2020s

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties" or "two thousand [and] twenties"; shortened to "the '20s" and also known as "The Twenties") is the current decade that began on 1 January 2020, and will end on 31 December 2029.^[1][2]

From top left, clockwise: a crowded temporary hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 became a global pandemic in 2020 and dominated the early part of the decade, as it was deemed an international public health emergency until 2023; a Ukrainian tank driving in the Donetsk region during the Russo-Ukrainian War; in 2024, Donald Trump is shot in an assassination attempt, before reclaiming the American presidency in non-consecutive terms; Palisades fire burning in January 2025. The decade saw a continued rise in global warming and severe heat waves; damage following an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City during the Gaza war and subsequent humanitarian aid crisis; ChatGPT, the commercial engine of domestic AI usage as a symbol of the AI boom in the 2020s; in 2024, Syrians celebrate the fall of the Assad regime; the decade saw the rise of youth-related sports following the successful 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The 2020s began with the COVID-19 pandemic. The first reports of the virus were published on 31 December 2019, though the first cases are said to have appeared nearly a month earlier.^[3] The pandemic led to a global economic recession, a sustained rise in global inflation, and a global supply chain crisis. The World Health Organization declared the virus a global state of emergency from March 2020 to May 2023. In 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump sparked a global trade war by enacting a series of tariffs on most of the world.

Many anti-government demonstrations and revolts occurred in the early 2020s, including in Hong Kong, India, Israel, Colombia, Indonesia, France, Peru, Bangladesh, Armenia, Nigeria and Thailand. Protests against certain local, state and national responses to COVID-19 took place, as well as protests, particularly in the United States, against racism and police brutality. There were many protests in Belarus, Eswatini, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Iran, China, Russia, Venezuela, Serbia, and Turkey against various forms of governmental jurisdiction, corruption, and authoritarianism; along with citizen riots in the United States and Brazil attempting to overturn election results. Among democracies in 2024, its elections saw 80% of incumbent parties lose support worldwide, including several significant losses.

Ongoing military conflicts include those in Myanmar, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. The year 2021 saw the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, ending a nearly 20 years of war. The Russian invasion of Ukraine resulted in a refugee crisis, disruptions to global trade, and an exacerbation of economic inflation. Peace negotiations stalled in 2025 as drone warfare escalated on either side. In 2023, a Hamas-led attack on Israel triggered an Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory. The invasion has led to the displacement of nearly all Gaza residents, a humanitarian crisis, a famine, and a polio epidemic, sparking global protests against Israel. The conflict has escalated in 2025 when full Israeli control was proposed. In 2024, a quick and renewed rebel offensive during the Syrian civil war led to the toppling of Bashar al-Assad and the fall of his regime. In 2025, Israel launched airstrikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, triggering a brief direct conflict between the two. Smaller conflicts include the insurgency in the Maghreb, the Iraq insurgency, the conflict between India and Pakistan, and the Philippine and the Mexican drug wars.

With multiple extreme weather events and ecological crises continuing to escalate, several world leaders have called the 2020s the "decisive decade" for climate action.^[4][5] The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season became the most active on record, featuring 31 cyclones. In February 2023, a series of powerful earthquakes killed up to 62,000 people in Turkey and Syria; this event fell within the top five deadliest earthquakes of the 21st century. The years 2023 and 2024 both broke yearly global temperature records, with 2024 breaching 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Technology has continued to evolve in the 2020s. There were breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, with American companies, universities, and research labs pioneering advances in the field.^[6] Generative AI-based applications, such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, allow users to instantly generate sophisticated texts, images, art, and video. Other technological advances include the widespread use of teleconferencing, online learning, e-commerce and food delivery services to compensate for lockdowns ordered by governments around the world during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Streaming services, such as Disney+ and HBO Max, have increased in popularity during the decade, with cable television continuing to fall out of usage. Several popular social media applications, like Threads, BeReal, Clubhouse, Bluesky, Gettr, and Truth Social, launched, continuing advances in digital technology. 5G networks launched around the globe at the start of the decade and became prevalent in smartphones. Research into outer space further evolved in the 2020s, with the United States mainly leading space exploration, including with the James Webb Space Telescope, Ingenuity helicopter, and Artemis program.^[7][8] Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are being used for remote collaboration, meetings, and training. Contactless payments, including mobile wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay, have grown in popularity. Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and NFTs, have also increased in popularity.

During this decade, the world population grew from 7.7 billion to over eight billion people. In 2023, India overtook China as the most populous country in the world.^[9][10]

Politics and wars

Main article: 2020s in military history

See also: List of sovereign states in the 2020s

Major conflicts

Main article: List of wars: 2003–present

The prominent wars of the decade include:

International wars

Name	Start date	End date	Description
Israeli–Palestinian conflict 2021 Israel–Palestine crisis Middle Eastern crisis (2023–present) Gaza war Iran–Israel war	Late 19th or early 20th century 6 May 2021 7 October 2023 7 October 2023 13 June 2025	Ongoing 21 May 2021 Ongoing Ongoing 24 June 2025	The Israeli–Palestinian conflict, which began in the late 19th or early 20th century, erupted into 11 days of open violence in May 2021 after the attempted eviction of Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli settlers and an Israeli police raid on Al-Aqsa Mosque,[11] with leading militant group Hamas launching over 4,000 rockets into Israel.[12] The subsequent unrest caused extensive damage primarily, but not entirely, to Palestinians. The outbreak ended on 19 May.[13] On 7 October 2023, Hamas and other Gazan militant groups conducted an armed attack on Israel, killing 797 civilians and taking 251 hostages back into Gaza. The subsequent war between Israel and Hamas has resulted in more than 50,000 casualties as of 2024, more than all the preceding decades of the conflict combined. After weakening Iranian proxies and the fall of the Assad regime, Israel launched a series of strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, nuclear scientists and IRGC leadership. Iran retaliated by launching ballistic missiles against Israel. The United States temporarily joined the war by attacking Iranian nuclear facilities.
Kurdish–Turkish conflict	27 November 1978	Ongoing	Numerous Kurdish groups, including the Kurdistan Workers' Party (the PKK) have fought for an independent Kurdistan incorporating parts of Turkey. In 2020, Turkey launched an insurgency in Iraqi Kurdistan. After a rebel offensive overthrew the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkey renewed its offensive against Kurdish-held territories in Northern Syria.[14]
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict Second Nagorno-Karabakh War 2023 offensive	February 1988 27 September 2020 19 September 2023	1 January 2024 10 November 2020 20 September 2023	The region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been disputed between the governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as the breakaway state, the Republic of Artsakh. Following the first war's ceasefire cross-border skirmishes persisted including in July 2020, when a series of border skirmishes left at least 15 dead. A second war broke out later that year and ended after another ceasefire. A border crisis and blockade ensued until a 2023 offensive into the region by Azerbaijan. Artsakh dissolved on 1 January 2024, ending the conflict.
War on terror War in Afghanistan Iraq conflict	11 September 2001 7 October 2001 20 March 2003	Ongoing 30 August 2021 Ongoing	Motivated by the 9/11 attacks, the United States and other governments started a large scale effort to eliminate terrorism.[15] With support from NATO, the United States invaded Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and overthrew the government; however, U.S. forces remained in the country to stabilise the situation.[16] Two years later, on the pretext that the government of Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,[17] the United States and a coalition of partners invaded Iraq and overthrew Hussein's regime,[18] after which the U.S. occupied the country, officially leaving in 2011.[19] However, insurgencies remained active in both countries, long after the invasions.[20]
Kivu conflict	2 June 2004	Ongoing	The Kivu conflict began in 2004 in the eastern Congo as an armed conflict between the military of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the Hutu Power group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has broadly consisted of three phases, the third of which is an ongoing conflict.
Syrian civil war Turkish occupation of northern Syria	15 March 2011	Ongoing	In March 2011, popular discontent with the rule of Bashar al-Assad triggered large-scale protests and pro-democracy rallies across Syria, as part of the wider Arab Spring protests in the region. After months of crackdown by the government's security apparatus, various armed rebel groups such as the Free Syrian Army began forming across the country, marking the beginning of the Syrian insurgency. By mid-2012, the insurgency had escalated into a full-blown civil war until the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, following major offensives led by the Syrian opposition. During the civil war, Turkey invaded parts of northern Syria in order to combat the Islamic State, Syrian Democratic Forces, and the PKK.
Russo-Ukrainian War 2022 Russian invasion	20 February 2014 24 February 2022	Ongoing Ongoing	Hostilities between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine have been ongoing since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. In 2021 and early 2022, tensions escalated between the two countries due to a build up of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border. Russia launched a full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
War against ISIS	13 June 2014	Ongoing	In late-2013, a terrorist organisation called ISIS began making rapid advances and territorial gains in Iraq and Syria. It captured Mosul in June[21] and made Raqqa its capital.[22] Various international coalitions were formed to help fight the militants.[23][24] By December 2017, ISIS had lost much of its former territory.
Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen	26 March 2015	Ongoing	During the Yemeni civil war, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other countries part of a coalition invaded parts of Yemen in order to depose the Houthi-controlled government.

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  Montage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, part of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
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  US Marines with SP-MAGTF-CR-CC at an evacuation checkpoint at Kabul Airport on 21 August during the 2021 Fall of Kabul, at the end of the War in Afghanistan.
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  Highrise residential building ″Palestine Tower″^[25] in Gaza following an Israeli strike during the Gaza war.
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  Syrian rebels at Hama Air Base during the Syrian civil war.
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  Aerial view of Tehran suburbs following Israeli airstrikes during the Iran–Israel war.

Civil wars

Name	Start date	End date	Description
Myanmar conflict Myanmar civil war	2 April 1948 7 September 2021	Ongoing Ongoing	Myanmar's long-running insurgencies escalated significantly into a major civil war in 2021 following the 2021 military coup and the subsequent brutal crackdown on the anti-coup protests.
War in Darfur	26 February 2003	31 August 2020	A peace agreement was signed on 31 August 2020 between the Sudanese authorities and several rebel factions to end armed hostilities.
Mexican drug war	11 December 2006	Ongoing	Following a rise in criminal violence as a result of drug trafficking in the country, Mexican President Felipe Calderón declared a war on drugs in December 2006.[26] Since the start of the war, the death toll from drug violence had sharply increased.[27] Arrests of key cartel leaders led to increasing violence as cartels fought for control of trafficking routes into the United States.[28][29][30]
Somali civil war 2023 Las Anod conflict	31 January 2009 6 February 2023	Ongoing Ongoing	In 2009, Al-Shabaab, an Islamist militant group, began waging an insurgency against the newly formed Transitional Federal Government. In 2011, the federal government captured Mogadishu[31] and subsequently retook several towns across the country.[32] Since then, the government has attempted to clean out the remaining Al-Shabaab strongholds with help from AMISOM soldiers.[33]
Mali War	16 January 2012	Ongoing	In January 2012, a rebellion by Tuaregs in Northern Mali began. After Malian president Amadou Toumani Touré was ousted in a coup d'état, Tuaregs captured Northern Mali,[34] and declared it to be the independent state of Azawad.[35] However, shortly afterward, various Islamist groups took over Northern Mali from the Tuaregs and imposed sharia law on the region.[36]
South Sudanese Civil War	15 December 2013	22 February 2020	On 22 February 2020, rivals Kiir and Machar struck a unity deal and formed a coalition government, after an estimated 400,000 deaths and more than 4 million people displaced by the war.
Libyan civil war	16 May 2014	23 October 2020	Following the factional violence that engulfed Libya after the fall of Muammar al-Gaddafi, a second civil war broke out among rival factions seeking control of the territory and oil of Libya. The conflict at the beginning was mostly between the House of Representatives (HoR) government that was controversially elected in 2014, also known as the "Tobruk government"; and the rival General National Congress (GNC) government, also called the "National Salvation Government", based in the capital Tripoli, established after Operation Odyssey Dawn and the failed military coup.
Yemeni civil war	16 September 2014	Ongoing	Preceded by a decade-long Houthi insurgency,[37] the Yemeni Civil War began between two factions: the then-incumbent Yemeni government, led by Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, and the Houthi militia, along with their supporters and allies. Both claim to constitute the Yemeni government.[38]
Philippine drug war	30 June 2016	Ongoing	Following a rise in political and criminal violence as a result of drug trafficking in the country, the Philippines has been engaged in a drug war and escalating terrorism since Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was inaugurated on 30 June 2016. It had caused more than 5,000 deaths and over 150,000 arrests by the beginning of the decade.[39][40]
Iraqi insurgency	9 December 2017	Ongoing	A part of the larger Iraqi conflict that has been waged since 2003, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has been engaged in an insurgency against the Iraqi government and CJTF-OIR since the loss of territorial control in the Iraqi Civil War in 2017.
Ethiopian civil conflict Tigray War War in Amhara	2 April 2018 3 November 2020 9 April 2023	Ongoing 3 November 2022 Ongoing	After years of increased tensions between the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments, a full-scale war broke out in November 2020, that has killed an estimated 300,000–500,000 people as of March 2022.[41] On 2 November, both the Ethiopian government and TPLF formally agreed to a cessation of hostilities and systematic, verifiable disarmament[42] though Tigrayan authorities allege that Ethiopia continued to launch attacks after the peace deal was signed[43][44]
Sudanese civil war	15 April 2023	Ongoing	In April 2023, clashes broke out in western Sudan between rival factions of the military government of Sudan. The conflict began with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launching attacks on key government sites. As of 23 April 2023[update], both RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and Sudan's de facto leader and army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan have claimed control over several key government sites, including the general military headquarters, the Presidential Palace, Khartoum International Airport, Burhan's official residence, and the SNBC headquarters.[45][46][47][48]
Wagner Group rebellion	23 June 2023	24 June 2023	On 23 June 2023, Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin led a "March for Justice" against the Russian government for a supposed attack on his men by the military. A day later however, as his convoy was encroaching on Moscow, Prigozhin called off the rebellion in exchange for amnesty and other unknown reasons.

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  Territorial control during Myanmar civil war (2021–present) as of the present.
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  A man passing by a destroyed T-72 tank in Idaga Hamus during Tigray war.
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  Sudanese refugee camp in Chad during Sudanese civil war (2023).
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  A tank with flowers in the muzzle in Rostov-on-Don during the Wagner Group rebellion against the Russian government.

