02 December 2010

Two centuries of world economic history


Almost three years ago I wrote a post about how fertility and longevity correlate with income, citing the outstanding data assembled by Hans Rosling at his Gapminder site.  I also linked to his stunning TED talk that is still worth your while if you haven't seen it.

Now he has a new presentation - The Joy of Stats - hosted by the BBC.  Embedded above is an excerpt showing how (contrary to some people's misconceptions) the world as a whole has gotten wealthier and healthier in the last two centuries.

Found at The Pajama Pundit.

Addendum:  The charts used in this lecture are drawn on a log-linear scale.  On the financial x-axis, the three labeled ticks are $400, $4000, and $40,000.  There is a vigorous debate as to whether this is appropriate at Kids Prefer Cheese, via The Daily Dish.

4 comments:

  1. That was great! What a neat post, that's what keeps me coming back to tywkiwdbi. ;-)

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  2. I noticed that some countries looked like bouncing balls, taking dramatic short dips (China in 1958-1962), and others were far more steady. I'd really like to look at the source data.

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  3. DaBris - try starting with their website -

    http://www.gapminder.org/

    but there's a boatload of information compressed into that presentation; I doubt you can access primary data.

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  4. A rising tide truly lifts all (sound)ships. The general positive trend is very heartening.

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