Every external number on this site, sourced.
Three kinds of number appear on this site, and they are labelled differently by design. External evidence — the facts below, each with its source and date. Model outputs — UP's own projections, always marked "Medium scenario": design specifications under stated assumptions, not forecasts. And illustrations — the Dispatches from 2035 and the ground-level examples, always labelled illustrative: none of it has happened yet. This page holds the first kind.
The moment
The Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight — the closest since 1947
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists · 2026
Global literacy, from roughly one person in ten in the early 1800s to about nine in ten today
Our World in Data · UNESCO · 2023
Life expectancy more than doubled since 1900
Our World in Data · UN World Population Prospects · 2024
More than half the world now living middle-class or better
Kharas, Brookings Institution · World Data Lab · 2018–2024
Around 2.2 billion adults worldwide holding US$10,000–$1,000,000 in wealth
UBS Global Wealth Report · 2024
67% of US adults — the exhausted majority — with similar majorities in subsequent country studies
More in Common · Hidden Tribes (US, 2018) and country studies · 2018–2020
US$1.57 trillion in impact-investing assets, growing ~21% a year since 2019
Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), Sizing the Impact Investing Market · 2024
The lineage — membership at depth
Alcoholics Anonymous: ~2 million members in peer circles, with no central administration
AA General Service Office estimates · 2024
Rotary International: 1.2M members · 46,000 clubs · 120 years of civic-action cadence
Rotary International · 2024
The credit-union movement: 421M members · $3.6T in assets · 118 countries
World Council of Credit Unions, Statistical Report · 2024
India's self-help groups: ~90M women in ~9M small weekly cohorts
NABARD · DAY-NRLM · 2024
Grameen Bank: ~9.4M borrower-members, repaying at 95–99% across four decades
Grameen Bank · 2024
Mondragón: ~70,000 worker-owners · ~€11B revenues · since 1956
Mondragón Corporation Annual Report · 2023
Triodos Bank: €24.1B in deposits in a single values-aligned market
Triodos Bank Annual Report · 2024
The thresholds
~3.5% participation threshold for successful nonviolent movements
Chenoweth & Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works — Columbia University Press · 2011
~25% committed-minority threshold for changing social conventions
Centola, Becker, Brackbill & Baronchelli — Science, vol. 360 · 2018
Banking comparators
Unit economics anchored to real banks: revenue per customer between NuBank and ING; take-up anchored to Starling and Monzo
Company annual reports and filings · 2024
The partner-bank-first licensing path, before an own licence
The documented entry route of Monzo, Wise and comparable European fintechs · 2016–2024
Figures are as published by the cited institutions at the dates shown. Where a statistic moves — the Clock, wealth estimates, membership counts — the date tells you its vintage.
