2020s

This article is about the decade in the CE calendar. For other uses, see 2020 (disambiguation).

Millennium:	3rd millennium
Centuries:	20th century – 21st century – 22nd century
Decades:	1990s 2000s 2010s – 2020s – 2030s 2040s 2050s
Years:	2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029

The 2020s (pronounced "twenty-twenties") is the upcoming decade of the Gregorian calendar that will begin on January 1, 2020 and will end on December 31, 2029.

Notable predictions and known events

• The interaction of the three main decadal solar cycles suggests an upcoming reduction in solar activity, with a low-energy period centered on 2020. As suggested by John Maddox of Nature, this might mitigate the global warming (at least temporarily) in the 2010s and 2020s.
• Assuming that the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation runs through a 70-year quasi-cycle (after peaks in ≈1880 and ≈1950), its current warm phase is likely to reach its peak.
• Each of ESA (Europe), CNSA (China), FKA (Russia), and ISRO (India) plan to send a manned mission to the Moon.
• According to a report released by the National Intelligence Council, the United States will experience the relative decline of its economic and military power, driven both by the rise of new behemoths such as China, India and the EU and by domestic constraints on its global leadership.
• Voyager 2 is expected to stop transmitting back to Earth in the 2020s.
• Futurist Ray Kurzweil puts 2029 as the year most likely for a breakthrough in Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). He expects that around this time, computers will reach human intelligence levels, and shortly thereafter surpass the capabilities of the human brain.
• Intel predicts the performance of supercomputers to reach zettaflops scale by 2029.
• Near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis will pass Earth within the orbits of geosynchronous communication satellites on Friday, April 13, 2029.
• By the end of the decade, the world population is projected to surpass 8 billion people, half a billion more than 2020, representing a slowdown in growth from the 2010s, which are expected to increase the population by 700 million.
• The Mars-Grunt sample return mission is proposed to launch in the mid-2020s.
• China's coal production will peak and then rapidly decline in the year 2027.

In popular culture

• The majority of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-part story "Past Tense" takes place between August 30 and September 3, 2024.
• The story of the video game Half-Life 2 takes place between May 15, 202X and May 30, 202X. (The "202X" convention is meant to indicate that it could be any year between 2020 and 2029.)
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution takes place in the year 2027, the upcoming sequel, Mankind Divided, takes place two years later.
• The science fiction series Fringe season three finale "The Day We Died" takes place around May 20, 2026.
• Power Rangers SPD takes place in the year 2025.
• One of the two storylines in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 takes place in the year 2025.
• Call of Duty: Ghosts also takes place in 2027.
• Capcom games Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney and Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Dual Destinies takes place in 2026 and 2027, respectively.
• The Anime Sword Art Online initially takes place on November 6, 2022.
• The movie "Pacific Rim" takes place in 2025
• The television series Sealab 2021 takes place in the year 2021.
• The Anime series Deadman Wonderland takes place in the year 2022.
• The Phineas and Ferb (season 4) Episode Act Your Age takes place in 2025.
• The Disney Channel sitcom"Good Luck Charlie" featured an episode, "Future Drama" 10 years into the future (2024)