21st century


The 21st century is the current century in the Anno Domini or Common Era, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. It began on 1 January 2001, and will end on 31 December 2100. It is the first century of the 3rd millennium.
The rise of a global economy and Third World consumerism marked the beginning of the century, along with increased private enterprise and deepening concern over terrorism after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The NATO Afghanistan |intervention in Afghanistan] and the United States-led coalition intervention in Iraq in the early 2000s, as well as the overthrow of several regimes during the Arab Spring in the early 2010s, led to mixed outcomes in the Arab world, resulting in several civil wars and political instability. The early 2020s saw an increase in wars across the world, including a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war and the Gaza war. Meanwhile, the war on drugs continues, with the focus primarily on Mexican [drug war|Mexico] and the rest of Latin America. The United States has remained the sole global superpower, while China is now considered to be an emerging superpower.
In 2022, 45% of the world's population lived in "some form of democracy", although only 8% lived in "full democracies". The United Nations estimates that by 2050, two-thirds of the world's population will be urbanized.
The world economy expanded at high rates from $42 trillion in 2000 to $101 trillion in 2022, and though many economies rose at greater levels, some gradually contracted. Effects of global warming and rising sea levels exacerbated the ecological crises, with eight islands disappearing between 2007 and 2014.
In late 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic began to rapidly spread worldwide, causing more than seven million reported deaths, and around 18.2 to 33.5 million estimated deaths, while at the same time, causing Economic impact of the [COVID-19 pandemic|severe global economic disruption], including the largest global recession since the Great Depression in the 1930s. The pandemic defined 2020 and 2021, and remained a global health crisis until May 2023.
Due to the sudden proliferation of internet-accessible mobile devices, such as smartphones becoming ubiquitous worldwide beginning in the early 2010s, nearly three-quarters of the world's population obtained access to the Internet by 2025. After the success of the Human Genome Project, DNA sequencing services became available and affordable. There were significant improvements in the complexity of artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field. Research into outer space greatly accelerated in the 2020s, with the United States mainly dominating space exploration, including the James Webb Space Telescope, [Ingenuity |Ingenuity helicopter], Lunar Gateway, and Artemis program.

Pronunciation

There is a lack of general agreement over how to pronounce specific years of the 21st century in English. Academics have pointed out that the early years of previous centuries were commonly pronounced as, for example, "eighteen oh five" and "nineteen oh five". Generally, the early years of the 21st century were pronounced as in "two-thousand five", with a change taking place around 2010, when pronunciations often shifted between the early-years form of "two-thousand ten" and the traditionally more concise form of "twenty-ten".
The Vancouver Olympics, which took place in Canada in 2010, was being officially referred to by Vancouver 2010 as "the twenty-ten Olympics".

Society

Technologies such as ultrasound, prenatal genetic testing, and genetic engineering have advanced significantly. Due to sex-selective abortion, fewer girls have been born in the 21st century compared to past centuries, mostly because of son preference in East and South Asia. In 2014, only 47% of Indian births were of girls. This has led to an increase in bachelors in countries such as China and India. The first genetically modified children were born November 2018 in China to significant controversy, beginning a new biological era for the human species.
Anxiety and depression rates have risen in the United States and many other parts of the world. However, suicide rates have fallen in Europe and most of the rest of the world so far this century, declining 29% globally between 2000 and 2018, despite rising 18% in the United States in the same period. The decline in suicide has been most notable among Chinese and Indian women, the elderly, and middle-aged Russian men.

Knowledge and information

The entire written works of humanity, from the beginning of recorded history to 2003, in all known languages, are estimated to amount to five exabytes of data. Since 2003, with the beginning of social media and "user-generated content", the same amount of data is created every two days. With the AI boom of the 2020s gaining international prominence, as of 2024, mass-produced AI slop comprised over half of the Internet.
Telecommunications in the early 21st century are much more advanced and universal than they were in the late 20th century. Only a small percentage of the world's population were Internet users and cellular phone owners in the late 1990s; while as of 2023, 67% of the world's population is online, and 78% of all people aged 10 and above own a mobile phone. In the 2010s, artificial intelligence, mainly in the form of deep learning and machine learning, became more prevalent and in the early 2020s, with the rise of generative AI, the AI boom began. As of 2022, 8.6% of the world's population still lacked access to electricity.
File:Triptychon Maha Kumbh Mela.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|India's Prayag Kumbh Mela is regarded as the world's largest religious festival.
In 2001, Dennis Tito became the first space tourist, beginning the era of commercial spaceflight. Meanwhile China and India have made substantial strides in their space programs. On 3 January 2019, China landed a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the Moon, the first to do so. On 23 August 2023, with the Chandrayaan-3 Mission, India became the first country to touch down near the lunar south pole.

