The 2000s

Lore & Background

During this decade, the world population grew from 6.1 to 6.9 billion people. Approximately 1.35 billion people were born, and 550 million people died. The early part of the decade saw the long-predicted breakthrough of economic giants in Asia, like India and China, which had double-digit growth during nearly the whole decade. The war on terror and War in Afghanistan began after the September 11 attacks in 2001. The International Criminal Court was formed in 2002. In 2003, a United States-led coalition invaded Iraq, and the Iraq War led to the end of Saddam Hussein's rule as Iraqi President and the Ba'ath Party. Al-Qaeda and affiliated Islamist militant groups performed terrorist acts throughout the decade. The Second Congo War, the deadliest conflict since World War II, ended in 2003. Climate change and global warming became common concerns in the 2000s. In December 2009, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the 2000s may have been the warmest decade since records began in 1850, with four of the five warmest years since 1850 having occurred in this decade.

Reader's Guide

The decade saw the rise of the Internet, which grew from covering 7% to 26% of the world population. Myspace was the most popular social networking website until June 2009, when Facebook overtook it in number of American users. Google, YouTube, Ask.com and Wikipedia emerged to become among the top 10 most popular websites. Amazon overtook eBay as the most-visited e-commerce site in 2008. Usage of computer-generated imagery became more widespread in films produced during the 2000s, especially with the success of 2001's Shrek and 2003's Finding Nemo, the latter becoming the best-selling DVD of all time. 2009's Avatar became the highest-grossing film. Video game consoles released in this decade included the PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Wii, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360; while portable video game consoles included the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Wii Sports was the decade's best-selling console video game, while New Super Mario Bros. was the decade's best-selling portable video game. J. K. Rowling was the best-selling author thanks to the Harry Potter book series, although she did not pen the best-selling individual book, being second to The Da Vinci Code. Eminem was named the music artist of the decade by Billboard.

Did You Know?

• The noughties became a common name for the decade in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand and Australia.
• 2004's Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore was the highest grossing documentary of all time.
• The most prominent terrorist attacks of the decade include the September 11 attacks (nearly 3,000 killed) and the 2004 Madrid train bombings (192 killed).