2020s

The **2020s** (commonly pronounced "twenty-twenties"; shortened to the '**20s**) is the current decade of the Gregorian calendar, which began on 1 January 2021 and

will end on 31 December 2030.

The 2020s continued with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which caused a global economic recession as well as continuing financial inflation concerns and a global supply chain crisis. International demonstrations occurred in the early 2020s, including those in Hong Kong against extradition legislation, protests against certain local, state and national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and others around the world against racism and police brutality. The private space race also greatly accelerated in the early 2020s, as did military conflicts such as the Azerbaijan-Armenian War, the Tigray War, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israel–Palestine crisis and the Fall of Kabul, which marked the end of the 20-year War in Afghanistan. With many extreme weather events worsening in the early 2020s, several world leaders have called it the "decisive decade" for climate action as ecological crises continue to escalate. 5G networks also launched around the globe at the start of decade, and became prevalent in smartphones.

### Conflicts and peace[edit]

Main article: List of wars: 2003–present

The prominent wars of the decade include:

#### Civil wars[edit]

Main article: List of protests in the 21st century

### Terrorist attacks[edit]

Main article: List of terrorist incidents § 1970–present

*Note: To be included, entries must be notable (have a stand-alone article) and described by a consensus of reliable sources as "terrorism". They also must have 100 or more fatalities reported.*

### Political trends[edit]

Further information: 2020s in political history

#### Deaths[edit]

Sitting leaders that died in office:

In **2020**: Sheik Sabah al-Sabah, Sultan Qaboos bin Said, and Pierre Nkurunziza.

In **2021**: Idriss Déby, John Magufuli, and Jovenel Moïse.

Former world leaders who died:

In **2020**: Hosni Mubarak, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, John Turner, Daniel arap Moi, Pranab Mukherjee, Amadou Toumani Touré, Jerry Rawlings, Mamadou Tandja, Tabaré Vázquez, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Pierre Buyoya, John Cremona, Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, Kuniwo Nakamura, Litokwa Tomeing, Moussa Traoré, Pascal Lissouba, Branko Kostić, Lee Teng-hui, Benjamin Mkapa, Miloš Jakeš, Rafael Leonardo Callejas Romero, Abdul Halim Khaddam, Joachim Yhombi-Opango, Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, Mike Moore, and Janez Stanovnik.

In **2021**: Gustavo Noboa, Ali Mahdi Muhammad, Didier Ratsiraka, Bonfoh Abass, Mamnoon Hussain, Arturo Armando Molina, Hissène Habré, Jorge Sampaio, Abdelkader Bensalah, Kenneth Kaunda, Anerood Jugnauth, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Enrique Bolaños, Roh Tae-woo, Chun Doo-hwan, Benigno Aquino III, Carlos Menem, F. W. de Klerk, James Fitz-Allen Mitchell, Norodom Ranariddh, Kinza Clodumar, and Karolos Papoulias.

In **2022**: Toshiki Kaifu, Ernest Shonekan, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, Christos Sartzetakis, Amos Sawyer, Rupiah Banda and Karl Offmann.

### Prominent political events[edit]

#### Africa[edit]

Further information: Category:2020s in Africa, 2020 in West Africa, 2020 in North Africa, 2020 in Middle Africa, 2020 in East Africa, and 2020 in Southern Africa

#### Americas[edit]

Further information: Category:2020s in North America and Category:2020s in South America

#### Asia[edit]

Further information: Category:2020s in Asia

#### Europe[edit]

Further information: Category:2020s in Europe

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
October 2021 – ongoing
February 2022-ongoing

## Assassinations and attempts[edit]

Further information: List of assassinations

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

 27 November 2020
 22 February 2021
 6 May 2021
 1 June 2021
 7 July 2021

## Disasters[edit]

### Non-natural disasters[edit]

#### Aviation[edit]

 Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303
 Sriwijaya Air Flight 182
 China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735

### Natural disasters[edit]

See also: Category:2020s natural disasters

#### Earthquakes and tsunamis[edit]

Main articles: List of earthquakes in 2020 and List of earthquakes in 2021

*Note: This table is a chronological list of earthquakes reported with 7.5Mw  or greater or that have reported at least 100 fatalities.*

