Friday, December 03, 2010

200 Countries, 200 Years. The Joy of Stats.



Hans Rosling shows the benefits of living in the future. A splendid display of the power of visualization, and how lucky we are to be living today rather than any time in the past.

Mr. Rosling seems pretty tickled at finding a better way to show the data. "Pretty neat, huh?" Yes indeed. Thank you, Mr. Rosling. And thank you, our parents and ancestors, who did so much to push as towards the healthy and wealthy corner of the graph.

1 comment:

Sean said...

It is nice. I remember it on TED. I don't give much credence to the 19th century figures outside the heartlands of rich empires though.

Its also striking that the countries which are still badly off by pre-1900 standards are mostly ones like Afghanistan or the Congo with ongoing long wars in them.