Recent history

By R.A. | WASHINGTON

I LOVE today's Daily chart:

Here's some of the accompanying text:

The chart below shows a population-weighted history of the past two millennia. By this reckoning, over 28% of all the history made since the birth of Christ was made in the 20th century. Measured in years lived, the present century, which is only ten years old, is already "longer" than the whole of the 17th century. This century has made an even bigger contribution to economic history. Over 23% of all the goods and services made since 1AD were produced from 2001 to 2010...

More person years have been lived in the first decade of the current century than in all of the 17th century. And nearly 80% of the economic output of the last millenium has been produced in just the last 110 years. Everyone likes to think that they live in historical times. As it so happens, we do.