Revolutions and major protests

Main article: List of protests in the 21st century

Successful revolutions and otherwise major protests of the decade include, but are not limited to:

Event	Date	Country	Events	Ref.
Dutch farmers' protests	1 October 2019 – present	The Netherlands	Demonstrations by Dutch farmers, characterised by the use of tractors to block roads, and occupy public spaces. The protests were triggered in October 2019 by a proposal in parliament to halve the country's livestock in an attempt to limit agricultural pollution. It was related to the Dutch nitrogen crisis. The farmers' protests combines action groups and an amalgamation of larger goals. Also, the party Farmer–Citizen Movement was founded, which has gained power in parliament.	[49][50]
Indonesia omnibus law protests	13 January – November 2020	Indonesia	Mass popular protests and riots against the deliberation and passage of the controversial Omnibus Law on Job Creation, which was passed on 5 October 2020. The wider policies of President Joko Widodo were also protested against, and resulted in the formation of the new Labour Party.	[51][52]
2020–2021 Belarusian protests	24 January 2020 – 25 March 2021	Belarus	Mass popular protests and riots against the Belarusian government and President Alexander Lukashenko. The largest anti-government protests in the history of Belarus, the demonstrations began in the lead-up to and during the 2020 presidential election, in which Lukashenko sought his sixth term in office.	[53][54]
George Floyd protests	26 May 2020 – 26 May 2021	United States	Protests and riots due to the murder of George Floyd spread throughout the United States with international protests in support. The stated goal was to end systemic racism and police brutality. Sporadic protests in response to racism and police brutality continued throughout the following years, while the street where Floyd was murdered is still under control by protesters.[citation needed]	[55][56]
2020–2021 Thai protests	July 2020 – November 2021	Thailand	Mass popular protests and riots against the government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the dissolution of the Future Forward Party, changes to the constitution in 2017, and the country's political landscape. Resulted in the detention of leading figures.	[57][58]
2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest	9 August 2020 – 11 December 2021	India	Protests and riots against three farm acts that were passed by the Parliament of India in September 2020.	[59][60]
2020 Kyrgyz Revolution	5–15 October 2020	Kyrgyzstan	On 5 October, protests began in Kyrgyzstan in response to the annulled parliamentary election, which protesters felt were unfair with allegations of vote-rigging. A day later, the parliamentary elections were annulled. 6 days later, on 12 October, president Sooronbay Jeenbekov announced a state of emergency. On 15 October, Jeenbekov finally resigned, making way for Sadyr Japarov, who was nominated by parliament on 14 October to be acting prime minister, as also acting president. Following the protests, Japarov was elected president on 10 January 2021, on the same day a referendum was held on the Kyrgyz government system, in which the Kyrgyz voted for a reintroduction of the presidential system. The new constitution, passed by the Supreme Council was approved by voters in another referendum on 11 April 2021. Finally, on 28 November 2021, new parliamentary elections took place.	[61][62]
2020–2021 women's strike protests in Poland	22 October 2020 – 27 January 2021	Poland	Protest began on 22 October in response to a ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal of Julia Przyłębska, mainly consisting of judges who were appointed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) in illegal way, which tightened the law on abortion making Poland the country with the most stringent abortion law in Europe (except Malta, Andorra and Vatican). The ruling made almost all cases of abortion illegal, including those cases in which the foetus had a severe and permanent disability, or an incurable and life-threatening disease. The protests were the biggest protest in Poland since 1989 (creation of III Rzeczpospolita), and were directed against the ruling party (PiS) and the Catholic Church, which had great influence on the government. As a result of the protests, the popularity of the ruling party fell by 10 percentage points, which was one of the main factors in the change of power in the parliamentary elections in 2023.	[63][64][65]
2020–21 United States election protests United States Capitol attack	4 November 2020 – 11 April 2021 6 January 2021	United States	Protests began in multiple cities in the United States following the 2020 United States presidential election between then-President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Vice President Joe Biden, held on 3 November 2020. On 6 January 2021, following the defeat of U.S. President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a mob of his supporters attacked the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
2021 Brazilian protests	15 January – December 2021	Brazil	President Bolsonaro's government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic culminated in mass popular protests and riots, with protests occurring in both support and opposition to the government and resulted in a failed impeachment attempt of Bolsonaro.	[66][67][68]
Myanmar protests (2021–present)	2 February 2021 – present	Myanmar	Protests triggered after the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, during the ongoing internal conflict in Myanmar, and the Myanmar civil war.	[69][70]
2021–2023 Eswatini protests	20 June 2021 – Summer 2023	Eswatini	A series of protests in Eswatini against the monarchy and for democratization began as a peaceful protest on 20 June, then escalated after 25 June into violence and looting over the weekend as the government took a hardline stance against the demonstrations and prohibited the delivery of petitions.	[71]
2021–2022 Iranian protests Mahsa Amini protests	15 July 2021 – 15 September 2022 16 September 2022 – 2023	Iran	Throughout 2021 and 2022, crackdowns on the Iranian Democracy Movement, electricity blackouts, and economic conditions led to nationwide demonstrations, including protests over water scarcity as well as protests over food price hikes. The protests escalated rapidly in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by the "morality police" for not wearing a hijab. The movement has led to a large government crackdown, a death toll over 500, and international condemnation for the government's response while also fueling the ongoing anti-hijab movement in Iran and Iranian Democracy Movement.	[72][73]
Anti-lex TVN protests	10 September – 27 December 2021	Poland	On 7 August 2021, PiS MPs, which was then the ruling party, submitted a bill to the Sejm amending the "Broadcasting and the Cinematography Act" ("Ustawa o Radiofonii i Telewizji"), the aim of which was to revoke broadcasting licenses for stations with foreign capital exceeding 49%. This act severely affected the main opposition station TVN, which belonged to a Dutch holding company. On 11 August, the act was put to a vote. During the vote, the act did not pass, because one of PiS's coalition partner, Porozumienie, voted against it. After reading the vote that was unfavorable for PiS, Marshal of the Sejm Elżbieta Witek called a recess, during which Kukiz'15 MPs said that they had voted wrong, which resulted in a resumption of the vote during which the act passed. In connection with these events, there were mass anti-government protests. As a result, the act was vetoed by Andrzej Duda. An additional consequence was the expulsion of Porozumienie from the government coalition.	[74][75][76]
2022 Kazakh unrest	2–11 January 2022	Kazakhstan	Protests erupt in Kazakhstan on 2 January 2022 after a sudden sharp increase in liquefied gas prices following the lifting of a government-enforced price cap on 1 January.	[77]
Canada convoy protest	22 January – 23 February 2022	Canada	A series of protests and blockades in Canada against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions, called the Freedom Convoy.	[78]
Protests against the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 anti-war protests in Russia	24 February 2022 – present	Russia	A series of protests and anti-war demonstrations held in Russia and worldwide against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia.	[79]
2022 Sri Lankan protests	15 March – 14 November 2022	Sri Lanka	Starting in 2019, Sri Lanka had been facing its worst economic crisis since its independence. The then-ongoing crisis culminated in mass popular protests and riots against the incumbent government and the Rajapaksa family, which eventually forced President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and resign in July. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe succeeded Rajapaksa as the President amidst the protests.	[80][81][82]
2022 Karakalpak protests	1–3 July 2022	Karakalpakstan	Spurred by a draft of a new version of the Constitution of Uzbekistan, in which the word "sovereign" was removed from the description of the status of Karakalpakstan, and the mention of the republic's right to secede from Uzbekistan was also removed. These were later withdrawn.	[83]
2022 Sierra Leone protests	10–12 August 2022	Sierra Leone	Thirty-one people, including 25 civilians and six police officers, died during violent protests and riots in the West African country of Sierra Leone. The protests were sparked by the nation's cost-of-living crisis.	[84]
2022–23 Brazilian election protests 2023 Brazilian Congress attack	31 October 2022 – 9 January 2023 8 January 2023	Brazil	The 2022 Brazilian election protests began shortly after the conclusion of the 2022 Brazilian general election's second round on 30 October, in which Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was elected president. Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, the outgoing incumbent president, started blocking roads and highways in the country. At least 23 Brazilian states, plus the Federal District, recorded roadblocks as of 1 November, adding up to at least 267 roadblocks according to data from Federal Highway Police (PRF). Dozens of Bolsonaro supporters storm the Three Powers Plaza in the capital Brasília, cause enormous damage. President Lula was not there, nor was Bolsonaro or members of Congress.	[85][86][87][88][89][90]
2022 COVID-19 protests in China	2 November – 5 December 2022	China	A series of protests against COVID-19 lockdowns began in mainland China on 15 November 2022. The protests began in response to measures taken by the Chinese government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the country, including implementing a zero-COVID policy. Discontentment towards the policy has grown since the beginning of the pandemic, which confined many people to their homes without work, leaving them unable to purchase daily necessities and subjecting them to harsh restrictions. Protests escalated on 24 November 2022 following a fire in an apartment building in Ürümqi which killed 10 people, with protesters blaming China's policies for the deaths.	[91][92]
Peruvian protests (2022–2023)	7 December 2022 – 24 March 2023	Peru	Protests erupted against the government of Dina Boluarte and the Congress of Peru called by supporters of the ousted president of Peru, Pedro Castillo, organized by social organizations and indigenous peoples who felt they experienced political disenfranchisement, specifically on the politically left-wing to far left. The government's authoritarian response was widely criticized, with further discontent following the Supreme Court's decision to declare protesting in Peru to be illegal.	[93][94][95][96][97]
2022–2024 Bangladesh protests Student–People's uprising	10 December 2022 – 5 August 2024 1 July – 5 August 2024	Bangladesh	A series of anti-government protests against the authoritarian government were initiated by the Bangladeshi opposition parties in December 2022, the protests continued spite of the government crackdowns. Though initially low-level, with instances of vandalism in late 2023, the movement gained momentum in 2024. Initially focused on restructuring discriminatory traditional and quota-based systems for government job recruitment, the movement expanded against what many perceive as an authoritarian government when hundreds of protestors and civilians, most of whom were students, were killed. The protests resulted in the resignation of prime minister Sheikh Hasina after 15 years of rule.	[98][99]
2023 Israeli judicial reform protests	7 January – 12 October 2023	Israel	Mass protests, strikes and civil disobedience campaigns occurred across the country in response to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right wing government's plan to overhaul the Israeli Judiciary system, which have been criticized for removing the checks and balances on the government and giving it unrestrained power.	[100][101][102]
2023 French pension reform strikes	19 January – 8 June 2023	France	A series of civil unrest incidents occurred in France in response to a pension reform bill proposed by the Borne government, which would increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 years old. Strikes and protests have led to widespread disruption, including garbage piling up in the streets and public transport cancellations. In March, the government used Article 49.3 of the constitution to force the bill through the French Parliament, sparking more protests and two failed no confidence votes.	[103][104]
2023–2024 Georgian protests 2024 Georgian post-election protests	6–10 March 2023 28 October 2024 – present	Georgia	A series of street demonstrations taking place throughout Georgia over parliamentary backing of a proposed "Law on Transparency of Foreign Influence", which requires NGOs to register as "agents of foreign influence" if the funds they receive from abroad amount to more than 20% of their total revenue. Police have been reported as using water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protests, especially in the capital Tbilisi. The parliament retracted the bill as a result of protests on 10 March 2023. Protests against the 2024 Georgian parliamentary election results began in Georgia after the preliminary official results were announced. The demonstrators claimed that the elections, which saw the ruling Georgian Dream win a majority of seats, were fraudulent, and alternatively demanded a recount and a new election. Additional protests were held on 4 November near the parliament building, where the opposition parties unveiled their strategy to tackle the election results. The protests continued on 17 November, when the final results were certified by the Central Election Commission of Georgia. The scope of the protests was broadened on 28 November, when the government announced that it would postpone the EU negotiations process until 2028. The protests are also called "Georgian Maidan".	[105][106][107][108][109]
2023 Polish protests June 4 protests March of a Million Hearts	4 June – 1 October 2023 4 June 1 October 2023	Poland	Two big antigoverment demonstrations were held in Poland in 2023. The first major protest took place on 4 June under the name "March 4th June" ("Marsz 4 Czerwca"). It was organized by the main opposition party, Civic Coalition, mainly in opposition to the attempt to establish a State Commission to investigate Russian influence in the years 2007–2022 [pl], because this commission could ban people from holding public office without giving a reason, which was a thing aimed at Donald Tusk and the opposition by ruling Law and Justice. The march was organized on 4 June, the day commemorating the first partially free elections in Poland in 1989. The protest gathered between 300 000 and 500 000 people. The result of the protest was the submission of an amendment to the act by President Andrzej Duda, which was to soften the controversial provisions in the act. Additionally, thanks to the march, the opposition's popularity increased by about 5 percentage points. A second protest was held on 1 October under the name "March of a Million Hearts" ("Marsz Miliona Serc"), as a reminder of the first protest just before the parliamentary elections, that was held on 15th October. The protest was organised by democtatic opposition (Civic Coalition, Third Way and New Left), and gathered between 600 000 to 1 100 000 people. This protest was one of the main reasons for the opposition's victory in the parliamentary elections.	[110][111][112][113][114][115]
2023–2024 European Union farmers' protests 2024 French farmers' protests 2024 Polish farmers' protests 2023–2024 German farmers' protests	December 2023 – present	EU: France Poland Germany	Series of farmers' protests were held across the European Union mostly due to opposing EU green politics, and unregulated trade of agricultural products with non-European Union member states, such as Ukraine and the Mercosur bloc.	[116][117][118][119]
2024 Venezuelan protests	28 July 2024 – present	Venezuela	A series of protests erupted in response to the results of the 2024 presidential election, citing allegations of voter fraud and other irregularities during the election process. These events unfolded as part of the broader 2024 Venezuelan political crisis and occurred against the backdrop of the ongoing crisis in Venezuela. Demonstrations to uphold the results of the election, along with vigils for political prisoners, occurred worldwide after the July election. Spontaneous protests broke out immediately after the election, while later rallies were organized by the Venezuelan opposition. Maduro claimed the opposition was encouraging a coup and has charged demonstrators with terrorism, while initiating an unprecedented crackdown. Maduro's security forces have gone door-to-door seeking to arrest protesters, poll workers and members of the opposition in what Maduro has referred to as Operation Tun Tun, and armed bands of Maduro supporters known as colectivos have joined security forces in repressing dissent. As of 14 August 2024, at least 2,200 persons are reported to have been arrested, and 25 killed. Maduro has announced plans to continue to seek the arrest of dissenters, and to rehabilitate two prisons to house those detained.	[120][121][122]
2024 United Kingdom riots	30 July – 5 August 2024	United Kingdom	The far-right, anti-immigration protests and riots began after a mass stabbing in Southport. The riots were fuelled by false claims circulated by far-right groups that the perpetrator of the attack was a Muslim and an asylum seeker, in addition to broader Islamophobic, racist, and anti-immigrant sentiments that had grown leading up to the protests, it was the largest incident of social unrest in England since 2011.	[123][124][125]
2024–2025 Southern European spring 2024–present Serbian anti-corruption protests 2024–2025 Romanian election annulment protests 2025 Turkish protests	October 2024 – present	EU: Bulgaria Greece Romania North Macedonia Serbia Turkey	A series of protest and riots against political corruption, retail boycotts, and various problems across Southern Europe.	[126][127][128][129]
Protests against the second presidency of Donald Trump 2025 "Hands Off" protests No Kings protests June 2025 Los Angeles protests	January 2025 – present	Worldwide	An ongoing series of protests against US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the Trump administration, beginning on April 5. Participants, including the involvement of over 150 advocacy groups, protested Trump's worldwide implementation of "Liberation Day" Tariffs which subsequently lead to the stock market crash, several other endeavors causing economic decline, Musk's cuts to government agencies and the federal government, rollback of LGBT rights in the United States, mass deportations of immigrants and legal citizens, potential negative effects to social security, and cuts to healthcare and related research. Protestors additionally expressed concern in policies favoring billionaires, growing authoritarianism in the Trump administration, and a decline in democracy. These protests are described as the largest nationwide display of opposition to the second Trump administration across Trump's presidential terms, being held at nationwide and worldwide.	[130][131][132][133][134]

• 
  Protesters in Minneapolis where George Floyd was murdered and the unrest began on 26 May 2020.
• 
  Protest against abortion restriction in Bielsko-Biała, Poland
• 
  2021 Myanmar coup d'état culminated an ongoing protests, thousands of protesters participating in an anti-junta rally in Yangon in February 2021.
• 
  Protesters in Aktobe during a period of unrest in Kazakhstan, 4 January 2022.
• 
  Sri Lankans protesting in front of the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo, 13 April 2022.
• 
  Iranians protesting at Amirkabir University of Technology in Tehran following the death of Mahsa Amini, 20 September 2022.
• 
  Protesters attack the Brazilian Congress to protest and attempt to overturn the results of the 2022 Brazilian election, 8 January 2023.
• 
  Pro-Western protesters and rioters during the anti-government protests in Tbilisi, Georgia
• 
  "March of a Million Hearts" in Warsaw, Poland
• 
  Tractors at Saint-Etienne-de-Fontbellon (France) during the EU farmers' protests.
• 
  Students launching the Bangla blockade during the Student–People's uprising, 6 July 2024.
• 
  Venezuelans taking to the streets to protest the 2024 presidential election results in Caracas, 3 August 2024.
• 
  A group of "Hands-Off" protestors on the Minnesota State Capitol in Saint Paul, Minnesota since the George Floyd protests in 2020.
• 
  California National Guard and protestors during June 2025 Los Angeles protests.

Terrorist attacks

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."

