People: Superdiversity Is the Solution

There is a scapegoat roaming the world: diversity. Our financial struggles, the problems of our societies, even airline tragedies have been blamed on diversity. Or rather, to be more specific, the policies that encouraged it or the culture that explicitly promoted inclusion and equal opportunities. But that is not the case: diversity and equity have made the world a better place. And this can be seen in the data. The world has never been as diverse as it is today, and levels of per-capita wellbeing have never been as high as they are today. 

The "mother" of all diversities is demography. In particular, demographic change. Thanks to progress in daily practices, science and medicine, we live much longer than we used to. Around the world, we have gone from an average lifespan of around 30 years at the beginning of the last century, to 50 years in 1960, to 72 years today — and to 84 now in Italy. A longer life expectancy allows individuals to plan their futures and engage in long-term economic activities. Together with the increase in population and the growth of cities and infrastructure, a longer life allows education to be put at the center of societies and the economy. The expansion of the school system has thus been the fundamental mechanism to promote gender equality: it is no coincidence that the Taliban want to keep girls and women away from school. But today, women around the world study at least as much as men almost everywhere; and at the college degree level they are even further ahead. Along with being able to freely choose the number of children they will have — which is related to modern contraception and advanced welfare policies — equality in education has led to increasing gender diversity in the labor market. This greater gender diversity has improved the efficiency of economies and productivity, as also demonstrated in a recent study by the think tank Bruegel, in line with many other studies on specific cases.

Furthermore, thanks to a longer lifespan, for the first time in the history of humanity we can observe considerable age diversity in societies and workplaces. Different age groups coexist and live together, with younger generations being more educated and less experienced and older generations still in good health. Although the phenomenon of age diversity is relatively new to our economies and societies, early studies on firms show a positive effect on economic performance. One example: Michigan Technological University has developed the first low-cost, open-source metal 3D printer. The team that developed this technological innovation, as explained by Director Joshua Pearce, has benefited from the skills of members belonging to several generations: the wealth of experience of Boomers, the programming ability of Millennials and the technical skills of Gen X researchers. Being open to age diversity thus makes it possible to more profitably leverage the human capital of younger generations, where — as we have seen — women are increasingly educated. 

Diversity by ethnic origin and migration background is perhaps the most politically delicate aspect. Again, demography matters: the number of international migrants around the world exceeded 300 million for the first time in history in 2024. This number depends more on the general increase in the population than on the increase in the propensity to migrate. A total of 3.7% of the global population, in fact, lives in a country other than that of their birth. This is less than one percentage point above the 1990 proportion. Economically successful countries attract young people from the rest of the world. Indeed, this is exactly what happened in Italy, with the richest areas attracting migrants from Southern and Insular Italy, decisively contributing to the success of different cities such as Milan. What is the effect of this aspect of diversity? It is again positive, the same as for other diversity effects: research by economists such as Gianmarco Ottaviano and Marta Prato shows that ethnic diversity drives innovation and inventions that are the basis of today's economic growth, especially for the most advanced countries.

The differences mentioned above — gender, age, ethnic origin and migration background —intersect with each other, creating even more heterogeneous groups. There are also other dimensions of diversity that have an impact on our identity and opportunities, from socioeconomic origin (what used to be called "social class") to ability and health status. The intersection of these aspects, which can be observed and documented through precision data, shows that we live in societies that are "superdiverse." Superdiversity, a term first used by anthropologist Steven Vertovec to refer to ethnic diversity in global cities, now characterizes our world.

Superdiversity also explains the ease with which some can blame inclusive policies for every evil. But the diverse — indeed superdiverse — world has greater wellbeing. Despite the increase in the overall population, 2023 was the year with the highest per capita income in the history of humankind, exceeding $13,000. Many challenges remain, and moving in a direction of diversity, equity and inclusion is not easy. However, this remains the only option for our future.