Culture and politics

War and violence have declined considerably compared to the 20th century, continuing the post-World War II trend called Long Peace. However, since the beginning of the 2020s, geopolitical tensions and wars have been rising across the world, as seen with the invasion of Ukraine">2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine">invasion of Ukraine and Gaza war, the Tigray war, the Sudanese [civil war |Sudanese civil war], and the deterioration of China–United States relations. As of 2023, 14% of people in the world live within five kilometers of violent conflict; the highest number of ongoing conflicts across various since World War II.
Poverty is still widespread globally, but fewer people live in the most extreme forms of poverty. In 1990, 37.9% of the world's population lived in extreme poverty; by 2022, this had dropped to just 9%.
The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal drew international attention to the possible adverse effects of social media in influencing citizens' views, particularly regarding the 2016 United States presidential election.

Population and urbanization

The world population was about 6.1 billion at the start of the 21st century and reached 8 billion by November 2022. It is estimated to reach nearly 8.6 billion by 2030, and 9.8 billion by 2050. According to the United Nations World Urbanization prospects, 60% of the world's human population is projected to live in megacities and megalopolis/megalopolises by 2030, 70% by 2050, and 90% by 2080.
Life expectancy has increased as child mortality continues to decline. A baby born in 2019, for example, will, on average, live to 73 years — 27 years longer than the global average of someone born in 1950. 10 million Britons will, on average, live to 100 or older.
Climate change remains a serious concern; United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, for instance, has described it as an "existential threat" to humanity. Furthermore, the Holocene extinction event, the sixth-most significant extinction event in the Earth's history, continues with the widespread degradation of highly biodiverse habitats as a by-product of human activity.

Economics, education and retirement

Economically and politically, the United States and Western Europe were dominant at the beginning of the century; by the 2010s, China became an emerging global superpower and, by some measures, the world's largest economy. In terms of purchasing power parity, India's economy became more significant than Japan's around 2011.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are decentralized currencies that are not controlled by any central bank. These currencies are increasing in popularity worldwide due to the expanding availability of the internet and are mainly used as a store of value.
There is an ongoing impact of technological unemployment due to automation and computerization: the rate at which jobs are disappearing—due to machines replacing them—is expected to escalate. Automation alters the number of jobs and the skills demands of industries. As of 2019, the production output of first world nations' manufacturing sectors was doubled when compared to 1984 output; but it is now produced with one-third fewer workers and at significantly reduced operating costs. Half of all jobs with requirements lower than a bachelor's degree are currently in the process of being replaced with partial- or full-automation.
The World Economic Forum forecasted in 2018 that 65% of children entering primary school will end up in jobs or careers that currently do not yet exist.
A rise in the retirement age has been called for in view of an increase in life expectancy and has been put in place in many jurisdictions.

Linguistic diversity

As of 2009, Ethnologue catalogued 6,909 living human languages. The exact number of known living languages will vary from 5,000 to 10,000, generally depending on the precision of one's definition of "language", and in particular, on how one classifies dialects.
Estimates vary depending on many factors, but the general consensus is that there are between 6,000 and 7,000 languages currently spoken. Between 50% and 90% of those will have become extinct by the year 2100.
The [List of languages by number of native speakers|top 20 languages] spoken by more than 50 million speakers each, are spoken by 50% of the world's population. In contrast, many of the other languages are spoken by small communities, most of them with fewer than 10,000 speakers.

