A measurement system
careplans AI

The Abundance Index

Are we moving toward abundance, and how fast? Twenty-six indicators across four tiers, each scored against where scarcity ends and abundance begins, each shown as a real trajectory, with the places we are going backwards left in plain sight.

Most arguments about whether the world is getting better are vibes. This is the scoreboard.

Global Abundance Index
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out of 100

Calculating…

Global Abundance Index · 2000 to today

The indicators

Each indicator is scored 0-100 by placing its value between a scarcity anchor (0) and an abundance anchor (100). The sparkline shows that score's full trajectory over the available record; velocity is the change in score per year across it.

How the score works

Every indicator, whether higher-is-better or lower-is-better, is normalized with one formula. The anchors carry the direction: for cost and harm indicators the abundance anchor is the lower number, so falling values raise the score.

score = clamp( (value − scarcity) / (abundance − scarcity) × 100 , 0 , 100 )

Indicators that span orders of magnitude (genome cost, cost of computation) are scored on a log10 scale first. The sparkline plots this score for every year in the record, so the shape is the abundance trajectory, not the raw units. Velocity is (score_latest − score_earliest) / years across the whole series. The Global Abundance Index is a weighted mean of the four tier scores, with Survival weighted 1.5× because it is non-substitutable.

The fourth tier, Durability, is the honest part. An abundance index that only counts the upside is a sales deck. Durability asks whether the abundance is bankable: carbon per person, the clean-energy share, wild populations, the air we breathe. It pulls the headline number down and runs the wrong way, and it is meant to.

Full definitions, anchors, sources, and rationale live in ABUNDANCE-INDEX-SPEC.md alongside this page. Spec and site share one model.