s started off with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Showtime, Crunchyroll, Hayu, Peacock, DAZN, and Disney+. Ad-supported streaming televisions such as Pluto TV and YouTube TV also became more popular.
During a live broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, audiences across the auditorium and at home watched in shock as actor and musician Will Smith, who was nominated for, and won, Best Actor that evening for his performance in the biographical film King Richard, slapped comedian and actor Chris Rock, who was presenting Best Documentary Feature, across the face after making a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Following that ceremony's incident, after receiving his Oscar, Smith was suspended from the academy for ten years.
Billions of people watched the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II in 2022 and the 2024 Summer Olympics coverage in Paris speculated to be the most watched special television events in history.

Animated

Japanese anime continued to rise in global popularity and appeal during the decade, with works such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Beastars, Chainsaw Man, Spy × Family, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Hell's Paradise: Jigokuraku, Oshi no Ko, Baki, Delicious in Dungeon, Record of Ragnarok, Frieren, Dandadan, Solo Leveling, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Tokyo Revengers, Vinland Saga, Witch Watch, Kaiju No. 8, Gachiakuta, Bleach: Thousand-Year Blood War, Sakamoto Days, Attack on Titan, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and One Piece reaching large international audiences.
New and critically acclaimed teen and adult animated shows like Harley Quinn, Hazbin Hotel, Primal, Love, Death & Robots, Blood of Zeus, Invincible, Arcane, Devil May Cry, and Smiling Friends, as well as the web series The Amazing Digital Circus, were launched in the 2020s, along with other animated shows such as Hilda, Bluey, The Owl House, Kiff, X-Men '97, Amphibia, and Star Wars: Visions.

Live-action

A variety of shows on streaming services such as Squid Game, Severance, Never Have I Ever, Tulsa King, Ted Lasso, Beef, The Boys, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Only Murders in the Building, Wednesday, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Euphoria, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Heartstopper, Love, Victor, The Pitt, Shōgun, The Witcher, The White Lotus, Alice in Borderland, Hacks, The Diplomat, Yellowstone, The Last of Us, Succession, Heated Rivalry and Tiger King gained popularity. Many different shows on many different competing streaming services resulted in what has been called the "streaming wars" of the early 2020s. Miniseries also gained popularity such as The Queen's Gambit, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Daisy Jones & the Six, Beef, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Mrs. America, Mare of Easttown, and Pam & Tommy.
Also released in the 2020s, the reality game show The Traitors achieved popularity and became a global success.
Several TV shows based on films include American Gigolo, The Penguin, live-action Star Wars series, Peacemaker, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Ted.

Music

By 2020, TikTok, an online video service, had become extremely popular as a music platform on social media. Users on streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and Apple Music have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Festivals such as Coachella were cancelled because of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the touring business.
Pop, hip-hop, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, Eurodance, indies, K-pop, R&B, trance, and synth-pop all dominated the early part of the decade, with the most popular artists being Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Playboi Carti, Morgan Wallen, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, Jelly Roll, and more. The early 20s also saw the one-off return of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with a new song and album, respectively, which topped out the charts immediately upon release. 2022 saw a revival in Kate Bush's song, "Running Up That Hill", due to its appearance in the Netflix series Stranger Things. Starting around 2023, country music has seen a rise in popularity with artists such as Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen topping the charts along with artists such as Beyoncé and Post Malone releasing country albums.

Video games

The ninth generation of consoles began in 2020. The industry remains dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft with the release of the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5, while the Nintendo Switch continues to be popular from the previous decade. Technological advancements in consoles included support for real-time ray tracing graphics and output for 4K or even 8K resolution. Physical media continued to be replaced by online distribution of games, with the Xbox Series S and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition lacking an optical drive. The Steam Deck was released in 2022 as Valve's attempt to bring PC-level gaming to a Nintendo Switch-style handheld format.
During the decade PC gaming would continue growing rapidly with the console gaming market remaining more stagnant. The growing majority of video game developers would also primarily focus on developing their projects for PC. Mobile gaming remained the largest sector of the video game industry during the decade, accounting for roughly half of the industry's revenue.
Critically successful games such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Astro Bot, Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part II were released and won multiple best game of the year awards, signaling a shift towards narrative-driven and single-played focused gaming compared with the end of the 2010s where popularity of multiplayer gaming dominated. Nonetheless, widely successful multiplayer games includes Among Us, EA Sports FC, Call of Duty: Warzone, Fall Guys, Fate/Grand Order, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, It Takes Two, Counter-Strike 2, Umamusume: Pretty Derby, Minecraft, Roblox, Dead by Daylight, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, and Valorant surged in popularity in the decade and became a global sensation since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Architecture