Events

2000s

2010

2020

File:The victory celebration of Bangladeshi student's one point movement.jpg|thumb|Victory march in Dhaka by protesters after the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, 2024
File:World leaders attending the 2025 China Victory Day Parade.jpg|thumb|Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the Victory Day Parade in China, 3 September 2025

New countries and territorial changes

Some territories and states have gained independence during the 21st century. This is a list of sovereign states that have gained independence in the 21st century and have been recognized by the UN.File:Kosova independence Vienna 17-02-2008 b.jpg|thumb|Celebration of the Declaration of Independence of Kosovo
  • ' on 20 May 2002.
  • ' on 3 June 2006.
  • ' on 3 June 2006.
  • on 9 July 2011.
These nations gained sovereignty through government reform.
  • ' on 23 December 2001.
The Union of the Comoros replaced the Federal Islamic Republic of the Comoros
  • Islamic State of Afghanistan">Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant">Islamic State of Afghanistan on 13 July 2002.
The Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan replaced the Islamic State of Afghanistan.
The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro replaced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan replaced the Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan
The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal replaced the Kingdom of Nepal.
The National Transitional Council of Libya replaced the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya.
The State of Libya replaced the National Transitional Council of Libya.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan replaced the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
These territories have declared independence and secured relative autonomy but they have only been recognized by some UN member states:
These territories have declared independence and secured relative autonomy but they have been recognized by no one:
These territories were annexed from a sovereign country, the action has only been recognized by some UN member states:
These territories were ceded to another country:

Space exploration

Beginning on 3 November 2000, humans have had an uninterrupted presence in space which has lasted to this day. This is because of the International Space Station, a spacecraft that was assembled in low Earth orbit with a series of interconnected modules, solar panels, radiators, and eight docking ports, with the first module being launched in 1998. Until its planned retirement in 2030, it will continue to host astronauts that will pioneer in scientific research and spacecraft control. Private spaceflight became increasingly common with non-government-funded companies making more and more technological advancements. SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, wishes to pave the way for a self-sustaining colony on Mars to ensure the survival of humanity. In the early 2020s, some journalists have used the phrase "New Space Age" in reference to a resurgence of innovation and public interest in space exploration as well as commercial applications of low Earth orbit and more distant destinations. New developments include the participation of billionaires in crewed space travel, including space tourism and interplanetary travel.
There were also major achievements in the exploration of the Solar System. Minor planets were first widely explored, including an asteroid In 2001, a comet in 2005, and a dwarf planet in 2015. In 2022, an asteroid's moon was impacted by the Double Asteroid Redirection Test to test a method of planetary defense. On Mars, spacecraft Phoenix found water on the planet in 2008; 5 new rovers were also deployed on the planet, along with the first Mars helicopter.
In the Outer Solar System, planetary orbiters received groundbreaking new data from Jupiter and Saturn. At Jupiter, the Galileo orbiter was retired in 2003 and replaced with a second scientific orbiter in 2016. At Saturn, Cassini–Huygens allowed numerous remarkable scientific discoveries to be found. After entry into Saturn's orbit, the Huygens component successfully landed on the atmospheric moon Titan in 2005, the first-ever extraterrestrial moon to be landed on – in 2007, the Cassini orbiter confirmed the existence of liquid lakes on Titan. The orbiter also discovered the first cryovolcano ; studied the rings of Saturn in detail; and was retired in 2017. Pluto and its moon Charon were visited for the first time in 2015 with New Horizons. Going even further, spacecraft Voyager 1, launched in 1977, became the first spacecraft to reach interstellar space in 2012.
In 2017, the first confirmed visitor from another star system was seen passing by Earth. It is one of three known interstellar objects known to be currently passing through the Solar System, all three of which have unusual characteristics. In 2019, the first photograph of a black hole was captured. The number of exoplanets known dramatically increased, with 6,042 being known as of 2025, some of which are in the habitable zone and exhibit possible biosignatures.

Physics

The Digital Revolution continued into the early 21st century with mobile phone usage and Global Internet usage growing massively, becoming available to many more people, with more applications and faster speeds.
Social networking emerged in the mid-2000s as a popular form of social communication, partly replacing much of the function of email, message boards and instant messaging services. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and WeChat are all major examples of social media which have gained widespread popularity. The use of webcams and front-facing cameras on PCs and related devices, and services such as Skype, Zoom and FaceTime, have made video calling and video conferencing widespread. Their use hugely increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Civil unrest