The most prominent terrorist attacks committed against civilian populations during the decade include, but are not limited to:

Event	Date	Country	Deaths	Injuries	Ref.
Koshebe massacre	28 November 2020	Nigeria	110	6	[135]
2021 Kabul school bombing	8 May 2021	Afghanistan	90	240	[136]
2021 Kabul airport attack	26 August 2021	Afghanistan	183	200+	[137]
2022 Peshawar mosque attack	4 March 2022	Pakistan	64+	196+	[138]
2022 Somali Ministry of Education bombings	29 October 2022	Somalia	121+	300+	[139]
2023 Peshawar mosque bombing	30 January 2023	Pakistan	101	220+	[140]
Re'im music festival massacre	7 October 2023	Israel	364	Unknown	[141]
2024 Kerman bombings	3 January 2024	Iran	103	284	[142]
Crocus City Hall attack	22 March 2024	Russia	145	551	[143]
2024 Barsalogho attack	24 August 2024	Burkina Faso	600+	300+	[144]
2024 Magdeburg car attack	20 December 2024	Germany	5	200+	[145]
2025 New Orleans truck attack	1 January 2025	United States	14	59	[146]
2025 Pahalgam attack	22 April 2025	India	26	20	[147]

Political trends

The controversial Project 2025 document promoting Trumpism referred to as the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement in the mid-2020s.

Further information: 2020s in political history

Electoral trends

Having suffered decline in the years after the Great Recession, the centre-left politics and the 1990s political model (like progressivism, liberalism, social democracy, and third way policies) experienced a resurgence across Europe and the Anglosphere in the early 2020s, with New Statesman suggesting various causes, including natural shifts in the electoral cycle and conservatives' unpopularity among university graduates and voters under the age of 40.^[148]

The 2020 United States election saw the election of Kamala Harris as vice president was widely regarded as a historic milestone, as the first woman, African American, and Asian American to hold the office, reflecting broader trends toward increased diversity and representation in American politics, culture and society.

Following the election of Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election, the mid-2020s saw the resurgence of right-wing populism and the 1980s political model (like Trumpist ideologies of conservatism, social conservatism, and anti-communist policies).^[149][150]

Incumbent parties in all 10 major counties that held elections in 2024 lost, the first time this has ever happened since 1905.^[151]

Deaths

Sitting leaders that died such as Qaboos bin Said of Oman, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, Amadou Gon Coulibaly of the Ivory Coast, Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah of Kuwait, Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa of Bahrain, John Magufuli of Tanzania, Idriss Déby of Chad, Jovenel Moïse of Haiti, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates, Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Ebrahim Raisi of Iran, Nguyễn Phú Trọng of Vietnam, Didier Guillaume of Monaco and Pope Francis.

Prominent political events

Coups

Main article: List of coups and coup attempts since 2010

Coups d'état against ruling governments during the decade include:

Event	Date	Country	Ref.
2020 Malian coup d'état	18 August 2020	Mali	[152]
2021 Myanmar coup d'état	1 February 2021	Myanmar	[153][154]
2021 Malian coup d'état	24 May 2021	Mali	[155][156]
2021 Tunisian self-coup	25 July 2021	Tunisia	[157]
2021 Guinean coup d'état	5 September 2021	Guinea	[158]
2021 Sudan coup d'état	25 October 2021	Sudan	[159]
January 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état	23 January 2022	Burkina Faso	[160]
2022 Ukrainian coup d'état attempt	January – February 2022	Ukraine	[161]
September 2022 Burkina Faso coup d'état	30 September 2022	Burkina Faso	[162][163]
2022 German coup d'état plot	7 December 2022	Germany	[164]
2022 Peruvian self-coup attempt	7 December 2022	Peru	[165][166][167]
2022 Brazilian coup plot	15 December 2022	Brazil	[168]
2023 Nigerien coup d'état	26 July 2023	Niger	[169]
2023 Gabonese coup d'état	30 August 2023	Gabon	[170]
2024 Democratic Republic of the Congo coup attempt	19 May 2024	Democratic Republic of the Congo	[171]
2024 Bolivian coup attempt	26 June 2024	Bolivia	[172]
2024 South Korean martial law crisis	3 December 2024	South Korea	[173]

Africa

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

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
Western Saharan clashes (2020–present)	Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic Morocco	8 November 2020 – ongoing	Following protests in the border town of Guerguerat in the disputed Western Sahara region, the Moroccan armed forces captured the town to ensure traffic could resume through the area. Since then, fighting and bombardments across the Moroccan Berm have taken place, with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic declaring war against Morocco. It is the largest escalation in the conflict since the end of the Western Sahara War in 1991.	[174]
2021–2022 Somali political crisis	Somalia	8 February 2021 – 10 January 2022	President of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed stayed in power past the end of his term and postponed elections scheduled for 2021. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble then called for the president to immediately step down. The president later dismissed Roble for alleged corruption. Protests were reported across the country in favor and opposed to the president. A deal to hold elections in May 2022 was reached in January which resulted in the incumbent president losing his bid for reelection.	[175]
Nigerien crisis (2023–2024)	Niger ECOWAS	26 July 2023 – 24 February 2024	The 2023 Nigerien coup d'état led to a severe diplomatic crisis between the putschists in Niger and the member states of ECOWAS.

Americas

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

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
First impeachment of Donald Trump	United States	24 September 2019 – 5 February 2020	Under Article I, Section 3, Clause 6, of the U.S. Constitution, President Donald Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress on 18 December 2019 by the United States House of Representatives. The United States Senate trial began on 16 January 2020 and ended on 5 February 2020, concluding with an acquittal on both charges.	[176]
2020 Salvadoran political crisis	El Salvador	9 February 2020	During a political crisis, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent forty soldiers of the Salvadoran Army into the Legislative Assembly building in an effort to coerce politicians to approve a loan request of $109 million from the United States for Bukele's security plan for the country. The event has been condemned by foreign governments, the political opposition, and human rights organizations and is considered the first major political crisis in the country since the conclusion of the Salvadoran Civil War in 1992 and has been referred to as a coup attempt.	[177]
2020 United States presidential election and subsequent events	United States	3 November 2020 – 13 February 2021	The 59th United States presidential election was held on 3 November 2020. Democrat and former Vice-president Joe Biden defeated Republican and then-incumbent President Donald Trump, with the Electoral College formally declaring Biden the winner on 14 December 2020. Trump refused to concede, and filed lawsuits challenging the results in several states,[178] though most of the legal challenges were either dismissed or dropped, with judges citing lack of evidence to suggest voter fraud occurred. Trump had also unsuccessfully attempted to undo the election results by forcing government officials to stop Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia from certifying Biden as the winner, and urging his supporters to "walk" to the United States Capitol to demand Trump be declared the winner of the election.[179] This was one of the reasons for the decision of a group of his supporters to gather in Washington, D.C., on 6 January 2021 and break into the Capitol building during a Joint session of Congress. The January 6 United States Capitol attack disrupted Congress while certifying the election, forcing both chambers to undergo lockdown lasting for four hours. On the same day, Trump coerced then-incumbent Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results to which Pence refused. During the attack, Trump tweeted directly to his supporters falsely claiming Congress was attempting to assist in stealing the election. Twitter responded by suspending Trump's account permanently following Trump's tweet. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat all also suspended Trump from using their platforms worrying his posts may incite additional violence to the Capitol attacks. In relation to this, Trump was impeached for the second time by the House of Representatives and became the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. Meanwhile, Joe Biden was sworn in as the United States President on 20 January 2021. The Senate impeachment trial ended on 13 February 2021, one month after its start, resulting in Trump being found not guilty of inciting the attack on the Capitol. On 1 August 2023, a grand jury indicted Trump in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on four charges: conspiracy to defraud the United States, obstructing an official proceeding related to the certification of the election results on 6 January 2021, conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights.	[180][178][181][182][183][184][185] [186][187][188][189][179][190][191] [192][193][194][195][196][197][198][199]
8th Congress of the Communist Party	Cuba	16–19 April 2021	At the 8th Congress of the Communist Party, Raúl Castro officially resigned as the First Secretary, the most powerful position in Cuba. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel is officially named First Secretary of the Communist Party following the resignation of Raúl Castro. He is the first person not of the Castro family to hold the top position since the 1959 Cuban Revolution.	[200][201]
2021 Salvadoran political crisis	El Salvador	1 May 2021	The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador voted to remove several judges from the Supreme Court and remove the Attorney General, both of which had been vocal opponents to the presidency of Nayib Bukele.	[202]
2021 Media Reporting on Canadian Indian Residential School Cemeteries	Canada	28 May 2021 –	The New York Times broke the story on a Canadian Indian Residential School Cemeteries announcement, incorrectly reporting a discovery of "mass graves" of Indigenous children at a former school site. Further purported "discoveries" would follow throughout the summer. The reporting sparked international attention and national reckoning, and would help "spawn a new holiday, Truth and Reconciliation Day, prompt an official visit by Pope Francis, and result in Canadian flags being kept at half-mast for a record-breaking five consecutive months.”	[203][204][205][206][207]
Barbados's transition to a republic	Barbados	30 November 2021	Barbados became the newest republic in the world on 30 November 2021, its 55th Independence Day, when the already elected, previous Governor-General of Barbados, Sandra Mason, was sworn into office as the first president of the Caribbean country. This ended Queen Elizabeth II's 55-year tenure as monarch of an independent Barbados, prior to her death in a following year.	[208]
2022 Colombian presidential election	Colombia	19 June 2022	Former 19th of April Movement guerrilla fighter and incumbent Senator Gustavo Petro defeats businessman and former mayor of Bucaramanga, Rodolfo Hernández Suárez, in the second round of the presidential election and becomes the first left-wing President in Colombian history.	[209][210][211]
2022 Brazilian general election	Brazil	3–30 October 2022	Former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defeats the incumbent president of Jair Bolsonaro in the second round of the presidential election; he becomes the first elected to three terms and the oldest president in Brazilian history.	[212][213][214][215]
2024 Mexican general election	Mexico	2 June 2024	Claudia Sheinbaum of the ruling Morena party becomes the first woman to be elected president in Mexican history.
2024 Venezuelan presidential election and political crisis	Venezuela	28 July 2024	Presidential elections were held on 28 July 2024 to choose a president for a six-year term beginning on 10 January 2025. The election was politically contentious, with international monitors calling it neither free nor fair, citing the incumbent Maduro administration having controlled most institutions and repressed the political opposition before, during, and after the election. Widely viewed as having won the election, former diplomat Edmundo González Urrutia fled to asylum in Spain amid repression of dissent and a national and international political crisis that resulted when Venezuelan electoral authorities announced—without presenting any evidence—that Nicolás Maduro won. Maduro ran for a third consecutive term, while González represented the Unitary Platform (Spanish: Plataforma Unitaria Democrática; PUD), the main opposition political alliance. In June 2023, the Venezuelan government had barred leading candidate María Corina Machado from participating. This move was regarded by the opposition as a violation of political human rights and was condemned by international bodies such as the Organization of American States (OAS), the European Union, and Human Rights Watch, as well as numerous countries. Academics, news outlets and the opposition provided "strong evidence" to suggest that González won the election by a wide margin with the opposition releasing copies of official tally sheets collected by poll watchers from a majority of polling centers showing a landslide victory for González. The government-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) announced falsified results claiming a narrow Maduro victory on 29 July; vote tallies were not provided. The CNE's results were rejected by the Carter Center and by the OAS, and the United Nations declared that there was "no precedent in contemporary democratic elections" for announcing a winner without providing tabulated results. Analyses by media sources found the CNE results statistically improbable and lacking in credibility. Protests occurred across the country and internationally, as the Maduro administration initiated Operation Tun Tun, a crackdown on dissent. Some world leaders rejected the CNE's claimed results and recognized González as the election winner, while some other countries, including Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and Cuba recognized Maduro as the winner. Maduro did not cede power, and instead asked the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ), composed of justices loyal to Maduro, to audit and approve the results. On 22 August 2024, as anticipated, the TSJ described the CNE's statement of Maduro winning the election as "validated". The supreme court ruling was rejected by the United States, the European Union and ten Latin American countries. An arrest warrant was issued on 2 September 2024 for González for the alleged crimes of "usurpation of functions, falsification of public documents, instigation to disobey the law, conspiracy and association." After seeking asylum in the Spanish Embassy in Caracas, González left for Spain on 7 September 2024.	[216][217][218]
2024 United States presidential election	United States	5 November 2024	The 60th United States presidential election was held on 5 November 2024. Democrat and former Vice-president Joe Biden initially planned to run against Republican and former President Donald Trump, in a rematch of the 2020 United States presidential election. In the aftermath of a much-criticised debate performance against Trump in June 2024, and far behind Trump in the polls, Biden was pressured to drop out of the race. Vice President Kamala Harris took his place as the Democratic nominee, bypassing the usual primary process. Polling narrowed in the months leading up to election day, with the race too close to call across swing states and the country at large. Trump emerged the clear winner on election night, winning the popular vote and a clear majority of electoral college votes. Harris refused to concede on election night after it had become clear Trump had won the electoral college and popular vote. However, the following day, she conceded and acknowledged that Trump had won the election. This was the second of two elections won by Trump, the first being in 2016 against Hillary Clinton, preceding his defeat by Biden in 2020.	[219][220][221][222][223]
2024–2025 Canadian political crisis and federal election	Canada	16 December 2024 – 28 April 2025	A political crisis emerged in Canada after Chrystia Freeland, the minister of finance and deputy prime minister, resigned from Cabinet on 16 December 2024. Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, announced his resignation on 6 January 2025. Former Governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney won twice in the Liberal Party leadership election and the federal election. He became Prime Minister five days later, succeeded Trudeau after nine years of premiership. Despite threats from US President Donald Trump, he was re-elected in the federal election, defeating his Conservative opponent Pierre Poilievre.	[224][225] [226][227][228]

• 
  On 6 January 2021, the U.S. Capitol attack occurred two weeks before Joe Biden was sworn into office. The event resulted in the Second impeachment of Donald Trump and a group of televised public hearings.
• 
  The 2020s saw the U.S. presidency alternate from Donald Trump to Joe Biden in 2020, followed by Trump's successful re-election in 2024; both the oldest presidents served during the decade. Trump is the second president elected to nonconsecutive terms (following Grover Cleveland in 1884 and 1892).
• 
  Donald Trump, who survived an attempted assassination in Pennsylvania in July 2024. This image shows Donald Trump paying respect to Corey Comperatore's firefighter uniform; he lost his life in the assassination attempt.
• 
  María Corina Machado and Edmundo González along with his wife, addressing supporters in Caracas following the 2024 presidential election results. Incumbent Nicolás Maduro secured a third term in an election widely criticized as neither free or fair, given the Maduro administration having controlled most institutions and repressed the political opposition before and during the election.
• 
  Former US president Jimmy Carter lay in repose at the U.S. Capitol, Washington D.C. He was the longest-lived U.S. president in history and the first president to reach the age of 100.
• 
  Mark Carney became Prime Minister of Canada, after he won a landslide victory at the 2025 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election and re-elected at the federal election, since Justin Trudeau resigned after nine years of premiership.

Asia

Further information: Category:2020s in Asia

Event	Country	Date	Description	Reference
2019–2021 Persian Gulf crisis	Iran United States	5 May 2019	The Persian Gulf region saw tensions between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran escalate in mid-2019. The crisis saw oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz sabotaged and seized, drone shootdowns, and efforts by the U.S. and United Kingdom to pursue military patrols to protect shipping in the gulf, known as the International Maritime Security Construct. On 31 December 2019 tensions reached a breaking point as Iranian-backed Shiite militia stormed into the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, leading to the targeted killing of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in a U.S. drone strike on 3 January 2020.	[229][230][231]
2020–2022 Malaysian political crisis	Malaysia	22 February 2020 – 24 November 2022	Political infighting and party switching within Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional led to the inability to form a stable majority government. After the collapse of 2 successive governments and a snap general election held, the Anwar Ibrahim cabinet was formed, the first unity government in the history of Malaysia.	[232]
2020–2021 China–India skirmishes	China India	5 May 2020 – 20 January 2021	Since 5 May 2020, Chinese and Indian troops have engaged in aggressive melee, face-offs, and skirmishes at locations along the Sino-Indian border, including near the disputed Pangong Lake in Ladakh and the Tibet Autonomous Region, and near the border between Sikkim and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Additional clashes also took place at locations in eastern Ladakh along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).	[233]
2021 Kyrgyz-Tajik clashes	Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan	28 April – 1 May and 9 July 2021	A 3-day border conflict with clashes occurred in late April 2021 between the two Central Asian countries Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The reason why the fighting broke out is disputed, but it is due either to an old water dispute or to local people's dissatisfaction with the installation of surveillance cameras near the border. After 3 days of intense clashes, that left more than 50 people dead and also more than 40,000 displaced civilians, the two countries agreed on a ceasefire. After the ceasefire, however, there was a fatal incident on 9 July.	[234]
2021 Israel–Palestine crisis	Israel Palestine	6–21 May 2021	Clashes between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem lead to eleven days of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.	[235]
2021 Taliban offensive	Afghanistan	1 May – 15 August 2021	Beginning on 1 May 2021, the Taliban and allied militant groups made a final offensive against the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and its allies, coinciding with the withdrawal of most United States and allied troops from Afghanistan. It resulted in the de facto takeover of the country and the reinstatement of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, ending the twenty-year-long War in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021.	[236]
2021–2022 Iraqi political crisis	Iraq	5 November 2021 – 28 October 2022	The parliamentary election in October 2021 resulted in deadlock as members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq were unable to form a stable government or elect a new president. Ended in the election of Abdul Latif Rashid as president and Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani as prime minister.	[237]
2022 Kyrgyz-Tajik clashes	Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan	27 January – 20 September 2022	The sporadic fighting between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, which had started in 2021, began again in late January 2022 and the bloody clashes resulted in dozens of deaths and injuries on 27 January, 10 March, 3 June and 14 June. In September, the fighting escalated and the 6 days of fighting between 14 and 20 September, which resulted in hundreds of deaths and injuries, finally ended on 20 September when the two countries signed a peace deal.	[238]
2022–2024 Pakistan political unrest	Pakistan	3 April 2022 – 24 November 2024	The events began with a constitutional crisis in April 2022 after a no-confidence motion against Imran Khan was dismissed by the deputy speaker, made the first Prime Minister of Pakistan to be removed from office by a vote of no confidence. Khan would call for general elections to be held, but soon after he was the target of an assassination attempt and two arrests. Nationwide protests in support of Khan erupted after his arrests, culminating in the May 9 riots and a crackdown by the government. The events were a major event in the lead up to the 2024 general election.	[239][240][241]
2024 Varzaqan helicopter crash	Iran	19 May 2024	An Iranian Air Force helicopter crashed near the village of Uzi, East Azerbaijan, Iran, killing President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi along with other political officials.	[242][243][244]
2024 Japanese general election and 2025 Japanese House of Councillors election	Japan	27 October 2024–20 July 2025	The Liberal Democratic Party, led by prime minister Shigeru Ishiba, after the resignation of Fumio Kishida as party leader due to his low approval rating amid the party-wide slush fund corruption scandal and several troubled events, the "Summer of Discontent" that led to the election. Resulted both ruling LDP-Komeito coalition lost their majority for the first time since the 2007 and 2009.	[245][246][247][248][249]
2024–2025 South Korean political crisis and presidential election	South Korea	3 December 2024 – 4 June 2025	Yoon Suk Yeol, the president of South Korea, declared martial law during a televised address which triggered to a political crisis. The impeachment occurred against president by the National Assembly following the impeachment motion raised against him on 14 December 2024, making the second president to be impeached since Park Geun-hye in 2016. Later Prime Minister Han Duck-soo was impeached two weeks later and replaced by Deputy Prime minister Choi Sang-mok, later he was reinstated three months later. South Korean government organizations and the Interpol prompted the agency to file an arrest warrant for Yoon on 30 December and on 15 January 2025 became the first sitting president arrested, later triggered into a snap presidential election following the removal of an impeached president and Lee Jae Myung elected as president over Kim Moon-soo.	[250][251][252][253][254]
Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte	Philippines	11 March 2025	Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by the PNP (CIDG), Interpol, and PCTC, under an ICC warrant charging him with crimes against humanity related to the Philippine drug war as the "act of terrorism". Duterte arrived at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Metro Manila on 11 March after attending a political rally in Hong Kong and transferred to the Hague for a face trial. He is the first leader from Asia to face trial before the ICC.	[255][256][257][258]
2025 India–Pakistan crisis	India Pakistan	23 April 2025 –	India and Pakistan fell into a military and diplomatic crisis began after the 2025 Pahalgam attack, a terrorist attack in the Baisaran Valley of Jammu and Kashmir by The Resistance Front (TRF), which killed 26 people. A direct conflict broke out on 7 May 2025, after India launched missile strikes on Pakistan, codenamed Operation Sindoor.	[259][260][261][262]
2025 Thai political crisis and Cambodia–Thai crisis	Thailand	18 June 2025 –	Thailand and Cambodia fell into a military and diplomatic crisis, began the discontent of the Shinawatra family escalated culminated by the suspension of the Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra by the Constitutional Court. A direct conflict broke out on 24 July 2025, after Thailand launched missile strikes on Cambodian border as a potential war.	[263][264][265][266][267]

• 
  Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was arrested twice during the political unrest, and PTI-led independents were lost the 2024 election.
• 
  Shigeru Ishiba is elected as Prime Minister of Japan by the National Diet, succeed Fumio Kishida and reelected in October 2024 following the election.
• 
  Protests erupted during the 2024–2025 South Korean political crisis on 3 December 2024.
• 
  Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte was arrested by several organizations under an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant charging him with crimes against humanity and abuse of power related to the Philippine drug war and declaration of martial law are the "act of terrorism".
• 
  Lee Jae-myung becomes President of South Korea following the victory at the snap election since 2017.
• 
  Anti-government protests disrupted the Expo 2025 in Osaka since the assassination of Shinzo Abe three years earlier, part of the Raging Years movement.

Europe

Further information: Category:2020s in Europe

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
Brexit	United Kingdom	31 January 2020	The United Kingdom and Gibraltar formally withdrew from the European Union at 11PM (GMT).	[268]
Eighth NATO enlargement	North Macedonia	27 March 2020	North Macedonia became a member state of NATO after the 2018 Prespa Agreement.	[269]
2021–2025 Bulgarian political crisis	Bulgaria	4 April 2021 – 16 January 2025	A series of unstable governments and a gridlock resulted in seven elections occurring over four years.	[270][271][272]
Belarus–European Union border crisis	Belarus European Union	7 July 2021 – ongoing	A migrant crisis and humanitarian disaster involving an influx of coordinated groups of immigrants, primarily from Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa, to Poland, Lithuania and Latvia via their borders with Belarus. The crisis was triggered by the severe deterioration in Belarus–European Union relations following the 2020 Belarusian presidential election, the 2020–2021 Belarusian protests, the Ryanair Flight 4978 incident and subsequent sanctions on Belarus, as well as the attempted forced repatriation of Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya from the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko deliberately had immigrants from the Middle East flown into Belarus in order to "flood Europe with migrants and drugs."	[273][274]
2022 United Kingdom government crisis	United Kingdom	5 July – 25 October 2022	Two government crises occurred between July and October 2022: Several officials resigned from their positions in Prime Minister Boris Johnson's second ministry, culminating in Johnson announcing his resignation on 7 July and two leadership elections after new Prime Minister Liz Truss lost in public confidence following her September mini-budget. Chancellor Rishi Sunak became prime minister three months after the crisis.	[275][276][277]
Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II and accession of Charles III	United Kingdom	8 September 2022	Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, the longest-living and longest-reigning British monarch, reigning since 6 February 1952, died at the age of 96. Her son Charles acceded to the throne as King Charles III immediately, after serving as heir apparent for 70 years, the longest in British history.	[278][279]
2022 Italian general election	Italy	25 September 2022	The right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy won an absolute majority in both houses. On 22 October, Meloni was appointed prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the office.	[280][281]
2023 Montenegrin presidential election	Montenegro	2 April 2023	Europe Now! candidate Jakov Milatović wins the 2nd round of the presidential election against incumbent president Milo Đukanović of the DPS. Đukanović, who had ruled the country almost continuously since 1991 either as president or prime minister, thus lost power for the first time after more than 32 years. Milatović's victory was also the first time that the DPS lost a presidential election since 1990.	[282]
Ninth and tenth NATO enlargements	Finland Sweden	4 April 2023 – 7 March 2024	Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and was formally accepted the following year. This ended This ended neutrality that had existed more than two centuries, both Nordic countries to join the alliance.	[283][284]
Coronation of Charles III and Camilla	United Kingdom	6 May 2023	The coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms, took place on 6 May. Charles III acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, following the death of his mother, Elizabeth II. This was the first coronation of a British monarch since Elizabeth II was crowned 70 years earlier in 1953.	[285]
2023 Polish parliamentary election	Poland	15 October 2023	The United Right secured the highest number of seats in the election, but failed to achieve a majority in the Sejm. Meanwhile, the opposition, headed by Donald Tusk, successfully garnered a parliamentary majority. This represents a shift in the Sejm's majority for the first time in eight years in Poland.	[286]
2023–2024 French government and political crises	France	11 December 2023 – present	In December 2023, the Borne government faced a governability and credibility crisis. It was caused mainly by the difficult passage of the 2023 immigration and asylum bill, resulted the short-lived Attal government formed for eight months. The 2024 French legislative election organized and held in June 2024, which resulted in a hung parliament with the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) leading a plurality of seats but it was dismissed, the Barnier government formed three months later consists of Ensemble and The Republicans until its motion of no-confidence and the appointment of the Bayrou government occurred in December 2024.	[287][288][289][290]
Abdication of Margrethe II and accession of Frederik X	Denmark	14 January 2024	In the first voluntary abdication of a Danish monarch since that of King Eric III in 1146, Queen Margrethe II abdicated the throne and was succeeded by her elder son, King Frederik X, bringing an end to her 52-year reign.	[291]
2024 European Parliament election	European Union	6–9 June 2024	European People's Party led by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen win the most seats in the European Parliament.	[292]
2024 German government crisis and 2025 federal election	Germany	6 November 2024 – 23 February 2025	Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the dismissal of the then-finance minister Christian Lindner, and leader of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), from his cabinet due to the ongoing economic crisis. The government crisis led to a snap election being called for February 2025. The conservative CDU/CSU won over the far-right Alternative for Germany and Friedrich Merz became Chancellor after the government formation.	[293][294][295][296][297]
2024 and 2025 Romanian presidential elections	Romania	24 November 2024 – 18 May 2025	A series of two presidential elections held in Romania, began with the annulation of the first election following the result of a controversial first round with nationalist candidate Călin Georgescu achieving a relative majority of votes. The second election began in February 2025, with the arrest and rejection of Georgescu as the candidate after Ilie Bolojan became acting president for three months until the election. The centrist candidate Nicusor Dan won the election over nationalist George Simion.	[298][299][300][301]
2025 London Summit on Ukraine	United Kingdom	2 March 2025	A meeting of international leaders in London on 2 March 2025, called by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to draft a peace plan for the Russian invasion of Ukraine to take to the United States. The summit followed the meeting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in Washington on 28 February 2025 with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.	[302][303][304][305][306]
Death and funeral of Pope Francis and the 2025 papal conclave	Vatican City	21 April – 8 May 2025	Pope Francis died on Easter Monday at the age of 88 in his residence in Domus Sanctae Marthae after 12 years of papacy, and just following the 20th anniversary of the death and funeral of Pope John Paul II. His death triggered a papal interregnum and a nine-day period of mourning. The pope's funeral, by tradition, takes place within four to six days of the pope's death; he was buried at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. His successor Pope Leo XIV was elected as pontiff in the 2025 papal conclave two weeks later; he became the first pope from the United States and the second from the Americas.	[307][308][309][310][311][312]

• 
  Finnish and Swedish ambassadors submit their applications to join NATO to then-secretary general Jens Stoltenberg.
• 
  Crowds at Buckingham Palace following the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, shortly after the Platinum Jubilee celebration which marked the 70th anniversary of her accession.
• 
  Crowds at St. Peter's Square following the death and funeral of Pope Benedict XVI.
• 
  King Charles III and Queen Camilla on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following their coronation in 2023.
• 
  NATO leaders and participants at the 2025 London Summit on Ukraine.
• 
  Crowds at Domus Sanctae Marthae following the death and funeral of Pope Francis after 12 years of papacy, marked the 20th anniversary of death and funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005.

Oceania

Further information: Category:2020s in Oceania

Event	Country	Date	Description	References
2021 Samoan constitutional crisis	Samoa	22 May – 23 July 2021	Following a general election, the results were in stasis while incumbent prime minister Tuila'epa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi refused to step down. The Supreme Court of Samoa decided the matter, and the FAST party and its leader Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa was declared the winner.	[313]
2021 Solomon Islands unrest	Solomon Islands	24–27 November 2021	A period of unrest began due to a variety of factors, notably the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the decision to retract diplomatic recognition of Taiwan and instead recognize China.	[314]
2022 Kiribati constitutional crisis	Kiribati	May – October 2022	A crisis began when High Court Judge David Lambourne was suspended in May 2022 and Chief Justice Bill Hastings was suspended on 30 June 2022, both over allegations of misconduct. In October 2022, the President Taneti Maamau appointed Attorney General Tetiro Semilota as Acting Chief Justice.	[315][316]
2022 Fijian general election	Fiji	14 December 2022	16-year incumbent prime minister Frank Bainimarama of the FijiFirst party was unable to form a government after winning a plurality of seats. Former prime minister and leader of the 1987 military coups Sitiveni Rabuka of the newly established People's Alliance returned to the position.	[317]

World leaders

Main article: List of state leaders in the 2020s

Assassinations and attempts

Further information: List of assassinations

Qasem Soleimani

Jovenel Moïse

Shinzo Abe

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Donald Trump

Ismail Haniyeh

Hassan Nasrallah

Yahya Sinwar

Prominent assassinations, targeted killings, and assassination attempts include:

Date	Description
3 January 2020	Qasem Soleimani, Iranian general, and leader in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, is killed in an airstrike conducted by the United States near Baghdad International Airport.[318]
27 November 2020	Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a senior official in the nuclear program in Iran, is killed in an ambush against his motorcade in Absard.[319]
22 February 2021	Luca Attanasio, Italian ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is killed by gunmen while traveling in North Kivu.[320]
20 April 2021	Idriss Déby, 6th President of Chad, is killed while commanding forces against rebels during the Insurgency in Northern Chad, and is succeeded by transitional president and military general, Mahamat Kaka.[321]
6 May 2021	Mohamed Nasheed, Speaker of the Maldivian People's Majlis, is wounded in an explosion alleged by Maldivian authorities to have been conducted by religious extremists.[322]
7 July 2021	Jovenel Moïse, 43rd President of Haiti, is killed by gunmen at his private residence. First Lady Martine Moïse is severely wounded.[323]
15 October 2021	David Amess, British Conservative Party MP, is killed by an Islamic terrorist during a constituency surgery.[324]
7 November 2021	Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister of Iraq, survives a drone attack that injures six in his security detail.[325]
3 February 2022	Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 2nd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed in Atme during a counter-terrorism raid by U.S. special forces in north-western Syria.[326]
8 June 2022	Brett Kavanaugh, a United States Supreme Court Justice, is the target of an assassination plot in which the alleged assassin was motivated by a leaked Supreme Court decision that was poised to overrule Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed abortion as a right.[327]
8 July 2022	Shinzo Abe, former prime minister of Japan, is killed while giving a campaign speech by a former navy sailor who held a grudge against the South Korean-based Unification Church.[328]
31 July 2022	Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the Salafi-jihadist group al-Qaeda, is killed by a drone strike conducted by the US-based CIA in Kabul, Afghanistan.[329]
12 August 2022	Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British-American novelist, is stabbed multiple times as he is about to give a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, New York, United States. Rushdie has been the subject of a fatwā written by Supreme Leader of Iran Ruhollah Khomeini calling for his death since 1989.[330][331]
1 September 2022	Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, then vice president and former president of Argentina, survives an attempt on her life after the assailant's weapon malfunctions.[332]
15 October 2022	Abu al-Hasan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, 3rd Caliph of the Islamic State, is killed by wearing and detonating a suicide vest during battle against Free Syrian Army rebels in the city of Jasim in Daraa Governorate, Syria. He is succeeded by Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi.
28 October 2022	Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is the target of a failed assassination attempt when a man armed with a hammer breaks into her residence. He instead assaults her husband, causing serious injuries as she was not home at the time of the attempt.[333]
3 November 2022	Imran Khan, former prime minister of Pakistan, is shot in the leg while traveling in a convoy in Wazirabad amid anti-government protests.[334]
3 May 2023	Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, is alleged to have been the target of an unsuccessful drone attack on the Kremlin according to Russian authorities. Ukraine, which is at war with Russia, denied responsibility for the attack.[335]
9 August 2023	Fernando Villavicencio, Ecuadorian politician and candidate for President of Ecuador, is shot to death following a campaign event in Quito.[336]
23 August 2023	Key figures in the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, including its founder and leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, are killed in a plane crash widely believed to have been an assassination carried out by the Russian government after an attempted rebellion by Prigozhin earlier in the summer.[337][338]
2 January 2024	South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is stabbed in the neck during a visit to Busan.[339]
3 March 2024	A convoy carrying Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine, and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, in the city of Odesa are targeted by a Russian missile strike that kills at least five people with at least one missile reportedly missing them by 150 meters.[340]
15 May 2024	Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia is shot while meeting with supporters at an event in Handlová.[341]
13 July 2024	Donald Trump, former president of the United States, is shot at a presidential campaign rally he held near Butler, Pennsylvania.[342]
31 July 2024	Ismail Haniyeh, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is assassinated in Tehran in an attack widely believed to have been conducted by Israel.
15 September 2024	Donald Trump, former President of the United States and Republican Party nominee in the 2024 United States presidential election, is the subject of a second assassination attempt at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, after nearly being killed in Butler, Pennsylvania two months prior.[343]
27 September 2024	Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, is killed in an airstrike by the Israeli Air Force in Beirut.[344]
16 October 2024	Yahya Sinwar, Palestinian political leader of Hamas, is killed in Rafah in a military operation conducted by Israel, two months after the assassination of his predecessor Ismail Haniyeh.
4 December 2024	Brian Thompson, American businessman and CEO of UnitedHealthcare, is shot and killed outside the New York Hilton Midtown hotel in Manhattan, New York City. The suspected assassin, Luigi Mangione, received support and was celebrated, by many online, as a folk hero.[345][346]
16 December 2024	Igor Kirillov, Russian NBC Protection Troops commander Lieutenant-General, is assassinated by a scooter bombing in Moscow.[347]
18 March 2025	Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, the President of Somalia, narrowly survives an assassination attempt by the militant group Al-Shabaab at his presidential palace in Mogadishu.
12 April 2025	Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Prime Minister of Thailand, survived an assassination attempt by an angry man while providing relief to Myanmar earthquake victims during the Songkran festival in Bangkok.
7 June 2025	Miguel Uribe Turbay, Colombian senator and presidential candidate, is shot at a campaign event in Bogotá.[348]
14 June 2025	Melissa and Mark Hortman, a political couple, were assassinated during a series of home invasions and manhunts in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, while State Senator John Hoffman survived an assassination attempt in Champlin.[349]

Disasters

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2020s disasters (23 C) 2020s disasters by country (118 C) 2020s disasters in Africa (37 C) 2020s disasters in Asia (48 C, 1 P) 2020s disasters in Europe (45 C) 2020s disasters in North America (12 C) 2020s disasters in Oceania (13 C) 2020s disasters in South America (19 C) 2020 disasters (17 C) 2021 disasters (18 C) 2022 disasters (17 C, 1 P) 2023 disasters (17 C, 1 P) 2024 disasters (17 C) 2025 disasters (16 C) 2026 disasters (1 C) Attacks in the 2020s (20 C) 2020s explosions (8 C) 2020s fires (14 C) 2020s health disasters (9 C, 3 P) Human stampedes in the 2020s (5 C, 4 P) 2020s industrial disasters (7 C) 2020s natural disasters (18 C, 1 P) Terrorist incidents in the 2020s (16 C) 2020s transport disasters (8 C)

Non-natural disasters

Aviation

Event	Date	Country	Description
Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752	8 January 2020	Iran	Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down shortly after take-off from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, Tehran, by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who claimed to have mistaken it for a cruise missile. All 176 people on board were killed.[350]
Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303	22 May 2020	Pakistan	Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 crashed into a neighborhood in Karachi while attempting to land, killing 97 of the 99 people on board plus 1 person on the ground.[351]
Sriwijaya Air Flight 182	9 January 2021	Indonesia	Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after take-off from Soekarno–Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, killing all 62 people on board.[352][353]
China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735	21 March 2022	China	China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 crashed into the ground near Wuzhou mid-flight, killing all 132 people on board.[354][355]
Yeti Airlines Flight 691	15 January 2023	Nepal	Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashed into a gorge while attempting to land in Pokhara, killing all 72 people on board.[356]
Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283	9 August 2024	Brazil	Voepass Linhas Aéreas Flight 2283 crashed in a residential area near Vinhedo, São Paulo, killing all 62 people on board.[357]
Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243	25 December 2024	Kazakhstan	Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed while attempting an emergency landing near Aqtau International Airport, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.[358]
Jeju Air Flight 2216	29 December 2024	South Korea	Jeju Air Flight 2216 crashed into a fence while attempting to land at Muan International Airport, killing 179 of the 181 people on board.[359]
American Eagle Flight 5342	29 January 2025	United States	American Eagle Flight 5342 collides with a Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk mid-air while approaching Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 67 people on board both aircraft.[360]
Air India Flight 171	12 June 2025	India	Air India Flight 171 crashes shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad Airport, killing 241 of the 242 people on board plus 28 people on the ground.[361]

Wreckage of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in Shahriar County, Iran

The crash site of China Eastern Airlines Flight 5735 in Wuzhou, China

Aftermath of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in Muan International Airport, Jeju, South Korea

Destroyed buildings aftermath of Air India Flight 171 in Ahmedabad, India

General

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020 Beirut explosion	4 August 2020	Lebanon	A massive explosion occurred in the port of Beirut. The blast was so loud that it was even reported to be heard in Cyprus, which is approximately 240 km from the location of the explosion.[362] The windows of major buildings in a 6-mile radius were shattered and roads were filled with debris. According to initial findings, it was estimated that a warehouse with 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded, which was confiscated by the Lebanese government from the abandoned ship MV Rhosus and then stored in the port without proper safety measures for six years.[363] 220 deaths were confirmed, more than 110 people were missing and at least 7,000 were reported injured.[364] Beirut governor Marwan Abboud estimated that up to 300,000 people were left homeless by the explosions and there was $10–15 billion USD in property damage.
Surfside condominium collapse	24 June 2021	United States	A 12-story beachfront condominium in the Miami suburb of Surfside, Florida, partially collapsed. As of 22 July 2021, a total of 98 people are confirmed to have died, while 11 were injured.[365] One person was rescued from the rubble, and about 35 people were rescued on 24 June from the uncollapsed portion of the building, which was demolished 11 days later as a safety precaution due to the approach of Hurricane Elsa. On 7 July, authorities announced that the objective of the search was transitioning from rescue to recovery and that the missing victims are presumed dead.
2022 Yerevan explosion	14 August 2022	Armenia	A large explosion took place in the Surmalu shopping centre in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. It caused widespread destruction and fire, leaving dozens of dead and injured.[366] The explosion killed 16 people and injured 63, with nine missing as of 20 August.[367][368]
2023 Tempi train crash	28 February 2023	Greece	Two trains collide near the south of the Tempe Valley in Greece killing at least 57 people. It is the deadliest rail disaster in Greek history. As a result, Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis resigned, while various protests took place across the country.[369]
Destruction of the Kakhovka Dam	6 June 2023	Ukraine	Russian invasion of Ukraine: The Nova Kakhovka dam in the Russian-controlled region of Kherson is destroyed, threatening the region with devastating floodwaters.[370][371]
Titan Submersible Implosion	18 June 2023	Canada	A submersible by Ocean Gate, carrying five occupants, notably, Shahzada Dawood, Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, imploded, after an expedition to explore the Titanic's ruins. The incident was widely reported in the news and caused multiple investigations and one lawsuit. Ocean Gate suspended all its commercial operations after the implosion.[372][373][374]
Derna dam collapses	10 – 11 September 2023	Libya	The Derna dam collapses were the catastrophic failures of two dams in Derna, Libya on the night of 10–11 September 2023, in the aftermath of Storm Daniel. The dam collapses released an estimated 30 million m3 (39 million cu yd) of water, causing flooding downstream as the Wadi Derna overflowed its banks. The floods partially destroyed the city of Derna. Estimates for the number of casualties range from 5,300 to 20,000 people. The event was the second-deadliest dam failure in history, after the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure in China.[375][376][377][378]

Natural disasters

See also: Category:2020s natural disasters

Earthquakes and tsunamis

Main articles: List of earthquakes in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

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

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020 Caribbean earthquake	28 January 2020	CARICOM, multiple countries	A 7.7Mw  struck in the Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and Cuba at 14:10 local time on 28 January 2020. The earthquake was also felt in the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic, and the Cayman Islands. No damages were reported. A small (12.2 cm) tsunami was reported in the Cayman Islands.[379][380]
2020 Aegean Sea earthquake	30 October 2020	Greece Turkey	A 7.0 Mw  earthquake occurred about 14 km (8.7 mi) northeast of the Greek island of Samos, causing 119 deaths.[381]
2021 West Sulawesi earthquake	15 January 2021	Indonesia	A 6.2 Mw  earthquake struck the Indonesian province of West Sulawesi, killing a minimum of 105 people.[382]
2021 Haiti earthquake	14 August 2021	Haiti	A 7.2 Mw  earthquake struck Haiti on 14 August 2021, resulting in at least 2,207 deaths.[383]
June 2022 Afghanistan earthquake	22 June 2022	Afghanistan Pakistan	A 6.2 Mw  earthquake struck southeastern Afghanistan, killing at least 1,163 people, with 1,150 in Afghanistan and 13 in Pakistan. The earthquake was so deadly because it hit a densely populated area with buildings too weak to resist earthquakes.[384]
2022 West Java earthquake	21 November 2022	Indonesia	A 5.6 Mw  earthquake struck Indonesia in West Java, near Cianjur, killing 335–635 people, despite its moderate magnitude.[385]
2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake	6 February 2023	Syria Turkey	A 7.8 Mw  earthquake struck the Border Region of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 60,000 people and injuring more than 180,000 people.[386][387] It is also one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded in Turkey since the 1999 İzmit earthquake.[388]
2023 Marrakesh-Safi earthquake	8 September 2023	Morocco	A 6.8 Mww – 6.9 Mw  earthquake struck the Marrakesh-Safi region of Morocco. 2,960 people killed and 5,674 injured.[389]
2023 Herat earthquakes	7–15 October 2023	Afghanistan	Four 6.3 Mww earthquakes struck Herat Province in western Afghanistan between 7–15 October 2023, killing 1,489 people and injuring 1,853 others, while 485 remain missing.[390]
2024 Noto earthquake	1 January 2024	Japan	A 7.5 Mw (7.6 MJMA) earthquake struck the Noto Peninsula of Japan, killing at least 202 people and injuring at least 665 others.[391]
2024 Hualien earthquake	3 April 2024	Taiwan	A 7.4 Mw earthquake struck 18 km (11 mi) south-southwest of Hualien City, Taiwan, leaving 10 dead and 1,011 injured.[392]
2025 Myanmar earthquake	28 March 2025	Myanmar Thailand	A 7.7 Mw earthquake struck Sagaing Region of Myanmar, with an epicenter close to Mandalay and in neighboring Thailand, leaving more than 5,700 deaths, 630 missing, and 12,300 injured, it became one of the worst earthquakes in Southeast Asia since the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami.[393]
2025 Istanbul earthquake	23 April 2025	Turkey	A 6.4 Mw earthquake struck the Marmara region including Istanbul, at least 360 injuries and moderate damage was recorded. It was the biggest one to strike the North Anatolian Fault since the 1999 Düzce earthquake, and the most powerful in the Sea of Marmara region since the 1999 İzmit earthquake.[394]
2025 Kamchatka Peninsula earthquake	30 July 2025	Russia	A 8.8 Mw megathrust earthquake struck off the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia. It is the most powerful earthquake recorded since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan.[395][396]

An earthquake-damaged building in Antakya, Turkey in February 2023

The Imi N'Tala village was heavily destroyed by the Marrakesh-Safi earthquake in September 2023.

Aftermath of the earthquake at Wajima morning market in January 2024.

An earthquake-damaged buildings in Mandalay, Myanmar in March 2025.

Tropical cyclones

Main articles: Tropical cyclones in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

Event	Date	Country	Description
Cyclone Amphan	16–21 May 2020	Bangladesh Bhutan India Sri Lanka Myanmar	128 people were killed and millions made homeless in the strongest storm in two decades. Damage was estimated at US$13.2 billion.[397]
Hurricane Laura	20–29 August 2020	United States Haiti Dominican Republic Cuba Cayman Islands Guadeloupe Saba Sint Eustatius Sint Maarten	Hurricane Laura was a deadly and destructive Category 4 hurricane that, along with 1856's Last Island and 2021's Ida, was the strongest hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana, based on maximum wind strength. "Laura" first hit the Lesser Antilles as a tropical storm, striking Puerto Rico, then moved across the island of Hispaniola, killing 31 people in Haiti and nine in the Dominican Republic. "Laura" caused widespread devastation along most of its track: Tropical-storm-force winds passed over nearly all of the Antilles islands; hurricane-force and tropical-storm-force winds struck parts of Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Arkansas; and much of the storm's track was affected by flooding rain and storm surge. Damage is estimated at more than $19.1 billion,[398][399] and at least 81 people were killed, including 30 in Louisiana and 10 in Texas alone, making "Laura" the 16th costliest hurricane ever. With estimated agricultural losses of $1.6 billion, "Laura" caused more agricultural damage in Louisiana than Hurricanes Katrina and Rita combined.
Tropical Storm Linfa	6–12 October 2020	Vietnam Cambodia Laos Philippines Myanmar Thailand	Tropical Storm Linfa was a weak, short-lived, but deadly and destructive tropical cyclone. It was the 12th wettest tropical cyclone on record and the second of nine consecutive tropical cyclones to strike Vietnam in 2020, barely a month after the less damaging Tropical Storm Noul. "Linfa" brought record-breaking rainfall totals to much of the Indochinese peninsula. 112 people died in Vietnam, and 24 are missing. Another 25 people died in Cambodia, and Laos had one death and three missing.
Typhoon Vamco (Ulysses)	8–15 November 2020	Philippines Vietnam Laos Thailand Cambodia	102 people were killed, and the typhoon contributed to the 2020 Central Vietnam Floods. Damages totaled up to US$440.8 million.
Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota	31 October – 18 November 2020	Nicaragua Honduras	A total of 278+ people were killed during both Hurricane Eta and Hurricane Iota in Nicaragua and Honduras. Damages totaled up to US$9.3 billion from both hurricanes.
Cyclone Seroja	3–12 April 2021	Indonesia East Timor Australia	Severe tropical cyclone Seroja was the third deadliest tropical cyclone in the Australian region, after Cyclone Mahina in 1899 and the Flores Cyclone in 1973. Seroja caused flooding and landslides on a historic scale in parts of southern Indonesia and East Timor, and later made landfall in the Mid West region of Western Australia – the first cyclone to make landfall since Cyclone Elaine in 1999. At least 272 people were killed by the storm, including 183 in Indonesia, 42 in East Timor and one in Australia. At least 72 people from Indonesia and 30 from East Timor are missing.
Cyclone Tauktae	14–19 May 2021	India Pakistan Sri Lanka Maldives	This category-4 cyclone hit the western coast of India. 174 total fatalities recorded (all countries). Damages totaled up to US$2.12 billion. Other countries affected were Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
Hurricane Ida	26 August – 4 September 2021	United States Venezuela Cuba Colombia Jamaica Canada Cayman Islands	107 people were killed by "Ida", of which 87 people were killed in the United States and 20 people were killed in Venezuela. The damage amounted to up to $50 billion.
Typhoon Rai (Odette)	12–22 December 2021	Philippines Vietnam Indonesia Micronesia Palau Hong Kong Macau China Taiwan	Typhoon Rai, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, was the second most severe typhoon in Philippine history after Typhoon Haiyan in 2013. Rai was a strong, rare tropical cyclone that struck the Philippines in December 2021. Rai was the first category 5 super typhoon since Nock-ten in 2016 to develop in December, and the third category 5 super typhoon recorded in the South China Sea, following Pamela in 1954 and Rammasun in 2014. Several southern provinces in the Philippines were inundated and devastated by the typhoon. A total of 410 people died + 80 missing, of which a full 409 died in the Philippines and only 1 died in Vietnam. The damage amounts to up to $720 million.[400]
Tropical Storm Ana	20–25 January 2022	Madagascar Malawi Mozambique Mauritius South Africa Zambia Zimbabwe	Moderate Tropical Storm Ana was a deadly tropical cyclone that struck the African nations of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique + others and was the third deadliest tropical cyclone of 2022. It resulted in 142 deaths, with Madagascar being the hardest hit with 58 deaths due to flooding caused by "Ana", Malawi with 37 deaths + 22 missing, and Mozambique with 20 deaths.
Cyclone Batsirai	24 January – 11 February 2022	Madagascar Mauritius Réunion	Intense Tropical Cyclone Batsirai was a deadly tropical cyclone that hit Madagascar hard in February 2022 and was the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Madagascar since Cyclone Enawo in 2017. It hit the country two weeks after Tropical Storm Ana brought deadly flooding to the island nation in late January. The storm also caused damage in Mauritius and Réunion, but the damage was relatively minor. 123 deaths – 121 in Madagascar and 2 in Mauritius – were reported as a result of Batsirai. Batsirai brought severe damage that significantly affected power supply and communications in the affected areas. Entire towns were devastated, and thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed. At least 112,000 people were displaced and 124,000 homes damaged by Batsirai. The same areas were hit by an even stronger Cyclone Freddy less than a year later.
Tropical Storm Megi (Agaton)	8–12 April 2022	Philippines	Tropical Storm Megi, known in the Philippines as Tropical Storm Agaton, was a weak but deadly tropical cyclone that struck the Philippines in April 2022. Heavy rains and storms led to the sinking of two ships. Large landslides pushed mud over villages in Leyte, burying about 210 homes. The Philippines' National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported 214 dead, 132 missing, and 8 injured.
Hurricane Ian	23 September – 2 October 2022	Cuba United States	157 people killed with 16 unaccounted for across both the United States and Cuba. The entire nation of Cuba lost power and millions lost power in the United States. The NOAA estimated total damage to be US$113 billion.
Tropical Storm Nalgae (Paeng)	26 October – 3 November 2022	Philippines Hong Kong Macau China	Severe Tropical Storm Nalgae, known in the Philippines as Severe Tropical Storm Paeng, was a very large and deadly tropical cyclone that wreaked havoc in the Philippines and later hit Hong Kong and Macau. 160 people were killed, 141 others were wounded, and 29 people are still missing as a result of the landslides and flooding caused by Nalgae in the Philippines. Meanwhile, there was only 1 person injured in Hong Kong.
Cyclone Freddy	4 February – 15 March 2023	Eswatini Madagascar Malawi Mauritius Mozambique Réunion South Africa Zambia Zimbabwe	Cyclone Freddy was the longest-lasting tropical cyclone in history, surpassing the previous record set by Hurricane John in 1994. In total, more than 1,434 people died + 556 went missing, with Malawi worst hit with 1,216 dead + 537 missing, followed by Mozambique with 198 dead, Madagascar with 17 dead + 3 missing, Zimbabwe with 2 dead, and Mauritius with 1 dead + 16 missing. Overall, "Freddy" was the second deadliest tropical cyclone in the southwestern Indian Ocean and third deadliest in the Southern Hemisphere.
Cyclone Mocha	9–15 May 2023	Myanmar Bangladesh Sri Lanka India China	Cyclone Mocha was a powerful and deadly tropical cyclone that caused between 152 and 463 deaths and widespread destruction, primarily in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Storm Daniel	4–12 September 2023	Libya Greece Turkey Bulgaria Egypt Israel	Storm Daniel, also known as Cyclone Daniel, was the deadliest and costliest Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone in recorded history. "Storm Daniel" resulted in thousands of Deaths, most notably in the Libyan city of Derna, where torrential rains caused two dams near the city of Derna to fail.
Hurricane Helene	24-29 September 2024	Mexico Honduras Cuba United States	Hurricane Helene was a deadly and destructive tropical cyclone which devastated parts of the southeastern United States, causing at least 219 deaths and US$78.7 billion in damage.
Hurricane Milton	5–12 October 2024	Mexico Cuba The Bahamas United States	Hurricane Milton was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone which became the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico, tied with Hurricane Rita in 2005. Total damage was estimated to be US$34.3 billion.

Tornadoes

Main articles: Tornadoes of 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

See also: List of F4 and EF4 tornadoes (2020–present)

Event	Date	Country	Description
2021 South Moravia tornado	24 June 2021	Czech Republic	A small but significant tornado outbreak swept across the Czech Republic on 24 June, resulting in the strongest ever documented tornado in modern Czech history and the deadliest European tornado since 2001.[401][402]
Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021	10—11 December 2021	United States	Tornado activity swept the southern and midwestern United States in the evening of 10 December through the following morning. Arkansas, Missouri, and Kentucky suffered extensive damage.[403]
Tornado outbreak of March 13–16, 2025	13—16 March 2025	United States	43 people were killed across the Midwestern and southern United States as 116 tornadoes moved through the regions. The tornado was the largest ever in March and one of the deadliest in the 2020s.[404] It was also one of the costliest in United States history.[405]

Floods, avalanches, and mudslides

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

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020 Neelum Valley avalanche	January 2020	Pakistan	At least 74 people were killed and several others injured in the Neelum Valley in Azad Kashmir, Pakistan, after a series of avalanches triggered by heavy snowfall destroyed and buried 84 homes and 17 shops, while dozens of other buildings were damaged.
2020 Van avalanches	4–5 February 2020	Turkey	Two avalanches in Turkey's eastern Van Province resulted in 41 deaths and 84 injuries.
2020 East Africa floods	March – May 2020	Kenya Rwanda Democratic Republic of the Congo Ethiopia Somalia Uganda Djibouti Burundi Tanzania	Severe flooding in 9 African countries caused more than 450 deaths and affected more than 700,000 people, mainly in Kenya and Rwanda.
2020 Nepal floods	June – September 2020	Nepal	The rainy season and associated flooding, which has killed more than 400 people, has been described by some in Nepal as the deadliest in recent memory.
2021 European floods	12–25 July 2021	European Union	Heavy flooding, particularly in river basins of western and central Europe, killed some 243 people and left €10 billion in damage.
2021 Henan floods	17–31 July 2021	China	Following the highest-ever recorded rainfall in Zhengzhou, Henan Province in China, between 300 and 400 deaths along with over 800,000 people having to evacuate.
2021 Maharashtra floods	22 July 2021 – August 2021	India	Over 250 deaths were reported in the Indian state of Maharashtra after heavy rainfall in the area.
2022 Petrópolis floods	15 February 2022	Brazil	Intense rainfall led to mudslides and flooding on 15 February, that destroyed parts of the city of Petrópolis in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro and killed more than 230 people.
2022 KwaZulu-Natal floods	8–21 April 2022	South Africa	Flooding in the province of KwaZuku-Natal in South Africa leads to over 400 deaths.
2022 Afghanistan floods	5 May 2022 – August 2022	Afghanistan	Several provinces of Afghanistan were affected by severe flooding beginning in May, which claimed more than 600 lives.
2022 India-Bangladesh floods	23 May 2022 – present	India Bangladesh	Deadly floods have been hitting northeastern India and Bangladesh since May 2022, killing more than 250 people and affecting 9 million people in both countries.
2022 Pakistan floods	14 June 2022 – October 2022	Pakistan	Floods in Pakistan have killed more than 1,000 people since June.
2022 Nigeria floods	May – October 2022	Nigeria	With more than 600 dead, the 2022 floods were the worst in the country since the floods in 2012.
2023 Africa floods	March 2023 – present	Angola Cameroon Democratic Republic of Congo Ethiopia Kenya Madagascar Rwanda Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Tanzania Uganda	Since March, more than 776 people have died in severe floods in several African countries. The worst hit were the Democratic Republic of Congo, with over 440 dead + over 2,500 missing, and Rwanda, with at least 135 dead.
2024 Spanish floods	29 October – 3 November 2024	Spain	A cold drop causes torrential rains in eastern Spain, causing flooding in the Valencian Community, Castilla-La Mancha, and Andalusia. Over a year of precipitation amounts was dropped over Spain, causing 219 deaths with 93 people still missing and widespread substantial damage to buildings and streets.

CNS video report of the floods depicting Henan Province, China

Aftermath of the Spanish floods at Sedaví, Horta Sud in October 2024.

Volcanic eruptions

Event	Date	Country	Description
2020–2022 Taal Volcano eruptions	January 2020; July 2021; November 2021; March 2022	Philippines	On 12 January the Taal Volcano in the Philippines erupted at VEI 4 intensity, bringing intense ashfall to the surrounding areas and killing at least 3 people.[citation needed]
2021 Cumbre Vieja volcanic eruption	19 September 2021 – 13 December 2021	Spain	On 19 September the Cumbre Vieja volcano located in the La Palma island erupted.[406]
2021 Semeru eruption	4 December 2021	Indonesia	The collapse of an unstable lava dome on the summit of Semeru due to heavy rainfall triggered large pyroclastic flows, killing 48, injuring over 100 and leaving 23 missing.[407]
2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption and tsunami	15 January 2022	Tonga	The Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcano in the South Pacific erupted violently on 15 January, causing tsunamis to hit Hawaii, Japan and Tonga's largest island, Tongatapu, and sent waves flooding into Nukuʻalofa. Tonga finally disqualified in the FIFA World Cup. It was the largest volcanic eruption of the 21st century.[408]

Droughts, heat waves, and wildfires

Main page: Category:2020s wildfires

Main articles: Wildfires in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025

Event	Date	Region	Description
2018–2021 Southern African drought	October 2018 – October 2021	South Africa	An ongoing period of drought began in the country of South Africa in late October 2018 and continued into early 2021, negatively affecting food security in the region.
2019–20 Australian bushfire season	June 2019 – May 2020	Australia	Unusually intense bushfires in Australia continued into 2020, having started in September 2019.[409]
2020 Western U.S. Wildfires	March – December 2020	United States	Record-breaking wildfires began in several Western American states.
2020 Argentine wildfires (Delta del Paraná)	July 2020 – October 2020	Argentina	Sudden wildfires started in Córdoba and extended into several Northern provinces.
2021 Russian heatwave	May – June 2021	Russia	Parts of Russia and eastern Europe were hit by a record-breaking heat wave in May and June 2021, with temperatures in the Arctic Circle above 30 °C and the highest temperatures recorded in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
2021 Western North America heat wave	June – July 2021	United States Canada	Extreme temperatures caused by a prolonged heat dome over western Canada and the western United States killed over 613 people including over 480 people in British Columbia alone. The village of Lytton, British Columbia, which recorded the highest temperatures in Canada, was destroyed by a large wildfire as over 200 other ones devastated wide areas of the province. Wildfires in parts of the western coastal states of the US such as Washington, Oregon and California were also greatly worsened by the heatwave.
2021 Turkey wildfires	July – August 2021	Turkey	Over a hundred wildfires began in the Mediterranean Region of the forest in Turkey, the worst in the country for at least a decade. The wildfires started in Manavgat, Antalya on 28 July 2021, with the temperature around 37 °C (99 °F).
2020–2023 North American drought	August 2020 – October 2023	United States Canada Mexico	Drought developed in the Western, Midwestern and Northeastern United States in the summer of 2020. Over the course of 2021, conditions improved in the Northeast but worsened in the Western US. As of June 2021, 97% of the region was facing abnormally dry conditions. By August 2021, parts of the upper Midwestern US were experiencing some of the worst drought spells since the 1980s. Drought also affected a wide area of Mexico as of 2021, as well as the prairies of Canada.
2022 European heat waves	June – September 2022	European Union	From mid-June through most of the summer, heat waves affected most of Europe, with western and central Europe the worst hit. Temperatures in excess of 40 °C (104 °F) were recorded in places, breaking records. Over 24,000 deaths were attributed to the event, most in France, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Portugal. The heat waves contributed to wildfires and drought also seen in Europe.[410]
2022 European and Mediterranean wildfires	May – September 2022	European Union Algeria Morocco Tunisia	Wildfires across Europe, North Africa and the Mediterranean region.[411]
2022 European drought	July – September 2022	European Union	Europe's worst drought year in 500 years.[412] A report from the Global Drought Observatory confirmed this.[413]
2023 Canadian wildfires	March – November 2023	Canada	The 2023 wildfire season is the worst wildfire season in Canada's modern history.
2023 Hawaii wildfires	8 – 16 August 2023	United States	Wind-driven fires caused widespread damage on the island of Maui, and killed at least 111 people in the town of Lāhainā.[414]
2023 Greece wildfires	17 July – 9 September 2023	Greece	Over 80 fires in Greece led to the deaths of at least 28 and the evacuation of 20,000 people.
2025 Southern California wildfires	7 – 31 January 2025	United States	Wildfires have affected Greater Los Angeles and surrounding regions.
Ōfunato wildfire	26 February – 10 March 2025	Japan	Wildfires have affected Iwate Prefecture and surrounding regions.
2025 South Korea wildfires	21 March – 18 May 2025	South Korea	Wildfires have affected central and southern locations, it has been worst wildfires in history.
2025 Northeast Thailand wildfires	26 March – 6 May 2025	Thailand	Wildfires have affected Isan regional provinces such as Udon Thani, Nong Bua Lamphu, Kalasin, and Khon Kaen provinces.
2025 Israel fires	30 April – 3 May 2025	Israel	Wildfires have affected around Jerusalem, in at least 100 different locations through the Judean Mountains area.

Biological disasters

Event	Date	Country	Description
2022 Oder environmental disaster	July – August 2022	Poland Germany	A mass fish kill occurs in the river Oder in Poland and Germany attributed to an algal bloom.

Other natural events

Beginning in 2019 until 2022, a huge swarm of desert locusts threatened to engulf massive portions of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.^{[415][416][417][418][419][420]}

Economics

Main article: 2020s in economic history

The 2020s were marked economic troubles, beginning from the COVID-19 recession was a major global economic crisis which has caused both a recession in some nations, and in others a depression. It is currently the worst global economic crisis in history, surpassing the impact of the Great Depression. The economic crisis began due to the economic consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The first major sign of a recession was the collapse of markets during the 2020 stock market crash, which began in late February and lasted through March.^[421]

A worldwide increase in inflation began in mid-2021, with many countries seeing their highest inflation rates in decades. It has been attributed to various causes, including pandemic-related economic dislocation; the fiscal and monetary stimulus provided in 2020 and 2021 by governments and central banks around the world in response to the pandemic were also instrumental.^[422][423]

US President Donald Trump announced 2 April 2025 to be "liberation day", beginning to enforce tariffs on numerous nations in the following week. This triggered an ongoing economic trade war as well as the 2025 stock market crash. It is currently the largest decline in the global stock market since the 2020 stock market crash, which was part of a recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.^{[424][425][426]}

Trade

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%).^[427] Regional trade agreements were also found to be increasing.^[428]

Health

Epidemics/Outbreaks

Event	Date	Infections and deaths	Description
2022–2023 mpox outbreak	6 May 2022 – 11 May 2023	86,494 confirmed cases and 280 deaths in 109 countries and territories reported by 26 March 2023.[429]	First international outbreak cluster detected on 6 May 2022 in London, UK. Declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO from 23 July 2022 to 11 May 2023.

