Glossary
Every term, defined.
Indicators, meta-indexes, methodology vocabulary. Each entry connects back to where the underlying data comes from.
A
AI Displacement
The reduction in demand for human labor in specific roles or industries caused by artificial intelligence systems performing those tasks more cheaply or at greater scale.
Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety disorders are a family of mental health conditions characterized by persistent, excessive fear or worry that impairs daily functioning across work, relationships, and physical health.
Automation Anxiety
Automation anxiety is the psychological and economic stress experienced by workers and communities who fear that machines, software, or AI will eliminate their jobs or erode their earning power.
D
Daily Screen Time
The average number of hours per day an individual spends using internet-connected or digital screens, including smartphones, computers, and televisions.
Depression Prevalence
The share of a population experiencing a depressive disorder in a given year, typically measured as a percentage of all ages or adults.
Digital Addiction
Digital addiction is a pattern of compulsive, loss-of-control engagement with internet-connected devices or platforms that causes measurable functional impairment in daily life.
Divorce Rate
The divorce rate measures the number of legally dissolved marriages per 1,000 people in a population within a given year.
G
Generative AI
Generative AI is software that creates new text, images, code, or other content by learning statistical patterns from large training datasets.
Gini Index
The Gini Index is a statistical measure of income or wealth inequality within a population, ranging from 0 (perfect equality) to 100 (one person holds everything).
M
Mass Layoff
A mass layoff is an employer-initiated termination of 50 or more workers simultaneously or in rapid succession, triggering legal notice requirements and unemployment insurance claims.
Mental Stress
A measurable aggregate of psychological strain within a population, reflected by rates of depression, anxiety, burnout, and suicide across demographic groups.
S
SEC Form 8-K Item 2.05
SEC Form 8-K Item 2.05 is the mandatory disclosure U.S. public companies must file within four business days of committing to a layoff, plant closure, or other exit plan that generates material restructuring charges.
Social Stress
Social Stress measures the collective strain a society experiences when foundational bonds between individuals and communities erode faster than institutions can compensate.
Social Trust
Social trust is the degree to which people believe strangers and institutions will act honestly, fairly, and reliably in everyday life.
Structural Unemployment
Structural unemployment occurs when workers' skills permanently mismatch available jobs due to technological change, industry decline, or geographic shifts in labor demand.
Suicide Rate
The number of deaths by suicide per 100,000 people in a population over a given year, typically age-standardized for cross-country comparison.
T
Technological Stress
Technological stress is the cumulative psychological, economic, and social strain placed on individuals and societies by the accelerating pace of digital and automated technology adoption.
Temperature Anomaly
A temperature anomaly is the difference between a location's measured temperature and its long-term average for the same period, used to track warming or cooling trends over time.
The Human Index
A multi-country composite tracker that aggregates demographic, economic, health, and governance data to measure and compare civilizational stress across nations over time.
W
WARN Act Notice
A WARN Act Notice is a federally required advance warning that U.S. employers with 100+ employees must issue at least 60 days before a mass layoff or plant closure affecting 50 or more workers.
Water Stress
Water stress measures the ratio of freshwater withdrawals to available renewable supply, indicating how severely a region strains its natural water budget.
Workplace Burnout
Workplace burnout is a state of chronic occupational stress characterized by emotional exhaustion, increasing detachment from work, and a reduced sense of professional efficacy.