There is a revival in expressionist architecture. The SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome were completed in September 2020 and August 2024, there are a component of Hollywood Park, a master-planned neighborhood in development in Inglewood, California. The venue serves as a home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rams, and the Chargers. Both they hosted the Super Bowl LVI in February 2022, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in February 2026, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June 2026. The stadium and arena is also set to host the opening and closing ceremonies, aquatic events, and basketball events for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, United States.
The developments in Port Melbourne, Victoria of the West Gate Tunnel continued from 2020, which is designed to provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, it is expected to be completed in 2025.
The Unity Tower in Kraków was finally completed on 30 September 2020. The construction of the building originally started in 1975 but stopped permanently in 1981 because of economic constraints and political unrest at the time. Due to the unfinished building's resemblance to a skeleton, it was nicknamed after Skeletor, the arch-villain in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was popular in Poland at the time construction began.
Several developments in Saudi Arabia to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030, such as the 2034 FIFA World Cup stadiums, Qiddiya City, Neom's The Line, Jeddah Tower, Roshn, and Riyadh's Expo 2030 site.
The Grand Ring was built and designed by the Japanese firms Tohata Architects and Azusa Sekkei, the building became the symbol of the famous Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan. It was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest architectural structure.

Sports

Since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted major sporting events led to the postponement and cancellations in the early-2020s, technological advances growing popularity throughout the decade like digital live broadcasts from the successful 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Football, horse racing, basketball, athletics, tennis, volleyball, baseball, and cricket became more popular for digital audiences during the decade.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation or rescheduling of numerous sporting events globally. The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo were postponed to July–August 2021. This was the first Olympic Games to be postponed rather than cancelled in history since World War II.
Zimbabwean sports administrator and politician Kirsty Coventry became the first woman, the first multicultural, and the first African President of the International Olympic Committee, following the resignation of Thomas Bach. She is also the second youngest person and second Olympic medallist to be elected to the position since Pierre de Coubertin and Thomas Bach, her achievements are focused on feminism and gender equality in sports.
The International Olympic Committee has begun a new policy of authorizing up to 5 additional sports per edition of the Olympic Games, and this rule applies to both the Summer and Winter Games. This rule came into effect starting with the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Football

Football's popularity has continued global dominance, while also undergoing significant shifts due to various factors, Argentina and Spain won the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by defeating France and England, with Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmatí winning the Golden Balls, while Hinata Miyazawa and Kylian Mbappé winning the Golden Boots.

Baseball

Baseball had a notable resurgence, particularly within its traditional strongholds, Japan and the United States. Japan defeated the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship with a score of 3–2, winning their 3rd title in the event. Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was named the MVP of the tournament. He became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season and was unanimously named the 2024 National League MVP. Rivaling Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, Ohtani led the Los Angeles Dodgers to victory in the 2024 World Series.
Shohei Otani and Mookie Betts met with US president Donald Trump at the White House in April 2025.

Basketball

Shortly into the decade, on January 26, 2020, 5-time NBA champion, 2008 NBA MVP, two-time Olympic gold medalist and Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant, and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, died in a California helicopter crash along with seven other people. A number of tributes and memorials subsequently followed, and the All-Star Game MVP Award was renamed in Bryant's honor.
Basketball has been characterized by significant global growth and dominance in strong youth engagement, the 2023 FIBA World Cup followed by Germany won by defeating Serbia.
On February 7, 2023, LeBron James, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, scored his 38,388th career point in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.

Food

Food delivery apps such as Deliveroo, DoorDash, Instacart, Menulog, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Bolt Food, Wolt, and Just Eat Takeaway became more popular since to the COVID-19 pandemic. Indoor dining was also closed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and upon re-opening the usage of QR codes and other technologies in the restaurant industry increased compared to the 2010s in order to comply with pandemic restrictions.
Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, online grocery shopping has substantially grown and in the first few months of the pandemic, online grocery shopping increased by 300%. Before the pandemic occurred, food shopping activity accounted for 9% of the market, now 63% of consumers worldwide have purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated.

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade: