Our world since 1960
Maybe I am just dumb - as I was doing research on my host country, Botswana, I didn't really understand what the statistics mean when I saw numbers like 3 millions of people infected with HIV or an economic growth rate of 9% per annum. I mean, I know the definitions, but like, what do they really mean? I know the HIV/AIDS epidemic has had a huge impact on many sub-Saharan Africa countries - but how and what exactly was the impact? I needed something to put those numbers into perspective.
All my Google search results returned with the same kind of numbers, until I came across Wayne Miranda's blog and found a link to Gapminder , a non-profit venture that has developed a software to display development statistics and indicators in graphs and animations.
After watching Hans Rosling's presentation on TED about "the myths of the third world", I started playing with Gapminder's online software . The default indicators were already set for me - income per person on the x-axis, and life expectancy at birth on the y-axis. I clicked "Play" at the bottom, and watched these colorful bubbles moved from the bottom left corner to the top right corner as the timeline scrolled from 1800 to 2007. (Each bubble represents a country, the color represents the region, and the size represents population.)
I was more interested in knowing how our world has changed in the last 50 years, so I went back and paused at every 10 years since 1960 to take a closer look at the bubbles. In 1960, we had the European countries and North America sitting at the far right, China (big red bubble) and India (big light blue bubble) were still down at the bottom left.
By 1980, there were more bubbles clustering in the middle. Everybody was getting healthier and wealthier in general. The most significant change was the China and India bubbles jump on the Y-axis. In 20 years, the average life expectancy in China went from 30 years old to 65 years old, and the size of the bubble got even bigger!
As the timeline passed year 1985, the African bubbles in blue all of a sudden started falling very dramatically, while the rest of the countries continue to move towards the top right. The graph below shows what our world looked like in 2007. All countries advancing, with only African countries stuck at the bottom half of the graph.
Just to further illustrate what I meant by falling, I picked out the data of 3 countries - Republic of Botswana, Republic of Chile, and Republic of Korea, to construct the following "motion chart" in Google Spreadsheet. Chile and Republic of Korea have been categorized as peer countries to Botswana by Standards & Poor (S&P), a credit rating and risk evulation agency used by businesses and foreign investors, due to the countries' similar macroeconomic policies and political stabilities.
The 3 countries were in relatively similar development state in terms of Income per Person and Life Expectancy at birth in 1960. They were almost growing at the same rate. By 1987, Botswana has surpassed Chile and had a higher income per person. That's also the year when Republic of Korea really took off. Click play on the graph below to see the rest of the story. (Change the Colors setting to "Unique Colors", Size to "Population", check the boxes of all 3 countries as well as the "Trails" box, then click play and watch what happens. Uncheck the "Trails" box to watch a replay of the freefall.)
I don't know if I'm making the right comparisons here. But it's disturbing to think what Botswana could have been without the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Still having the 2nd highest infected rate in the world, how is the country facing this? I will keep sharing as I find out more over the next few months.
I encourage all of you to check out Gapminder. There are 148 different indicators that you can play with by clicking on the axis names, anything from Environment, Health, Technology, Education, Family sizes....go see it for yourself.
All my Google search results returned with the same kind of numbers, until I came across Wayne Miranda's blog and found a link to Gapminder , a non-profit venture that has developed a software to display development statistics and indicators in graphs and animations.
After watching Hans Rosling's presentation on TED about "the myths of the third world", I started playing with Gapminder's online software . The default indicators were already set for me - income per person on the x-axis, and life expectancy at birth on the y-axis. I clicked "Play" at the bottom, and watched these colorful bubbles moved from the bottom left corner to the top right corner as the timeline scrolled from 1800 to 2007. (Each bubble represents a country, the color represents the region, and the size represents population.)
I was more interested in knowing how our world has changed in the last 50 years, so I went back and paused at every 10 years since 1960 to take a closer look at the bubbles. In 1960, we had the European countries and North America sitting at the far right, China (big red bubble) and India (big light blue bubble) were still down at the bottom left.
By 1980, there were more bubbles clustering in the middle. Everybody was getting healthier and wealthier in general. The most significant change was the China and India bubbles jump on the Y-axis. In 20 years, the average life expectancy in China went from 30 years old to 65 years old, and the size of the bubble got even bigger!
As the timeline passed year 1985, the African bubbles in blue all of a sudden started falling very dramatically, while the rest of the countries continue to move towards the top right. The graph below shows what our world looked like in 2007. All countries advancing, with only African countries stuck at the bottom half of the graph.
Just to further illustrate what I meant by falling, I picked out the data of 3 countries - Republic of Botswana, Republic of Chile, and Republic of Korea, to construct the following "motion chart" in Google Spreadsheet. Chile and Republic of Korea have been categorized as peer countries to Botswana by Standards & Poor (S&P), a credit rating and risk evulation agency used by businesses and foreign investors, due to the countries' similar macroeconomic policies and political stabilities.
The 3 countries were in relatively similar development state in terms of Income per Person and Life Expectancy at birth in 1960. They were almost growing at the same rate. By 1987, Botswana has surpassed Chile and had a higher income per person. That's also the year when Republic of Korea really took off. Click play on the graph below to see the rest of the story. (Change the Colors setting to "Unique Colors", Size to "Population", check the boxes of all 3 countries as well as the "Trails" box, then click play and watch what happens. Uncheck the "Trails" box to watch a replay of the freefall.)
I don't know if I'm making the right comparisons here. But it's disturbing to think what Botswana could have been without the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Still having the 2nd highest infected rate in the world, how is the country facing this? I will keep sharing as I find out more over the next few months.
I encourage all of you to check out Gapminder. There are 148 different indicators that you can play with by clicking on the axis names, anything from Environment, Health, Technology, Education, Family sizes....go see it for yourself.
posted by Ruby Ku at
1:30 AM
4 Comments:
i've never paid much attention to numbers, especially big figures, because they tend to dissolve in my head. But thanks for putting it in perspective and painting a picture with the clumbersome data. It came shocking to me to have know how the world has literally changed before our eyes and how polarized our world has become. more shocking to know the devastation AID/HIV can impose on a country.
thanks for sharing. great post!!
WOW. That chart you put with the three countries is jaw dropping. I've showed it to so many people already and have just focused on their facial expressions as they watch the time pass. I think "disturbing" is the best word to use for what we see... wow.
Hi Ruby, these are the same statistics that I see every week at my lecture on economic issues in developing world. Very depressing indeed but the problems are far more complex to comprehend. There seemed to be an correlation between economic freedom and economic growth (which leads to better health care and education). The obvious explanation for their plight is the lack of proper governance in the country. Another that we should be ashamed of, is the exploitation by advanced economies.
@ Zi Ming - wanna share what you're learning in that class? wanna write a guest post? :)
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