Disasters

Natural disasters

2000s
  • 2001 Gujarat earthquake – An earthquake in Gujarat, India on 26 January 2001, killed approximately 20,000 people.
  • January 2001 [El Salvador earthquake] – A 7.9 earthquake in El Salvador shook the whole country on 13 January 2001, causing a major devastating landslide, hundreds dead, thousands injured and many homeless. A month later, on 13 February 2001, the country suffered a second earthquake – 6.7
  • 2003 European heat wave – Approximately up to 70,000 people were killed across Europe in a summer long heat wave.
  • Bam earthquake">Bam, Iran">Bam earthquake – An earthquake in Bam, Iran on 27 December 2003, killed more than 26,000.
  • 2004 Hurricane Jeanne – Over 3,000 people are killed by Hurricane Jeanne in Haiti in September 2004.
  • 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami – On 26 December 2004, a massive undersea earthquake resulted in a massive tsunami striking southeast Asia killing approximately 230,000.
  • 2005 Hurricane Katrina – The hurricane killed 1,836 in southeast Louisiana and Mississippi and South Florida. A significant portion of the city, most of which sits below sea level, was submerged. Damages reached US$81.5 billion, making Katrina the costliest tropical cyclone ever recorded in the U.S.
  • 2005 Kashmir earthquake – An earthquake in Kashmir on 8 October 2005, killed at least 74,500 in India and Pakistan.
  • 2008 Cyclone Nargis – lead to catastrophic storm surge, leading to a death toll in excess of 100,000 and making millions homeless.
  • 2008 Sichuan earthquake – An earthquake between 7.9 and 8.0-magnitude struck Sichuan, China, on 12 May 2008, killing 68,712, with 17,921 missing.
  • 2009 Black Saturday bushfires – The Black Saturday bushfires were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria, Australia on and around Saturday, 7 February 2009. The fires occurred during extreme bushfire-weather conditions and resulted in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire; 173 people died and 414 were injured.
  • 2009 [L'Aquila earthquake] – A 6.3 magnitude earthquake strikes near L'Aquila on 6 April 2009, one of the worst in Italian history. 308 were pronounced dead and more than 65,000 were made homeless.
  • 2009 [flu pandemic] – A worldwide outbreak of Influenza A virus subtype H1N1 spread around the world forming a pandemic by June 2009.
2010s
File:Haiti Earthquake building damage.jpg|thumb|Damaged buildings in Port-au-Prince as a result of the 2010 [Haiti earthquake]
File:Hurricane Maria destruction along Roseau road.jpg|thumb|Hurricane Maria destruction in Dominica in 2017
  • 2010 Haiti earthquake – At least 230,000 are killed in Haiti after a massive earthquake on 12 January 2010. Three million people were made homeless.
  • 2010 Chile earthquake – A massive earthquake, magnitude 8.8, strikes the central Chilean coast on 27 February 2010.
  • 2010 Yushu earthquake – A large 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the Yushu region of China in Qinghai near Tibet, on 14 April 2010, killing over 2,200 people.
  • 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull – A massive ash cloud is formed by the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull, on 14 April 2010, grounding flights across northwest Europe. Scientists began recording volcanic activity there in 2009 which increased through March 2010 culminating in the second phase eruption in April.
  • 2010 [Pakistan floods] – Began in July 2010 after record heavy monsoon rains. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan was worst affected. At least 1,600 people were killed, thousands were rendered homeless, and more than thirteen million people were affected. Estimates from rescue service officials suggest the death toll may reach 3,000 victims.
  • 2010–2011 [Queensland floods|2011 Queensland floods] – Began in December 2010 primarily in Queensland. The flood causes thousands of people to evacuate. At least 200,000 people were affected by the flood. The flood continued throughout January 2011 in Queensland, and the estimated reduction in Australia's GDP is about A$30 billion.
  • Cyclone Yasi – A category 5 cyclone hits North Queensland with winds as strong as 290 km/h and devastates the residents of North Queensland.
  • February 2011 Christchurch earthquake – 185 people died in New Zealand after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake hit Christchurch on 22 February 2011, making it New Zealand's second-deadliest natural disaster after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake.
  • 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami – On 11 March 2011, a catastrophic undersea earthquake of magnitude 9.0 occurred offshore of eastern Japan, the greatest in the country's history and created a massive tsunami which killed 15,894; it also triggered the Fukushima I nuclear accidents. The overall cost for the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accidents reached up to US$235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster on record.
  • 2011 Super Outbreak – Regarded as the deadliest tornado outbreak ever recorded, a catastrophic tornado outbreak on 25–28 April affected the Southern United States and killed over 330 people, most of whom were in or from Alabama. Damages are expected to be near or over $10 billion.
  • 2011 Joplin tornado – On 22 May 2011, a devastating EF5 tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, resulting in 159 casualties, making it the deadliest tornado to hit the United States since 1947.
  • Tropical Storm Washi – Locally known as Sendong, it caused catastrophic flooding in the Philippine island of Mindanao on the night of 16 December 2011. The hardest hits were in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City. Almost 1000 people perished, most of whom were sleeping, and President Benigno Aquino III declared a state of calamity four days later.
  • Hurricane Sandy – 24–30 October 2012 – kills at least 185 people in the Caribbean, Bahamas, United States and Canada. Considerable storm surge damage causes major disruption to the eastern seaboard of the United States.
  • 2013 Bohol earthquake – An earthquake of magnitude 7.2 that killed 22 people and destroyed a total worth of ₱2.25 billion,
  • Typhoon Haiyan 2013 – kills more than 6,000 people in central Philippines. Considered to be one of the strongest storms ever, it brought major damage and loss of life to the Philippines, especially the islands of Leyte and Samar. A worldwide humanitarian effort began in the aftermath of the typhoon.
  • 2014 Southeast Europe floods – kill at least 80 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia. Floodwaters caused over 2,000 landslides across the Balkan region, spreading damage across many towns and villages.
  • April 2015 Nepal earthquake – An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude kills almost 9,000 people, injures another 22,000 and leaves nearly 3 million people homeless in Central Nepal. The earthquake was so strong it was felt in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
  • 2016 Taiwan earthquake – An earthquake of 6.4 magnitude kills 117 people, injures 550, and 4 people were left missing. The earthquake resulted in 3 executives of the Weiguan developer being arrested under charges of professional negligence resulting in death.
  • August 2016 Central Italy earthquake – A 6.2 magnitude earthquake killed 299 people and severely damaged Amatrice, Accumoli and Arquata del Tronto.
  • 2018 Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami – A shallow, large earthquake struck in the neck of the Minahasa Peninsula, Indonesia, with its epicentre located in the mountainous Donggala Regency, Central Sulawesi. The magnitude 7.5 quake was located 70 km away from the provincial capital Palu and was felt as far away as Samarinda on East Kalimantan and also in Tawau, Malaysia.
2020s
  • Unprecedented flooding displaces millions and threatens famine in Sudan and South Sudan in 2020–2021.
  • On 12 January 2020, the Taal Volcano erupted for the first time in 43 years.
  • The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, the most active regional season on record with 30 total named storms, results in over 400 fatalities across parts of the United States, Central America and the Caribbean.
  • At least 20 people are killed in 2021 Henan floods in China after heavy rainfall exacerbated by the approach of Typhoon In-fa breaks existing records.
  • The 2021 European floods kill over 188 people and devastate Belgium, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Croatia, Switzerland, Italy and Luxemburg. Floods in Germany prove to be the deadliest since the North Sea Flood of 1962.
  • On 27 July 2022, a magnitude-7.0 earthquake hit Luzon, causing 11 deaths and ₱1.88 billion of property damage.
  • In September 2022, Hurricane Ian hit the west coast of Florida as a Category 4 Atlantic hurricane, becoming the deadliest hurricane to hit Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
  • Towards the end of the month of September 2024, Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region of Florida at category 4 strength, causing catastrophic damage. Towards the end of its life, Helene hit the states of Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, becoming the fifth costliest tropical storm on record with estimates up to $78.7 billion.

