Zoos need to evaluate their aim of high husbandry standards. One way of approaching this is to use the demographic data that has been collected by participating zoos for decades, assessing historical change over time to identify the presence or absence of progress. Using the example of carnivores, with data covering seven decades (1950–2019), 13 carnivore families, and 95 species, we show that juvenile mortality has decreased, and adult longevity increased, over this interval. While no reason for complacency, the results indicate that the commitment of zoos to continuously improve is having measurable consequences.