Pandemics

Event	Date	Infections and deaths	Description
COVID-19 pandemic	2019 – 2023[430][431]	678.1 million+ confirmed cases and 6.7 million+ deaths with more than 240 countries and territories reported by 16 February 2023.[432]	First confirmed case detected on 17 November 2019 in Wuhan, China. Declared a public health emergency of international concern by WHO from 30 January 2020 to 5 May 2023.
HIV/AIDS	1981 – present	37.9 million people living with HIV (end of 2018), 24.5 million people accessing antiretroviral therapy (end of June 2019), 32.0 million deaths from AIDS-related illnesses since the start of the epidemic (end 2018).[433]

Science and technology

Main article: 2020s in science and technology

Spaceflight

See also: 2020s in spaceflight

The trend towards cost reduction in access to orbit is expected to continue. Vulcan is replacing its more expensive predecessors. Since 2023, SpaceX is testing its fully reusable Starship with orbital missions. In 2024, Blue Origin plans the maiden flight of New Glenn with a reusable first stage and Ariane 6 is expected to replace the retired more expensive Ariane 5.

Mars stays a focus for missions to other planets, with three missions launched in 2020 (by China, the United Arab Emirates and the United States) and at least one mission planned for 2024, 2026 and 2028.

In 2028, as part of the NASA-ESA Mars Sample Return mission, NASA plans to launch a Sample Retrieval Lander. In 2027, ESA plans to launch the Earth Return Orbiter, which will transport the retrieved samples from Mars to Earth by 2033. China is also planning to retrieve samples from Mars by 2031.^[434]

NASA plans a return of humans to the Moon by 2025. The first uncrewed launch of the Space Launch System happened in 2022.^[435] The first crewed launch is planned for September 2025.^[436] In addition NASA plans to assemble the Lunar Gateway in lunar orbit. A crewed exploration of Mars could follow in the mid 2030s. SpaceX, a private company, has also announced plans to land humans on Mars in the 2020s, with the long-term goal of enabling the colonization of Mars.

India plans to launch its first crewed flight with a spacecraft called Gaganyaan on a home-grown GSLV Mark III rocket in 2025. The mission would make India the fourth nation to launch a crewed spaceflight after Russia, the US and China. India also plans to launch its second Mars probe, Mars Orbiter Mission 2 (Mangalyaan 2).

The James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021. NASA plans to launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, which will have a field of view 100 times larger than that of the Hubble Space Telescope, between October 2026 and May 2027.^{[437][438][439]}

NASA's NEO Surveyor, scheduled to launch no later than June 2028,^[440] is expected to be capable of detecting at least 90% of near-Earth objects larger than 140 meters (460 ft), a goal mandated by the US Congress in 2005.^[441]

The number of small satellites launched annually was expected to grow to around one thousand (2018 estimate), mainly communication satellites in large constellations^[442] but launches quickly exceeded this estimate, mainly due to the rapid deployment of the Starlink and OneWeb constellations. From 2020 to 2022, around 3500 Starlink satellites^[443] and 500 satellites by OneWeb^[444] were launched.

The number of total satellites reached 10,000 for the first time in 2024.^[445]

Artificial intelligence

The AI boom emerged in the 2020s. Generative AI such as Text-to-image models and AI chatbots released publicly. Machine learning systems that took minute(s) to produce blurry images in mid 2022 were able to produce more realistic imagery in seconds by mid 2023. English text would appear as gibberish in earlier AI text-to-image builds, although this was fixed to an extent with newer AI models such as DALL-E 3.

The AI boom^[446][447] is an ongoing period of rapid progress in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) that started in the late 2010s before gaining international prominence in late 2022 with the public release of ChatGPT and DeepSeek in early 2025.^[448] Examples include large language models and generative AI applications developed by OpenAI as well as protein folding prediction led by Google DeepMind. This period is sometimes referred to as an AI spring, to contrast it with previous AI winters.^[449][450]

• DeepMind solves the protein folding problem to 90 percent accuracy, a 50-year-old grand challenge, at CASP14 in 2020.^[451][452]
• Text-to-image AI art systems^{[broken anchor]} such as DALL-E (1, 2, and 3) and Stable Diffusion are capable of generating highly detailed and realistic images from text prompts.
• Large language models, like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Meta's Llama became widely adopted in 2023 and 2024.^[453]
• In early 2024, OpenAI released a new technology called Sora (text-to-video model), a video model generates short video clips based on user prompts, and can also extend existing short videos. Sora was released publicly for ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Pro users in December 2024. This has revolutionized the video industry, since this machine generates videos in shorter time, leading to more companies adopting AI videos, with Coca-Cola Christmas commercial being the first one to do so.^[454][455]

Communications and electronics

• 5G became increasingly widespread during the decade.
• By 2020, 3D printing had reached decent quality and affordable pricing which allowed many people to own 3D printers.
• 8K resolution and 4K resolution becomes prevalent in consumer electronics.

Software and electronic platforms

• Support for Adobe Flash Player ended on 31 December 2020.
• Windows 11 is released on 5 October 2021, succeeding Windows 10.
• Support for Internet Explorer on Windows 10 Semi-Annual Channel (SAC) ended on 15 June 2022.
• ESU support for Windows 7 and extended support for Windows 8.1 and Windows RT ended on 10 January 2023. Some versions of Windows 10, such as Windows 10 2106 LTSB are already out of mainstream support, some versions are out of all support, and others soon on, i.e. October 14, 2025, while some Enterprise versions will be supported longer.

Technology

• 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".^[456]
• Sales of electric vehicles has grown significantly and this is expected to continue through the decade.^[457]
• NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days. The NFT market experienced rapid growth during 2020, with its value tripling to US$250 million.^[458] In the first three months of 2021, more than US$200 million were spent on NFTs,^[459] and in the early months of 2021, interest in NFTs increased after a number of high-profile sales and art auctions.^[460] However, by 2022 this market was in the process of rapid collapse.^[461] A report in September 2023 concluded that 95% of collected NFTs now possess zero market value, and that "79% of all NFT collections remain unsold".^[462]

Society

Main article: 2020s in social history

Social effects of the COVID-19 pandemic

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 would 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 jobs deemed essential during the crisis, such as supermarkets and elder care. 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. Midlife crisis is a major concern in domestic violence, social implications and suicides for middle-aged adults amid the pandemic. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for a domestic violence and midlife crisis "ceasefire".

Population

• The population of Egypt reached 100 million in February 2020.^[463]
• The world population reached 8 billion in November 2022.^[464]
• Population growth, life expectancy and birth rates declined globally in the early 2020s, driven by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[465]
• India surpassed China and became the most-populous country in April 2023.^[466]

Gender

Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin were two female prime ministers in Scandinavia who guided their countries' ascensions into NATO.

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.^[467]

Many states swore in their first female leaders during the 2020s, including Presidents Katerina Sakellaropoulou (Greece), Samia Suluhu Hassan (Tanzania), Sandra Mason (Barbados), Xiomara Castro (Honduras), Katalin Novák (Hungary), Dina Boluarte (Peru), Nataša Pirc Musar (Slovenia), Gordana Siljanovska-Davkova (North Macedonia) and Prime Ministers Rose Christiane Raponda (Gabon), Victoire Tomegah Dogbé (Togo), Kaja Kallas (Estonia), Fiamē Naomi Mata'afa (Samoa), Robinah Nabbanja (Uganda), Najla Bouden (Tunisia), Magdalena Andersson (Sweden), Giorgia Meloni (Italy), Judith Suminwa (DRC), and Chairwoman Borjana Krišto (Bosnia and Herzegovina).^[468]

Environmentalism

• Team Seas is an international collaborative fundraiser founded by YouTubers Mark Rober and MrBeast on 29 October 2021, as a follow-up to Team Trees. The fundraiser's aim was to raise US$30 million to remove 30 million pounds of trash from the ocean by the end of the year. They also partnered with the Ocean Cleanup and the Ocean Conservancy.
• Members of the United Nations agree on a legal framework for the High Seas Treaty on 4 March 2023, which aims to protect 30% of the world's oceans by 2030.

LGBT rights

• A law allowing third gender option on driver licenses took effect in New Hampshire.^[469]
• 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.^[470]
• In Northern Ireland, the first same-sex marriage took place after legalizing legislation took effect in January 2020.^[471][472]
• In Costa Rica, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 26 May 2020.
• The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that job discrimination against workers for their sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal.^[473]
• In Argentina, nonbinary ID cards with an "X" gender marker started to be issued by the Ministry of the Interior.
• The U.S State Department issued its first ever passport with an "X" gender marker in October 2021, intended to support nonbinary people.^[474]
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Switzerland after a 2021 referendum, enforced beginning in July 2022.
• In Chile, same-sex marriage and joint adoption by same-sex couples became legal on 10 March 2022.
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Slovenia on 8 July 2022 after the Constitutional Court of Slovenia ruled that the ban on same-sex marriages violated the national constitution.
• Same-sex marriage became legal in Cuba on 27 September 2022 after the Cuban Family Code referendum passed.
• By October 2022, Mexico City and all Mexican states had legalized same-sex marriage, either by legislation, executive action, or Supreme Court order.^[475]
• On 1 January 2024, same-sex marriage became legal in Estonia.

Global goals and issues

Development in global goals and issues—including goals or progress related to the largest causes of human death—during the decade, according to reports that systematically track, quantify or review associated progress.

As of 2022

• Progress of the Paris Agreement or global climate change mitigation goals
  • The United in Science 2022 report by the WMO, summarizes latest climate science-related updates and assesses recent climate change mitigation progress as "going in the wrong direction".^[476][477]
  • A report by the World Resources Institute assesses the state of nationally determined contributions (NDCs), finding they need to be strengthened by about six times for alignment with what may be enough to reach the Paris Agreement's 1.5 °C goal.^[478][479] The UNFCCC's NDC synthesis report suggests that based on the latest NDCs the carbon budget for a 50% likelihood of limiting warming to 1.5 °C would be used up by around 2032.^{[480][481][482][483]}
  • A Lancet Countdown report publishes data of indicators that show "countries and companies continue to make choices that threaten the health and survival of people in every part of the world". It calls for an immediate, health-centred response at a critical juncture of recovery from crises.^[480][484]
  • The WMO reports atmospheric levels of the three main greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all reached record highs, with methane concentrations showing a record jump in 2021. The WMO Secretary-General concludes that "we are heading in the wrong direction", with time "running out".^[485][486]
  • Climate Action Tracker systematically assesses the state of progress of actions of climate goals in an overview, finding that none of the indicators is on track to reach their 2030 targets, with insufficient speed for six indicators, and well below the required pace for 21, five heading in the wrong direction, and data being insufficient to evaluate the remaining eight.^{[487][488][489]}
  • The UNEP's Emissions Gap Report finds that no credible "pathway" to the 1.5 °C climate goal is in place.^{[490][491][492][493][494]} Similarly, a UNFCCC synthesis about "long-term low-emission development strategies" warns that many net-zero targets "remain uncertain and postpone into the future critical action that needs to take place now".^[495][496]
• Deforestation mitigation goals
  • An annual report by the World Resources Institute shows that tropical regions lost 9.3 million acres of primary old-growth forest in 2021, a decline of 11% from 2020, and about equal to both 2018 and 2019.^[497][498]
  • The Forest Declaration Assessment finds that a drop of only 6.3% in deforestation in 2021 is "leaving the world off track from its goals of ending forest loss by 2030".^{[499][500][501][502]}
• Public health goals
  • The UN's "The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World" report finds that the number of people affected by hunger globally rose by 46 million to 828 million in 2021. 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, an increase of 112 million from 2019.^[503][504]
  • A WHO report indicates collective progress toward a 15% relative reduction in population levels of physical inactivity by 2030 is insufficient and that about 500 million people will develop heart disease, obesity, diabetes or other diseases if they don't increase their physical activity.^[505][506]
• Global budgets and government spending
  • The OECD and IEA report that global public subsidies for fossil fuels almost doubled from 2020 to $700bn in 2021.^[507][508]
• General well-being
  • The Club of Rome, authors of the 1972 The Limits to Growth, and research institutes like the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research publish the "Earth for All" report, concluding that to increase the wellbeing of humanity, addressing rising inequality is key to mitigating related issues such as climate change with many current policies disproportionately burdening lower income groups.^{[509][510][511][512][513]}
• Sustainable Development Goals (other than the above or in general)
  • The only UN report that monitors global progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development indicates the agenda is in "grave danger".^[514][515]
• GDP-alternative progress or sustainable development indices
  • Human Development Index (HDI): the Human Development Report 2021-22 concludes that for the first time, the global HDI value declined for a second year, with living standards declining in 90% of countries.^{[516][517][518]}

