2016 has been one of the greatest years ever for humanity

Nothing better sums up the aloofness of the chattering class, their otherworldliness in fact, than their blathering about 2016 being the worst year ever. It’s the refrain running through every Brexitphobic column, every historically illiterate comparison of Trump to Hitler, every tear-sodden list of the big-name celebs who’ve died this year. 2016 is ‘the f–king worst’, says Brit comic in America John Oliver. These people don’t know what they’re talking about. The worst? 2016 has been one of the best years yet for humankind.

This year it was announced that global life expectancy is increasing at a faster rate than at any time since the 1960s. The World Health Organisation revealed in May that life expectancy — that brilliant, basic measurement of how mankind is doing in terms of food production, medicine and technology — has increased by five years since 2000. The world average is now 73.8 years for women and 69.1