 2020 Aegean Sea earthquake
 2021 West Sulawesi earthquake
 2021 Haiti earthquake

#### Floods, avalanches, and mudslides[edit]

*Note: This section reports only floods with 200 or more deaths and avalanches and landslides involving 30 or more deaths.*

 2021 European floods

#### Volcanic eruptions[edit]

 2021 Semeru eruption
 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami

#### Other natural events[edit]

In 2020, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

## Economics[edit]

Main article: 2020s in economic history

See also: List of countries by Human Development Index, List of countries by GDP (nominal), and List of countries by GDP (PPP)

### Events[edit]

#### 2020[edit]

* The Brexit withdrawal agreement went into effect at the end of January 2020 with the UK completing its economic withdrawal from the EU at the end of that year.
* The United States, Mexico, and Canada signed the USMCA agreement, which came into effect on 1 July 2020.

#### 2021[edit]

* The African Continental Free Trade Area, encompassing 54 of the African Union states comes into effect, the largest such area in the world.
* *Ever Given*, a large container ship, runs aground in the Suez Canal for a week causing massive disruption of global trade.
* El Salvador became the first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender, after the Legislative Assembly votes 62–84 to pass a bill submitted by President Nayib Bukele classifying the cryptocurrency as such.

#### 2022[edit]

* The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the largest free trade area in the world, comes into effect for Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Japan, Laos, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

### Trade[edit]

The World Trade Organization reported that trade growth had stagnated and that trade restrictions were increasing as the decade began. The sectors most affected by import restrictions were mineral and fuel oils (17.7%), machinery and mechanical appliances (13%), electrical machinery and parts (11.7%), and precious metals (6%). Regional trade agreements were found to be increasing.

## Cybersecurity and hacking[edit]

See also: Category:Hacking in the 2020s

 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack
 Log4Shell

## Science and technology[edit]

 Fields
Archaeology: 2020 2021

Paleontology: 2020 2021

Space: 2020 2021

Spaceflight: 2020 2021

Biotechnology: 2020 2021

Quantum IT: 2020 2021

Computing: 2020s

Environment and environmental sciences: 2020 2021

 Related
*Philosophy*: 2020 2021
*History of technology by type*
*List of science timelines*

Main article: 2020s in science and technology

#### 2020[edit]

* Space company SpaceX sent two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station on 30 May 2020, marking the first time a private company completed a crewed orbital spaceflight mission.
* NASA launched the *Perseverance* rover and *Ingenuity* helicopter drone on 30 July 2020 as part of their Mars 2020 mission to search for signs of ancient life on Mars. On 19 April 2021, the *Ingenuity* helicopter drone performed the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet other than Earth.
* The Royal Astronomical Society announced the detection of phosphine gas in Venus' atmosphere on 14 September 2020, which is known to be a strong predictor for the presence of microbial life.

#### 2021[edit]

* China sends Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo to assemble and then occupy and work aboard the Tiangong Space Station.
* On 11 July 2021, Virgin Galactic became the first spaceflight company to independently launch a paying civilian into outer space using the 50-mile high definition of outer space, having flown Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson above the 50 mile mark, enabling him and the rest of the crew to experience approximately 3 minutes of weightlessness above Earth’s atmosphere.
* In July 2021, Blue Origin became the first spaceflight company to launch a fully automated spacecraft with civilian passengers into space, carrying its founder Jeff Bezos and three others. Two of the flight's crew members, Dutch student Oliver Daemen (age 18) and American aviator Wally Funk (age 82), became both the youngest and oldest people respectively to go to space (Funk's record was beaten nearly 3 month's later when actor William Shatner entered space onboard Blue Origin NS-18, at the age of 90).
* The James Webb Space Telescope was launched on December 25, 2021, 12:20 UTC using an Ariane 5 launch vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana.

### Artificial Intelligence[edit]

* DeepMind solves the protein folding problem to 90 percent accuracy, a 50-year-old grand challenge, at CASP14 in 2020.

### Communications and electronics[edit]

* 5G became increasingly widespread by 2020.
* By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.

### Software and electronic platforms[edit]

* Support for Adobe Flash Player ended on 31 December 2020.
* Windows 11 is released on 5 October 2021, succeeding Windows 10.

### Technology[edit]

* The BBC reports that for the "first time someone who has had a complete cut to their spinal cord has been able to walk freely... because of an electrical implant that has been surgically attached to his spine".

