Definition
Level vs direction is Rosling's framing for any metric that can be in a bad state AND improving at the same time. Child mortality, extreme poverty, illiteracy, and lethal violence are all at levels nobody should accept AND have fallen substantially over recent decades.
The framing insists that both facts deserve airtime simultaneously, because using either alone produces a distorted picture.
Why it matters
How it works
Pick a metric: child mortality. In 2020 about 5 million children under 5 died (level — terrible). In 1990 the figure was 12 million; in 1960 it was around 19 million (direction — falling steeply). Both numbers describe the same world; together they describe it correctly.
The trick to communicating well in this frame is to lead with whichever fact your audience under-weights. People who already know the absolute number is bad need to hear the direction. People who already believe everything is improving need the level. The same data, two opposite emphases — both honest.
A useful diagnostic question when reading any progress claim: "Are they telling me the level, the direction, or both?" If only one, what would the other one say? If you can't guess, you do not yet understand the data well enough to take a position.