Concordance
Words over time in the General Debate
41 terms counted across every General Debate statement from 1946 to 2025 — 192,957 uses in all. Each page shows when a term first appeared, how its use rose and fell, and which states used it most.
Counting, not topic modelling, and the list is right here. A topic model produces clusters that a human then names, and the name is a judgement presented as a measurement. So this counts a vocabulary somebody chose, and publishes the vocabulary. Matching is on word boundaries and ignores case. A term used fewer than 25 times gets no page, because a chart of four bars is not an article.
A count is a fact about a word. It is not a measure of concern, of position, or of sincerity, and no page here reads it as one.
Decolonisation and self-determination
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| apartheid | apartheid |
7,306 | 1952 | 2025 |
| colonialism | colonialism · colonialist |
7,123 | 1948 | 2025 |
| decolonisation | decolonization · decolonisation |
2,941 | 1959 | 2025 |
| non-aligned | non-aligned · nonaligned |
5,533 | 1960 | 2025 |
| self-determination | self-determination · self determination |
7,820 | 1946 | 2025 |
Cold war and after
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| cold war | cold war |
3,689 | 1948 | 2025 |
| détente | detente · détente |
3,937 | 1953 | 2023 |
| disarmament | disarmament |
21,912 | 1946 | 2025 |
| iron curtain | iron curtain |
145 | 1946 | 2025 |
| non-proliferation | non-proliferation · nonproliferation |
3,642 | 1964 | 2025 |
| nuclear weapons | nuclear weapon · nuclear weapons |
9,450 | 1953 | 2025 |
Environment
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| biodiversity | biodiversity · biological diversity |
1,202 | 1988 | 2025 |
| climate change | climate change |
10,007 | 1988 | 2025 |
| desertification | desertification |
849 | 1974 | 2025 |
| global warming | global warming |
776 | 1988 | 2025 |
| ozone layer | ozone layer · ozone |
267 | 1974 | 2023 |
| sea level rise | sea level rise · sea-level rise · rising sea level |
435 | 1988 | 2025 |
Development and economy
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| debt relief | debt relief · debt cancellation |
449 | 1973 | 2025 |
| globalisation | globalization · globalisation |
3,306 | 1975 | 2025 |
| new international economic order | new international economic order |
1,981 | 1974 | 2023 |
| poverty | poverty |
13,791 | 1946 | 2025 |
| sustainable development | sustainable development |
9,474 | 1986 | 2025 |
Health
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AIDS | aids · hiv/aids |
1,877 | 1950 | 2025 |
| Ebola | ebola |
383 | 2004 | 2025 |
| malaria | malaria |
627 | 1948 | 2025 |
| pandemic | pandemic |
3,553 | 1981 | 2025 |
| smallpox | smallpox |
31 | 1952 | 2025 |
Technology
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| artificial intelligence | artificial intelligence |
296 | 1983 | 2025 |
| cyber | cyber · cyberspace · cyberattack · cyber attack |
200 | 1998 | 2025 |
| digital divide | digital divide |
126 | 2000 | 2025 |
| outer space | outer space |
1,721 | 1957 | 2025 |
Conflict and atrocity
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| genocide | genocide |
1,762 | 1948 | 2025 |
| peacekeeping | peacekeeping · peace-keeping |
8,167 | 1960 | 2025 |
| refugees | refugee · refugees |
8,292 | 1946 | 2025 |
| responsibility to protect | responsibility to protect |
352 | 1953 | 2025 |
| terrorism | terrorism · terrorist |
19,017 | 1948 | 2025 |
Rights
| Term | Counted as | Uses | First | Last |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gender equality | gender equality |
905 | 1991 | 2025 |
| human rights | human rights |
24,493 | 1946 | 2025 |
| indigenous peoples | indigenous people · indigenous peoples |
692 | 1948 | 2025 |
| rule of law | rule of law |
3,693 | 1946 | 2025 |
| torture | torture |
735 | 1952 | 2025 |