### Social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic[edit]

Main article: Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

Medical experts advised, and local authorities often mandated stay-at-home orders to prevent gatherings of any size. Such gatherings could be replaced by teleconferencing, or in some cases with unconventional attempts to maintain social distancing with activities such as a balcony sing-along for a concert, or a "birthday parade" for a birthday party. Replacements for gatherings were seen as significant to mental health during the crisis. Social isolation among alcohol users also adopted a trend towards *Kalsarikänni* or "pantsdrunking", a Finnish antisocial drinking culture.

Low-income individuals were more likely to contract the coronavirus and to die from it. In both New York City and Barcelona, low-income neighborhoods were disproportionately hit by coronavirus cases. Hypotheses for why this was the case included that poorer families were more likely to live in crowded housing and work in low-skill jobs, such as supermarkets and elder care, which were deemed essential during the crisis. In the United States, millions of low-income people may lack access to health care due to being uninsured or underinsured. Millions of Americans lost their health insurance after losing their jobs. Many low-income workers in service jobs became unemployed.

The coronavirus pandemic was followed by a concern for a potential spike in suicides, exacerbated by social isolation due to quarantine and social-distancing guidelines, fear, and unemployment and financial factors. Many countries reported an increase in domestic violence and intimate partner violence attributed to lockdowns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Financial insecurity, stress, and uncertainty led to increased aggression at home, with abusers able to control large amounts of their victims' daily life. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres called for a domestic violence "ceasefire".

### Population[edit]

* The population of Egypt reached 100 million in February 2020.
* Population growth, life expectancy and birth rates declined globally in the early 2020s, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.

### Race[edit]

The murder of George Floyd led to many protest and riots across the United States and internationally in 2020. The stated goal of the protest has been to end police brutality and racial inequality and is closely linked with the Black Lives Matter movement.

### Gender[edit]

See also: Women in government

24.3% of all national parliamentarians were women as of February 2019. 11 women were serving as Head of State and 12 as Head of Government in June 2019. 20.7% of government ministers were women as of January 2019. There are wide regional variations in the average percentages of women parliamentarians. As of February 2019, these were: Nordic countries, 42.5%; Americas, 30.6%; Europe excluding Nordic countries, 27.2; sub-Saharan Africa, 23.9; Asia, 19.8%; Arab States, 19%; and the Pacific, 16.3%. Rwanda has the highest number of women parliamentarians worldwide, 61.3% of seats in the lower house. About 26% of elected local parliamentarians are women.

Many states swore in their first female leaders during the 2020s including Presidents Katerina Sakellaropoulou (Greece), Samia Suluku Hassan (Tanzania), Sandra Mason (Barbados), Xiomara Castro (Honduras) and Prime Ministers Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa (Samoa), Robinah Nabbanja (Uganda), Najla Bouden (Tunisia), Magdalena Andersson (Sweden).

### Environmentalism[edit]

* The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season devastated the environment of Australia.
* Team Seas is an international collaborative fundraiser founded by the Youtuber/Influencers Mark Rober and MrBeast on October 29, 2021 as a follow-up to Team Trees. The aim is to raise 30 million USD$ to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean by the end of the year. They have also partnered with the Ocean Cleanup and the Ocean Conservancy.

### LGBT rights[edit]

* A law allowing third gender option on driver licenses took effect in New Hampshire.
* Switzerland banned discrimination based on sexuality due to a referendum, putting into effect a law previously introduced in 2018, that was subsequently blocked by the government that requested a referendum to be held on the matter first.
* In Northern Ireland, the first same-sex marriage took place after legislation to allow this took effect in January 2020.
* In Costa Rica, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 26 May 2020.
* In the United States, the Supreme Court ruled that job discrimination against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal.
* The Trump Administration passed a law on 12 June 2020 removing protections against discrimination from LGBTQ people in terms of health care and health insurance in the United States. President Joe Biden reversed a policy enacted during the Trump administration which previously allowed healthcare companies to deny coverage to gay and transgender people on 10 May 2021.
* The Equality Act passed in the House of Representatives on 25 February 2021 in the United States.
* The U.S State Department issued its first ever passport with an "X" gender marker in October 2021, intended to support nonbinary people.
* Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland after a 2021 referendum, which will be enforced in July 2022.
* In Chile, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 10 March 2022.