2010s

The 2010s (pronounced "twenty-tens" or "two thousand (and) tens") is a decade in the Gregorian calendar. It began on January 1, 2010 and will end on December 31, 2019.

Pronunciation

Two pronunciations are used to mention specific years of the 21st century in English. For example, 2016 is either pronounced "twenty-sixteen" or "two thousand (and) sixteen".

Global financial crisis

The 2010s began amidst a global financial crisis that started in the late 2000s. In particular, the Eurozone debt crisis, which began during 2009, continued into the 2010s. Despite the crisis, the American Dow Jones Industrial Average had its longest stretch of gains since the late 1990s tech boom. However, economic issues, including inflation and an increase in commodity prices, sparked unrest in many lower-income countries. In some countries, particularly those in the Arab world, political unrest evolved into socioeconomic crises. This set off numerous revolutions, including those in Kyrgyzstan and Tunisia in 2010, and Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Egypt in 2011 and 2012. This trend is commonly known as the Arab Spring.