There was no single, definitive ranking of 2020’s biggest trends. Different organizations tracked different things: long-term global shifts, public attitudes, risks, or pandemic-era changes in Internet use. Taken together, their reports show climate pressure, inequality, changing social values, health concerns and digital reliance coming into sharper focus. In many cases, 2020 accelerated changes already under way while revealing how unevenly people could benefit from them.
What counts as a “biggest trend” in 2020?
The answer depends on what is being measured. The United Nations’ 2020 report looks at structural forces shaping economic, social and environmental outcomes. Ipsos’s report, published on February 27, 2020, presents trends in public attitudes across 33 countries. The World Economic Forum assessed global risks in January, before the pandemic’s full effects were apparent. The Internet Society, writing in May 2021, reviewed how Internet use changed during 2020.
| Source and date | What it examines | How to read its findings |
|---|---|---|
| United Nations, September 2020 | Five structural megatrends and their broad effects | A policy-oriented framework, not a ranked list of the year’s events. |
| Ipsos, February 27, 2020 | Social and consumer attitudes across 33 countries | A survey-based set of trend labels published before the pandemic reshaped daily life. |
| World Economic Forum, January 15, 2020 | Perceived global risks | A risk assessment made at the start of the year, rather than a retrospective of 2020. |
| Internet Society, May 2021 | How the Internet supported people and services during 2020 | A retrospective of pandemic-era Internet impacts, with figures tied to specific regions, platforms or accounts. |
These frameworks overlap, but they are not interchangeable. Their shared themes offer a useful picture of the year without implying that every organization measured the same thing.
The United Nations’ five structural megatrends
The UN Economist Network identified five human-made megatrends that shape economic, social and environmental outcomes. Its report emphasizes that these forces are not inevitable: “All trends are the result of human activity, and as such, they can be shaped by human decisions and policy choices.”
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- Climate change: a long-term pressure with environmental, economic and social consequences.
- Demographic shifts, particularly population ageing: changes in population structure that affect societies and economies.
- Urbanization: the continuing shift toward urban living.
- The emergence of digital technologies: the growing role of digital systems in social and economic life.
- Inequalities: disparities that shape people’s opportunities and outcomes.
The report identifies these as major structural shifts; its summary does not quantify their specific trajectories during 2020.
Climate pressure remained a defining concern
Climate change appears in both the UN’s megatrend framework and Ipsos’s list of social and consumer trends. Ipsos calls its theme “Climate emergency and antagonism,” capturing not only concern about climate but also conflict over how societies respond.
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For a 2020 measurement, NOAA Climate.gov’s account of the American Meteorological Society’s State of the Climate in 2020 reports a global annual average atmospheric CO₂ concentration of 412.5 parts per million, 2.5 ppm above 2019. The NOAA summary also says atmospheric greenhouse gases reached record levels that year.
Inequality, values and economic tensions
Inequality cuts across the UN’s structural framework, Ipsos’s account of public attitudes and the World Economic Forum’s risk assessment. Ipsos highlighted division over values, reactions to uncertainty and inequality, a turning point for capitalism, and “peak globalization.” The WEF’s January report identified concerns including economic stagnation, climate impacts, fragmented cyberspace, protests and inequality-exacerbating systems.
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These are related but distinct observations: a policy framework, survey-derived attitudes and an assessment of risks. Together they point to a year in which debates about who benefits from economic and social systems—and whether those systems can adapt—were prominent.
Digital reliance expanded, but access was unequal
Digital technology was already a UN megatrend before COVID-19 disrupted daily life. The Internet Society’s retrospective describes the pandemic as an accelerant for existing patterns: telework, online sales, e-learning, health information, medical care and online advocacy. Its report puts the tension plainly: “For all its contradictions, 2020’s impact on the Internet has been a rapid acceleration of trends already in motion.”
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That acceleration did not mean everyone could participate. Internet-based work, education and care depended on connectivity, and the Internet Society said closing the digital divide became more urgent. Its President and CEO, Andrew Sullivan, wrote, “The Internet is a force for good in society, for sure”; the report’s account also makes clear that access determines who can benefit.
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- The Internet Society cited one account that Internet use surged up to 70% globally during lockdowns. This is an attributed account, not a universal measurement of Internet use.
- In first-quarter average subscriber data for the U.S. and Europe, broadband consumption rose 47%, from 273.5 GB in 2019 to 402.5 GB in 2020. These figures are specific to those regions and that subscriber-data comparison, not a global average.
- DE-CIX Frankfurt exceeded 9.1 terabits per second in March 2020, a record for that individual Internet exchange rather than a measure of overall Internet traffic.
Health services moved further online
Both Ipsos and the Internet Society draw attention to health: Ipsos includes healthcare choices and conscientious health among its trends, while the Internet Society describes growth in telemedicine and online consultations. Its report gives two geographically specific examples: the number of new users on a Chinese healthcare app rose nearly 900% in January 2020 compared with December 2019, and visits to a Singapore telemedicine platform rose more than 160% from the beginning of 2020. These examples illustrate changes on particular services and are not global estimates of telehealth growth.
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The shift also raised privacy and security concerns around confidential health records. The benefit of remote care therefore depended not only on connectivity but on protecting sensitive information.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Ipsos’s 12 global trends
Ipsos presented the following labels in its 2020 global trends research. They describe survey-based social and consumer themes, not an objective or universal ranking of the year’s most important events.
- Climate emergency and antagonism
- A world divided by its values
- Choices over healthcare
- Reactions to uncertainty and inequality
- Capitalism’s turning point
- Peak globalization
- Data dilemmas
- Conscientious health
- Authenticity
- Simplicity and meaning
- Technology ambivalence
- Nostalgia
Read as a group, the labels describe more than consumer preferences. They register tensions around trust, identity, health, technology and the direction of economic life.
What the different reports collectively say about 2020
No source establishes a single global ranking of the year’s biggest trends. The evidence instead supports a cluster of connected pressures: climate change and inequality as long-term challenges; sharper disagreements about values and economic systems; and greater reliance on digital services for work, learning, commerce and care. The pandemic made digital dependence especially visible, while also exposing the limits imposed by unequal access and concerns about privacy.
The reports’ timing matters. The WEF’s risk assessment and Ipsos’s trend study appeared before the pandemic’s full disruption; the UN report followed in September 2020, and the Internet Society reviewed the year in May 2021. That chronology helps explain why the Internet Society’s account emphasizes acceleration, while the other frameworks offer broader structural, attitudinal or risk-based views.
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