Visualizing Human Development Trends

Combating extreme poverty, AIDS, infant death, etc. depends on a clear understanding of the reality of these situations. Unfortunately the statistics involved have been very complex and difficult for the average person to process. Not anymore.

Hans Rosling, professor of international health at Sweden’s world-renowned Karolinska Institute, founded Gapminder – a non-profit that brings vital global data to life. This project should be interesting to all, but if you’re into the data that drives justice goals then you will find this information absolutely fascinating. Easy to understand visualization of UN data is an invaluable resource and Gapminder is making data on world development understandable, enjoyable and free!

To see what we mean click here for an interactive visual presentation of some of the messages in the Human Development Report of 2005. Or you can see this presentation and it’s supporting content at gapminder.org.

Hear Hans Rosling presents much of this information and even debunks a few myths about the developing world in the video below (recorded at TEDTalks 2006).




A few interesting points from the video to reflect on: (1) In a mere 40 years, between 1962 and 2003, a completely new world was created. (2) Countries tend to use their money better than they did in the past. (3) The improvement of the world must be highly contextualized.