Worldwide battle deaths since 1945...
...have declined dramatically (although not reliably)
Is the world more peaceful now than in the past? With deaths from wars discussed regularly online and in newspapers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it wasn’t, but it largely is.
The above graph misses out the world wars, for obvious reasons (they would reduce the rest of the graph to a flat line), but shows an uneven path to a relative peace. Of course, 50,000 battle deaths is still too many, and there were a handful of equally peaceful years in the 1950s, but overall the world is a much more peaceful place than it was in the past. (Also, these are absolute numbers, in a time when the world population has more than tripled - change the y axis to deaths per capita and the decrease is even more dramatic.)
Unlikely, say, the decreasing trend of poverty, these numbers could increase again if more or bigger conflicts break out in the coming years. But once again it looks like economic growth, which is likely to continue, is driving this positive development - put simply, “peace has become more profitable”.