    Human-made disasters

  • On 27 July 2002, a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter crashes at an air show in Ukraine, killing 77 and injuring more than 100, making it the worst air show disaster in history.
  • On 1 February 2003, at the conclusion of the STS-107 mission, the Space Shuttle Columbia Columbia disaster|disintegrates during reentry] over Texas, killing all seven astronauts on board.
  • The Black Saturday bushfires – the deadliest bushfires in Australian history took place across the Australian state of Victoria on 7 February 2009, during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, resulting in 173 people killed, more than 500 injured, and around 7,500 homeless. The fires came after Melbourne recorded the highest-ever temperature of any capital city in Australia. The majority of the fires were ignited by either fallen or clashing power lines or deliberately lit.
  • On 10 April 2010, Polish President Lech Kaczyński, his wife and 94 other people, including dozens of government officials, are killed in a plane crash.
  • On 20 April 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig, operating in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana, left eleven crewmen dead and resulted in a fire that sank the rig and caused a massive-scale oil spill that may become one of the worst environmental disasters in United States history. On 18 June 2010, oceanographer John Kessler said that the crude gushing from the well contains 40 percent methane, compared to about 5 percent found in typical oil deposits. Methane is a natural gas that could potentially suffocate marine life and create "dead zones" where oxygen is so depleted that nothing lives. "This is the most vigorous methane eruption in modern human history", Kessler said. On 20 June an internal BP document was released by Congress revealing that BP estimated the flow could be as much as per day under the circumstances that existed since 20 April blowout.

