A Century of Plenty

A Story of Progress for Generations to Come

By: Sven Smit, Chris Bradley, Nick Leung, Marc Canal, Janet Bush, Sherlyn Chen, Suhayl Chettih, Jan Mischke, Jeongmin Seong

Narrated by: AJ Dukette

Can you imagine even the poorest country in the world achieving the prosperity and quality of life of today's Switzerland—by 2100? Seems crazy, doesn't it? After all, we live in uncertain times. But we have pulled off marvels before. Human advances over the past 100 years have been unprecedented. Can we achieve another century of progress?

This book, a major research effort from the McKinsey Global Institute, explores the advances of the past century and what drove them—what we call the progress machine. It then investigates the possibility of a world of plenty by 2100 in which every person lives at, or above, the levels of prosperity enjoyed by Switzerland today. Such a future would require the global economy to be eight times bigger than it is today.

Is this realistic? Will we have enough energy, food, metals and minerals? Can we keep innovating quickly enough? Can we deliver plenty while protecting our planet? We ran the numbers, and the answer is yes. But progress is a choice. Making what is possible probable needs a new narrative. A story in which growth is good, plenty is achievable, and people are inspired to innovate and build. Again and again, optimists have been on the right side of history. We believe they will be once more.

©2026 McKinsey Global Institute (P)2026 McKinsey Global Institute

Optimism rooted in facts

This is a tremendously positive story of human achievement and potential. I felt good listening to it in the same way and for the same reasons it felt good to watch Hans Rosling TED talks. It uses facts to elevate us from the temporary struggles and inability to see the hugely positive overall trajectory that we are on. In a similar way, it uses facts to argue why the future has all the prerequisites to be bright if we want it to.

Avoid

In the running for most useless books Ive ever read. It's both obvious and timid and the authors break no new ground and add nothing to the discourse. Theyre never ending disclaimer about uncertain futures are unnecessary as they provide no predictions and dont even substantiate possible futures....