Popular culture

• 
  The ninth generation of video game consoles, like PlayStation 5 (pictured) and Xbox Series X, were both released in 2020. Games for PlayStation 5 such as FC 24, The Matrix Awakens, and Overwatch 2 used HyperMotion and Unreal Engine 5 to display more realistic graphics. Grand Theft Auto VI is planned for release on ninth generation consoles in 2026.
• 
  The video-sharing site TikTok became a major influence on pop culture and the music industry in the early 2020s. Short-form videos have increased in viewership through TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts during the decade. TikTok is under an unenforced ban in the United States in 2025, due to national security concerns.
• 
  During COVID-19 and the streaming wars, multiple TV shows and films released on internet streaming services instead of theaters. Squid Game was a global success as a result of the streaming wars that began in the early 2020s, involving many new streaming services. Services such as Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Paramount+ were popular. Pictured above is the cast of Apple TV+'s Ted Lasso.
• 
  AirPods have dominated the wireless headphone market in the early 2020s. Pictured are the base and "Pro" model of AirPods respectively. AirPods allow users to be several feet away from their device via Bluetooth, a technology not seen in wired earbuds of previous decades.
• 
  Flashy multi-colored clothing became a trend in the early 2020s, as did baggier clothing such as hoodies, modeled here by musician Billie Eilish. The 2020s revived and built upon Y2K fashion trends.
• 
  In the 2020s, multiple online food delivery services such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Postmates, Grubhub, and Just Eat Takeaway became popular, becoming popular during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Food delivery robots also became popular in the 2020s and were finally to the point they could be used to deliver food around larger areas such as college campuses.
• 
  Canadian singer the Weeknd was the first artist of the decade to achieve a Billboard number-one single of the year (for the year 2020) with his hit single "Blinding Lights", which was also performed during the Super Bowl LV in 2021.
• 
  Olivia Rodrigo released singles like "Deja Vu" and "Good 4 U", and her debut studio album, Sour, in 2021. Sour was met with critical and commercial success, winning various accolades including three Grammy Awards.
• 
  The use of cryptocurrency became more mainstream in the 2020s, Crypto such as Bitcoin and others were notable. The Staples Center was even renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021. NFTs as a form of digital art emerged in the 2020s, with NFTs such as Everydays: the First 5000 Days.
• 
  5G was introduced in smartphones during the early part of the decade, with the Samsung Galaxy Flip and iPhone 12 smartphones having 5G capabilities. Foldable smartphones also became more popular, although concern grew about the durability of foldable smartphones, as some foldable smartphones have become crinkled / will crease over time. As well, some foldable smartphones break more easily.
• 
  Advancements in AI have been rapid and fast-paced in the 2020s. Generative AIs has become mainstream during the decade, with synthetic media in the form of Text-to-image models, DeepSeek, ChatGPT, and Audio deepfakes. AI techniques have now been used in music, including the Beatles' last song "Now and Then" (2023). Additionally, AI has been used for video creation, such as with Sora.
• 
  The Fourth Industrial Revolution in the 2020s is referred to as industrial change with emerging technologies such as AI, gene editing, and advanced robotics that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds. Automation also continues to take over human jobs. Above is a photo of a Tesla Bot, which Tesla, Inc. hopes to begin selling by 2027.
• 
  Renewable energy sources such as electric vehicles as well as solar- and wind-powered devices to combat global warming became popular during the 2020s. Scooter-sharing systems have become common in the street scene of the 2020s (especially in downtown areas), with Lime becoming popular.
• 
  The early 2020s started with a rise in videoconferencing due to the pandemic, while many educational institutions and workplaces shifted to distance learning and remote work during and after the pandemic. Large-scale video conferencing became a reality and more common during the 2020s.
• 
  Popular Japanese media franchises such as Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Chainsaw Man, Lycoris Recoil, Jujutsu Kaisen, Oshi no Ko, Frieren, Attack on Titan, Spy × Family, Dr. Stone, One Piece, Blue Lock, and Mashle reaching large international audiences and fans used for crossover works during the Reiwa era.
• 
  The decade saw the rise of eco-friendly wooden architecture, such as the Grand Ring by Sou Fujimoto as the symbol of the famous Expo 2025 held in Osaka.
• 
  Summer Olympic Games of the 2020s include Paris in 2024 and Los Angeles in 2028, as well as Tokyo 2020 in 2021 (the first ever Olympic games to be delayed, taking place in 2021 instead of 2020). Winter Olympic Games of the decade included the controversial Beijing in 2022, as well as Milan-Cortina in 2026.
• 
  The 2020s was a more profitable era for movies based on video games. The Super Mario Bros. Movie released in 2023 and surpassed $1 billion, and Nintendo plans to open a group of international theme parks called Super Nintendo World and a Nintendo Museum between 2021 and 2025.
• 
  Apple Vision Pro, which was released in 2024, marks an advancement in spatial computing and mixed reality headsets. The device intends to merge physical and digital environments, overlaying computer graphics on each individual user's real-world environments.
• 
  During the 2020s, the idea of brain implants existed in an early, limited form. The company Neuralink and a research group demonstrated the ability for a monkey to move a computer cursor with neural signals, typing coherent sentences.
• 
  Cloud computing has surged in popularity following and during the global pandemic of 2020. Cloud computing allows for data to be stored in data centers and looked up on any device, rather than the photos, notes, etc. of a device being restricted to just that device.
• 
  The Sustainable Development Goals promotes seventeen interlinked objectives designed to serve as a "shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future". Pictured above is a diagram listing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, which are intended to be completed by the end of the 2020s.
• 
  Social media rebranding occurred during the 2020s, with Facebook, Inc. and Twitter changed its name to Meta Platforms and X (though many people continue to call it Twitter). New social platforms such as Threads and Bluesky also launched.
• 
  Japanese baseball player Shohei Otani became the most popular sports figures during the decade, following the victory of the Los Angeles Dodgers at the 2024 World Series.

Fashion

Main article: 2020s in fashion

The fashion of the early 2020s was characterized by a variety of styles and influences from different eras. During this period, the trend towards individuality and self-expression in clothing continued. Young millennials and Generation Z has witnessed and enjoyed a notable resurgence of fashion styles from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s in the fashion industry. A prominent example of this is the revival of trends such as crop tops, baggy jeans, and elements from the Y2K aesthetic.^[519][520]

Sustainable fashion practices gained significance, with an increased awareness of environmentally friendly materials and production processes. Influences from social media culture were also unmistakable, as influencers and celebrities exerted a strong influence on fashion trends. The popularity of online platforms like Instagram and TikTok contributed to the rapid spread of trends, while simultaneously allowing niche styles and subcultures to flourish.^[521]

Film

Main article: 2020s in film

The highest-grossing films of the decade so far are James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water and Jiaozi's Ne Zha 2.^[522]

The COVID-19 pandemic heavily impacted film releases especially early in the decade, resulting in a drastic drop in box office revenue as well as many films postponing their release or shifting it to a streaming services. Avatar: The Way of Water is the highest-grossing film of the decade so far, and currently the third-highest-grossing film of all time. Other financially successful films at the box office include Top Gun: Maverick, Dune and its sequel Dune: Part Two, and Wicked. Superhero films mostly continued to do well financially, such as most successes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, continuing with its "Multiverse Saga" (accompanied with a series of shows and specials created exclusively on Disney+ which interconnect with the films). Several successful horror films included M3GAN, the X trilogy, and Barbarian.

In 2023, the films Barbie and Oppenheimer were both released on the same day, which led to the creation of the double feature phenomenon known as "Barbenheimer". Both films became critically and commercially successful with the latter winning Best Picture and nabbing Christopher Nolan's first Best Director award.

Critically successful films nominated for awards include Nomadland, CODA, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Hundreds of Beavers, Licorice Pizza, The Fabelmans, Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, Elvis, Belfast, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, The Substance, RRR, The Brutalist, All Quiet on the Western Front, A Complete Unknown, and Anatomy of a Fall.

Critically successful animated films include Wolfwalkers, Encanto, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Inside Out 2, Turning Red,Ne Zha 2, Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, The Boy and the Heron, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Nimona, The Mitchells vs. The Machines, KPop Demon Hunters, The Wild Robot Robot Dreams, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, Memoir of a Snail, Flow, Flee and Chicken for Linda!.

Television

Main article: 2020s in television

The 2020s started off with streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Paramount+, HBO Max, Showtime, Crunchyroll, Hayu, Hulu, Peacock, DAZN, and Disney+. Ad-supported streaming televisions such as Pluto TV and YouTube TV also became more popular.

During a live broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards in 2022, audiences across the auditorium and at home watched in shock as actor and musician Will Smith, who was nominated for, and won, Best Actor that evening for his performance in the biographical film King Richard, slapped comedian and actor Chris Rock, who was presenting Best Documentary Feature, across the face after making a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith. Following that ceremony's incident, after receiving his Oscar, Smith was suspended from the Academy for ten years.

Billions of people watched the death and state funeral of Elizabeth II in 2022 and the 2024 Summer Olympics coverage in Paris speculated to be the most watched special television events in history.^[523][524]

Animated

Japanese anime continued to rise in global popularity and appeal during the decade,^[525][526] with works such as Jujutsu Kaisen, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Chainsaw Man, Spy × Family, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Oshi no Ko, Baki, Delicious in Dungeon, Frieren, Dandadan, Solo Leveling, Suzume, The Boy and the Heron, Vinland Saga, Kaiju No. 8, Attack on Titan, and One Piece reaching large international audiences.

New and critically acclaimed teen and adult animated shows like Harley Quinn, Hazbin Hotel, Primal, Love, Death & Robots, Blood of Zeus, Invincible, Arcane, Devil May Cry, Midnight Gospel, Rick and Morty, and Smiling Friends launched in the 2020s, along with other animated shows such as Hilda, Bluey, The Owl House, X-Men '97, Kid Cosmic, Amphibia and Star Wars: Visions .^[527]

Live-action

A variety of shows on streaming services such as Squid Game, Severance, Never Have I Ever, Tulsa King, Ted Lasso, Beef, The Boys, Extraordinary Attorney Woo, Only Murders in the Building, Wednesday, The Sex Lives of College Girls, Euphoria, Abbott Elementary, The Bear, The Pitt, Shōgun, The Witcher, The White Lotus, Alice in Borderland, Hacks, The Diplomat, Yellowstone, The Last of Us, Succession, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and Tiger King gained popularity. Many different shows on many different competing streaming services resulted in what has been called the "streaming wars" of the early 2020s. Miniseries also gained popularity such as The Queen's Gambit, Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story, Daisy Jones & the Six, Beef, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, Mrs. America, Mare of Easttown, and Pam & Tommy.^[528]

Also released in the 2020s, the reality game show The Traitors achieved popularity and became a global success.^[529][530]

Several TV shows based on films include American Gigolo, The Penguin, live-action Star Wars series (such as The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and Andor), Peacemaker, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, and Ted.

Music

Main article: 2020s in music

By 2020, TikTok, an online video service, had become extremely popular as a music platform on social media.^[531] Users on streaming platforms such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Deezer, Amazon Music, and Apple Music have increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Festivals such as Coachella were cancelled because of the virus. The COVID-19 pandemic devastated the touring business.^[532][533]

Pop, hip-hop, rock music including pop punk and shoegaze, Eurodance, indies, K-pop, R&B,^[534] trance, and synth-pop^[535] all dominated the early part of the decade, with the most popular artists being Ariana Grande, Lizzo, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, Dua Lipa, Ice Spice, Charli XCX, the Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, Chappell Roan, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Playboi Carti, Morgan Wallen, Beyoncé, Sabrina Carpenter, and more.^[536] The early 20s also saw the one-off return of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones with a new song and album, respectively, which topped out the charts immediately upon release.^[537] 2022 saw a revival in Kate Bush's song, Running Up That Hill, due to its appearance in the show Stranger Things.^[538] Starting around 2023, country music has seen a rise in popularity with artists such as Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen topping the charts along with artists such as Beyoncé and Post Malone releasing country albums.

Video games

Main article: 2020s in video games

The ninth generation of consoles began in 2020. The industry remains dominated by Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft with the release of the Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5, while the Nintendo Switch continues to be popular from the previous decade. Technological advancements in consoles included support for real-time ray tracing graphics and output for 4K or even 8K resolution. Physical media continued to be replaced by online distribution of games, with the Xbox Series S and the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition lacking an optical drive.^[4] The Steam Deck was released in 2022 as Valve's attempt to bring PC-level gaming to a Nintendo Switch-style handheld format.

During the decade PC gaming would continue growing rapidly with the console gaming market remaining more stagnant.^[539] The growing majority of video game developers would also primarily focus on developing their projects for PC.^[540]

Critically successful games such as Elden Ring, Ghost of Tsushima, God of War Ragnarök, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth: Wukong, Astro Bot, and The Last of Us Part II were released and won multiple best game of the year awards, signaling a shift towards narrative-driven and single-played focused gaming compared with the end of the 2010s where popularity of multiplayer gaming dominated.^[541] Nonetheless, widely successful multiplayer games includes Call of Duty: Warzone, Fall Guys, Fate/Grand Order, Fortnite, Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, It Takes Two, Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Minecraft, Roblox, Dead by Daylight, Overwatch 2, League of Legends, and Valorant. The detective-party game Among Us surged in popularity in 2020 and became a global sensation, largely attributed in to global stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.^[5][542]

Architecture

Further information: Category:2020s architecture

There is a revival in expressionist architecture. The SoFi Stadium and Intuit Dome were completed in September 2020 and August 2024, there are a component of Hollywood Park, a master-planned neighborhood in development in Inglewood, California. The venue serves as a home to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Rams, and the Chargers. Both they hosted the Super Bowl LVI in February 2022, the 2026 NBA All-Star Game in February 2026, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup in June 2026.^[543][544] The stadium and arena is also set to host the opening and closing ceremonies, aquatic events (swimming and diving), and basketball events for the 2028 Summer Olympics, which will be hosted in Los Angeles, California, United States.^[545]

The developments in Port Melbourne, Victoria of the West Gate Tunnel continued from 2020, which is designed to provide an alternative to the West Gate Bridge, it is expected to be completed in 2025.^[546][547]

The Unity Tower in Kraków was finally completed on 30 September 2020. The construction of the building originally started in 1975 but stopped permanently in 1981 because of economic constraints and political unrest at the time. Due to the unfinished building's resemblance to a skeleton, it was nicknamed after Skeletor, the arch-villain in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which was popular in Poland at the time construction began.^[548]

Several developments in Saudi Arabia to achieve the Saudi Vision 2030, such as the 2034 FIFA World Cup stadiums, Qiddiya, Neom's The Line, Jeddah Tower, Roshn, and Riyadh's Expo 2030 site.^{[549][550][551]}

The Grand Ring was built and designed by the Japanese firms Tohata Architects and Azusa Sekkei, the building became the symbol of the famous Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.^[552][553] It was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's largest architectural structure (certified area: 61,035.55 m²).^{[554][555][552][556][557]}

Sports

Since the COVID-19 pandemic impacted major sporting events led to the postponement and cancellations in the early-2020s, technological advances growing popularity throughout the decade like digital live broadcasts from the successful 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Football, horse racing, basketball, athletics, tennis, volleyball, baseball, and cricket became more popular for digital audiences during the decade.^[558]

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the cancellation or rescheduling of numerous sporting events globally. The 2020 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Tokyo were postponed to July–August 2021. This was the first Olympic Games to be postponed rather than cancelled in history since World War II.^[559]

Zimbabwean sports administrator and politician Kirsty Coventry became the first woman, the first multicultural, and the first African President of the International Olympic Committee, following the resignation of Thomas Bach.^[560][561] She is also the second youngest person and second Olympic medallist to be elected to the position since Pierre de Coubertin and Thomas Bach, her achievements are focused on feminism and gender equality in sports.

New sports for the Summer Olympic Games in the 2020s, such as cricket (2028), dancesport (breakdancing, 2024), flag football (2028), karate (2020), lacrosse (2028), roller sports (inline skating, roller skating, and skateboarding, since 2020), sport climbing (since 2020), squash (2028), surfing (since 2020) for the youth athletes towards audiences. Both cricket and lacrosse were previously appeared in 1900 and 1908.

Football

Argentine and French footballers Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé was voted as the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot of the 2022 FIFA World Cup

Football's popularity has continued global dominance, while also undergoing significant shifts due to various factors, Argentina and Spain won the 2022 FIFA World Cup and the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup by defeating France and England, with Lionel Messi and Aitana Bonmatí winning the Golden Balls, while Hinata Miyazawa and Kylian Mbappé winning the Golden Boots.

Baseball

MLB players like Shohei Otani of the Dodgers and Aaron Judge of the Yankees are the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and stolen bases and a six-time MLB All-Star MVP winner, followed by the Dodgers victory at the 2024 World Series.

Baseball has been a notable resurgence, particularly within its traditional strongholds, Japan defeated the United States in the 2023 World Baseball Classic championship by a score of 3–2, winning their 3rd title in the event. Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani was named the MVP of the tournament. He became the first player in MLB history to record 50 home runs and 50 stolen bases in a season and was unanimously named the 2024 National League MVP, and he won the 2024 World Series in his first MLB postseason appearance rivaled with Aaron Judge of the Yankees.

Mike Forêt and Shohei Otani were met French president Emmanuel Macron and US president Donald Trump became more popular at the Élysée Palace and the White House in April 2025.^[562]

Basketball

NBA players Giannis Antetokounmpo and LeBron James won Finals MVP during the 2021 championship, playing for the Bucks and scored his 38,388th career point in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history

Basketball has been characterized significant global growth and dominance in strong youth engagement, the 2023 FIBA World Cup followed by Germany won by defeating Serbia.

LeBron James, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers, scored his 38,388th career point in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to become the all-time leading scorer in NBA history.

Food

Food delivery apps such as Deliveroo, DoorDash, Instacart, Menulog, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Bolt Food, Wolt, and Just Eat Takeaway became more popular since to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[563][564] Indoor dining was also closed in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and upon re-opening the usage of QR codes and other technologies in the restaurant industry increased compared to the 2010s in order to comply with pandemic restrictions.^[565][566]

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, online grocery shopping has substantially grown and in the first few months of the pandemic, online grocery shopping increased by 300%.^[567] Before the pandemic occurred, food shopping activity accounted for 9% of the market, now 63% of consumers worldwide have purchased more groceries online after the outbreak than they did before they were socially isolated.^[568]

Literature

Main page: Category:2020s in literature

See also

• 2020s portal

• List of decades
• 2020s in political history
• Millennials
• Generation Z (the decade when the majority of the first "Post-Millennial Generation" enters adulthood).
• Generation Alpha (the children and teenagers of the decade).

Timeline

The following articles contain brief timelines which list the most prominent events of the decade:

• 2020
• 2021
• 2022
• 2023
• 2024
• 2025
• 2026
• 2027
• 2028
• 2029