Introduction
im4u.world launched its Global Survey on April 22, 2021 (Earth Day). The survey asks what people worldwide believe are humanity's most urgent issues. It follows up by asking how those issues affect our lives and communities, the opportunities and constraints to finding resolution, and our willingness to participate in the solution.
The im4u.world Global Survey Report 2022 is the first annual report of the results. The report is presented here as a series of Learn-Engage-Empower blog chapters. The series will follow the 15 questions of the survey over two months (July and August).
The report represents some summary results of one year of data collection and analysis. We hope you find the results thought-provoking and inspiring. The results will be the basis of engaging in productive discussion to find solutions to some of our most pressing problems facing humanity. We hope this inspires you and your communities of interest to take action and make a meaningful difference in our world.
The Learn-Engage-Empower series, What the World Told Us, to date:
Question 1: Imagine you are now living 25 years into the future. What is your vision of the world, then? What do you hope it would be like?
Question 2: What problems do you have in your community today that must be solved before they could be part of your vision of the future?
Question 3: How do those problems in your community affect your life today?
Question 4: What happened that created those problems in your community?
Question 5: What will happen to your community if it cannot, or will not, solve those problems?
Question 6: How much better would the quality of life in your community be if it could solve those problems?
Question 7: Where did you learn about those problems in your community?
Question 8: What are the opportunities available today to solve them?
Question 9: What are the most important questions that must be answered before those problems can be solved?
Question 10: What must change to solve the problems you identified?
Question 11: Who should be working on these solutions?
Question 12: How would your life be better once those problems were solved?
Question 13: What is the role of an individual person in finding solutions?
Question 14: What would prevent you from helping to find solutions in your community?
Part 7 - August 25, 2022 - We Can Do This!
Question 15: What is the likelihood that humanity can resolve this problem?
A Vertical Slice - Looking at the overall results by category.
Conclusions
Did you know? The Global Survey is ongoing, and it is never too late to complete one. Please visit us today at https://www.im4u.world/globalsurvey. Every voice matters.
15 simple questions. That is all it takes for you to begin making a positive difference in the world!
Question 15: What is the likelihood that humanity can resolve this problem?
Average weighted score: 6.205420542
Median score: 6
Mean score: 6.218543046
This question is only one of two numerically answerable questions. Survey respondents scored their answers from 1 to 10, where one is extremely unlikely humanity can resolve its most urgent issue, and ten is extremely likely. There is a clear grouping of scores in the 5, 6, and 7 range, and the average weighted and mean scores are similar, 6.2. The median score is 6.
The bar chart below illustrates the range of scores with a distinct group of answers in the 5, 6, and 7 range. The pie chart then groups the scores and shows four degrees of certainty. Anyone who scored 1, 2, or 3 believes unlikely with certainty. Another way to express this is that these respondents are sure that humanity cannot solve its most urgent problems. The two middle ranges (4 and 5 and then 6 and 7) have more conditional descriptors. Those who scored 4 and 5 are probably unlikely, and those who scored 6 and 7 are probably likely that humanity can solve its problems. Finally, those that scored 8, 9, and 10 are the opposite of those that scored 1, 2, and 3. These survey respondents are confident that humanity will likely solve its critical issues.
The average weighted score of 6.2 is just above the midpoint (median) of 6. It is an interesting note to see the distinctly high results of people scoring 10, the highest score possible (13.7%). Contrast that with those that scored 1, the lowest score possible (2.74%). Those that scored 10 are an anomaly on a bar graph that looks more like a bell curve. Is it a sign of unbridled optimism or even a delusional response to fear? There are many possible reasons for this; however, the survey stops short of asking why the respondent scored this way, and we don't know the answer.
The pie chart reveals some important clues about the survey respondents' level of optimism, or pessimism, which is a measure of sentiment. Overall, we interpreted that most respondents (60.27%) are either cautiously optimistic (probably likely to resolve problems, aggregate scores 6 and 7, 31.51%) or very optimistic (certainly likely to resolve problems, aggregate scores 8,9 and 10, 28.8%) that humanity can resolve its most urgent issues. Conversely, 39.7% expressed pessimism (sum of certainly unlikely 12.3% and probably unlikely 27.4%).
The Vertical Slice
The Global Survey results are reported survey question by question. We now reverse the view and look briefly at The Global Survey Results topical category by topical category. We call this the vertical slice, and the table is below, and a bar graph that follows shows a sum of all the percentages of topical categories across all questions.
Government and Society as a category (along with all its related topics) undeniably is the most frequently cited category in the survey (565.43%). It is the leading category in all questions. Whether it was identifying the urgent problems globally and locally, what caused them, how to fix them, and who should do it, most people identified something in Government and Society. The next category most cited is Planet and Environment (146.96%), Economic (98.95%), Spiritual (94.61%), and Health (63.79%). If we combine Climate Change (48.77%) with Planet and Environment, the latter's category score rises from 146.96% to 195.73%, still lagging far behind Government and Society.
It is intriguing why Planet and Environment, even with Climate Change added in, does not rank first. Think about the mass media attention given to so many facets of the topics in this category (such as global warming, deforestation, mass extinction, heat waves, drought, and flooding events).
Another telling result is the 4th place ranking in the Spiritual category. Remember, this category is not about religion per se. It is about the internal qualities, character, and beliefs (of which religious beliefs are part) that each of us has, guiding our actions in the world.
It is interesting to see the top five categories include Health. The stronger than expected focus on Health could result from the recent pandemic. Topics in this category include personal health, group and community health, aspects of the healthcare system, such as access, affordability, equity, and environmental health factors that affect our health, such as air pollution.
There are many unexpected and unexplainable discoveries in the survey results. We can theorize, for example, that Food (20.01%) and Peace (23.49%) categories ranked last and second to last because the group of people who responded to the survey did not experience these issues in their own lives or communities. We do not know for sure.
We end the survey with three striking observations from working with the results over the past several months.
Humanity is more universally global in its actions and outlook than at any other time in history. Globalization is increasing at an increasing rate, and there are valid concerns we may have reached critical tipping points that are irreversible through traditional approaches. Consequently, we can expect varying degrees of disruption to many of our human and natural systems. Sustainability and resilience are essential realities now.
The ability to be sustainable and resilient in the face of rapidly changing conditions and to find the means to solve, exist and thrive with those changing conditions will require both collective and individual responsibility and action.
The collective actions will come through our connection to society and government and the ability to work together, overcome differences and build real and lasting solutions.
The individual actions will come from our acceptance, willingness, and humility to bring about the necessary character changes within ourselves to overcome the character qualities and beliefs that stop us from acting collectively.
With the right mindset, collectively and individually, we have an extraordinary ability to solve the problems that hurt us.
That's what the world told us. Can we accomplish it? Yes, but it requires all of us to help.
Important Caveat
The Global Survey is not a statistical survey, meaning that the method by which it was designed and administered yielded statistically significant results. The results are not a statistical representation of the world's population. Anyone was welcome to answer the survey. More importantly, the survey results will define the topics and framework starting the next phase of im4u. world's development, Engagement. Subscribe to im4u.world for updates and an invitation to join global conversations. There is no cost and no obligation. Visit: https://www.im4u.world/join-subscribe-contact
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