Visualization is right at the heart of my own work - I teach global health
And I know having the data is not enough. I have to show it in ways people both enjoy and understand
Now, I'm going to try something I've never done before
animating the data in real space
With a bit of technical assistance from the crew
So here we go first an axis for health life
Expectancy from 25 years to 75 years and down here an axis for wealth
income per person
four hundred four thousand and
$40,000 so down here is poor and sick and up here is rich and healthy
Now I'm going to show you the world 200 years ago in
1810
here come over countries Europe Brown Asia
Red Middle East Queens Africa south of sahara blue and the americas yellow
And the size of the country bubbles showed the size of the population and in 1810
It was pretty crowded down there wasn't it all countries were sick and poor life
Expectancy were below 40 in all countries and only the UK and the Netherlands were slightly better off
But not much, and now I start the world
The Industrial Revolution
makes countries in Europe and elsewhere
Move away from the rest, but the colonized countries in Asia and Africa. They are stuck down there and
eventually the Western countries get healthier and healthier
And now we slow down to show the impact of the First World War and the Spanish flu epidemic
What a catastrophe?
and now I speed up through the
1920s and the 1930s and in spite of the Great Depression Western countries forge on towards greater wealth and health
Japan and some others try to follow
But most countries stay down here now
After the tragedies of the Second World War we stop a bit to look at the world in 1948
1948 was a great year the war was over
Sweden topped the medal table at the Winter Olympics, and I was born
But the differences between the countries of the world was wider than ever
The United States was in the front Japan was catching up
Brazil was way behind Iran was getting a little richer from oil, but still had short lives and the Asian giants
China India Pakistan Bangladesh and Indonesia they were still poor and sick down here
But look what is about to happen here. We go again in my lifetime
former colonies gained independence, and then finally they started to get healthier and healthier and healthier and in the
1970s then countries in Asia Latin America started to catch up with the Western countries they became the
Emerging economies some in Africa follows some Africans were stuck in civil war and others hit by HIV
And now we can see the world today in the most up-to-date statistics
Most people today live in the middle
But there are huge difference at the same time between the best of countries and the worst of countries and there are also huge
Inequalities within countries these bubbles show country averages, but I can split them take China
I can split it into provinces
There goes Shanghai
It has the same wealth and health as Italy today, and there is the poor in line problems
Why show it is like Pakistan, and if I split it further the rural parts are like Ghana in Africa
and
Yet despite the enormous disparities today. We have seen 200 years of remarkable progress
That huge historical gap between the west and the rest is now closing we have become an entirely new
Converging world and I see a clear trend into the future with aid trade green technology and peace
It's fully possible that everyone can make it to the healthy wealthy corner
Well what you have seen in the last few minutes is a story of two hundred countries
shown over two hundred years and Beyond it involves plotting a
120,000 numbers pretty neat