    Pandemics and epidemics

Several epidemics and pandemics have defined the early century. There have been two epidemics and pandemics involving severe acute respiratory syndrome: the 2002–2004 outbreak with the variant SARS-CoV-1 that began in China, leading to 8,000 infections and 774 deaths worldwide; and in 2020, the virus strain SARS-CoV-2 caused an outbreak of the coronavirus disease. Its societal impacts were numerous: lockdowns were imposed, which contributed to economic stagnation. The death toll from the pandemic could be as high as 33 million, and it is widely considered to be in the top five deadliest pandemics. Modern medical advancements and superior hygiene prevented the pandemic from being any deadlier than it was, and the pandemic was over by 2023.
No other epidemic or pandemic in the century compared to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of mortality or societal impact. Nonetheless, other epidemics and pandemics in the century included the worldwide 2009 swine flu pandemic, an uptick in global H1N1 influenza cases. The pandemic resulted in possibly up to 1.4 billion cases and 284,000 deaths.
In 2013, an epidemic of the Ebola Virus began in West Africa. After cases reached their peak in October 2014 and the epidemic was over by 2016, the infection count had reached 28,646 cases and 11,323 deaths – an extraordinarily high case-fatality rate.

Economics and industry

is the most popular sport worldwide with the FIFA World Cup being the most viewed football event. Other sports such as rugby, cricket, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, tennis, and golf are popular globally. In cricket, the emergence of the Twenty20 format and the creation of the Indian Premier League led to changes in the nature of the sport. American swimmer Michael Phelps won an Olympic record setting 8 Gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
File:Beijing Birds Nest Olympics track.jpg|thumb|The Beijing Bird's Nest Stadium during the 2008 Summer Olympics

Olympics

Art

The rise of the Internet and Social Media led to art being democratized and revolutionized. Art websites and spaces such as DeviantArt grew rapidly. New art movements, such as minimalism, craftivism, stuckism, and remodernism, as well as art forms such as street art, environmental art, and pixel art, rose as well. However, concerns grew over the dilution and commercialization of art.
In the late 2010s, NFTs, unique digital assets that represent ownership or proof of authenticity for a specific item, primarily used for digital art, as a new form of investment asset, began surging dramatically. However, many considered them to be an economic bubble or a Ponzi scheme. In 2022, the NFT market collapsed; a May 2022 estimate was that the number of sales was down over 90% compared to 2021. By September 2023, over 95% of all NFTs had zero monetary value.

Music

At the beginning of the century, the compact disc was the standard form of music media, but alternative forms of music media started to take its place such as music downloading and online streaming. A resurgence in sales of vinyl records in the 2010s was driven by record collectors and audiophiles who prefer the sound of analog vinyl records to digital recordings. In 2020, for the first time since the 1980s, vinyl surpassed CDs as the primary form of physical media for consumers of music, though both were still surpassed by online streaming, which by the 2020s became the predominant way that people consumed music. As of 2024, the most active music streaming services were YouTube, Spotify, Tencent Music, NetEase Cloud Music, Gaana, SoundCloud, JioSaavn, and Apple Music.

Television

As with music, the story of the first three decades of the 21st century was the growth of streaming television services in competition with older forms of television, such as Terrestrial television, cable television, and satellite television. The first major company to dominate the streaming service market was Netflix, which began as a DVD-delivery service in the late 1990s, transitioned into an online media streaming platform initially focused on delivering content produced by studios, then began to produce its own content, beginning with the popular and critically acclaimed series House of Cards in 2013. Netflix's success encouraged the creation of numerous other streaming services, such as Disney+/Hulu, YouTube Premium, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max, the latter of which, within a year of its launch, overtook Netflix as the most downloaded television streaming application.

Issues and concerns

File:Dhaka street crowds.jpg|thumb|upright|Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2006. Almost 97% of future population growth is expected to occur in developing countries.
File:World nuclear weapons.png|thumb|right|In early 2019, more than 90% of world's 13,865 nuclear weapons were owned by Russia and the United States.