Global Trends 2020: Understanding Complexity

Welcome to Ipsos Global Trends 2020 – this report outlines some of the headlines from more than 370 questions asked across 33 countries, and updates previous editions from 2013 and 2016.

Ipsos’ Third Edition “Understanding Complexity” is the most exciting in this series covering everything about being human in 2020 by looking at people in their multiple roles: as citizens, consumers, customers and shoppers, exploring their views and attitudes about sex, religion, brands, feelings about the environment, data privacy, hopes and fears, advertising, products, purchasing, experience of services, politics, social policy, technology and much much more.

Browse the key Ipsos Global Trends

Using advanced analytics and expert analysis on this huge data set, we have identified 12 trends and 36 values that will dominate the world in the 2020s.

1. Climate emergency and antagonism
2. A world divided by its values
3. Choices over healthcare
4. Reactions to uncertainty and inequality
5. Capitalism’s turning point
6. Peak globalization
7. Data dilemmas
8. Conscientious health
9. Authenticity is king
10. The search for simplicity and meaning
11. The tech dimension: technophilia and technophobia
12. The enduring appeal of nostalgia

Looking at our trends, at first sight you may see a world challenged by power conflicts, populist risings, climate emergency and frightening technology. Yet we have also found satisfaction with living standards rising globally, and a gentle rise in self-fulfilment.

In a populist age – at least in western media – we find rising support for globalization, and improvements in ratings of local public services globally. We find more people worried that technology is destroying our lives, but simultaneously more people saying we need technology to solve our challenges. For this reason, we have called this edition Understanding Complexity.

We have included short reflection essays from Ipsos teams in France, Canada, the U.S., Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia and the UK, reflecting Ipsos’ truly global reach – we are present in 90 markets. These are for those thinking about their organization’s challenges in the years ahead.