The World in 2025 FACTS ABOUT THIS NEWS STORY

This is an unusual “news” story, because it is about tomorrow’s news, not today’s. So it relies less on hard facts than on spotting “trends” – things that may affect how the world changes in the coming years. Some signs of change that we are just starting to see today will be much more important ten years from now. We can make some guesses about the trends that will matter most in the future.

Technology is bound to change a lot. Already, companies like Google are experimenting with driverless cars. Another company, Amazon, is testing small planes without pilots to deliver its packages – these planes are called drones. Other firms are designing robots to help around the home.

Scientific discoveries could also make a difference to the way people live – including how long they live. Scientists might find ways of curing more types of cancer or treating diseases that affect people’s minds and bodies in old age.

In ten years’ time there will be significantly more older people than there are today. Some will want to carry on working for longer rather than retiring. Others will need carers to look after them. That would be particularly helpful because people are living longer and longer.

Caring for the elderly may be one type of job that will be more common in ten years’ time. Other sorts of job will grow thanks to new technologies. Think of the people who now work as app developers or drone operators. These are jobs that didn’t exist just a few years ago. But robots will probably replace people in some tasks. The world of work could look very different in 2025.

What happens outside our country is sure to have a big influence on life in Britain. China and India both have more than a billion people and are becoming more and more important in the world: selling things to us, buying things from us, using more energy and consuming more food. To understand the world in 2025, we need to look closely at how Asia is changing.

We need to pay attention to Africa too. One sad recent trend has been the rise in the number of people risking their lives in overcrowded boats to get to Europe from troubled parts of Africa. The number of these people, who we call migrants, could keep growing if more people fear for their futures in their home countries and are prepared to take big risks in the hope of a better life in Europe. Big movements of people are not easy to handle.

Towards the end of 2015 the leaders of countries around the world will meet in Paris to try to agree on ways to control global warming. Will they be able to agree on serious moves to protect the planet? If they can’t, worries about climate change may be even greater in 2025 than they are today.

Another of today’s growing worries is about the rise of inequality in many countries around the world: anger has increased over the growing difference between rich and poor. This is leading to a search for ways of narrowing the gap.

A big question for 2025 is whether by then the people questioning the difference between rich and poor people will have started to have an impact, or whether inequality will have become an even bigger concern.