Making sense of too much data! What exactly do we do with all this information?
Filmed in 2006, Hans Rosling, Global Development Professor in Sweden explains the ways in which we can use vasts amounts of data to create visual representations of the world.
In order to understand his students knowledge of the world, Rosling asked his students the following question:
*Note that in each comparison, one country has at least twice the mortality rate of the other
Which country has the highest mortality rate: (the correct answers can be seen in bold)
Sri Lanka or Turkey
Poland or South Korea
Malaysia or Russia
Pakistan or Vietnam
Thailand or South Africa
After asking his students this question, Rosling concluded that the top Swedish students he was teaching did not actually know about the world they live in.
He concluded that:
- Swedish Students = Mean of 1.8
- Chimpanzees = Mean 2.5
- Swedish Professors = Mean 2.4
This suggests that a need to communicate is required in order to share the wealth of statistical information in the world.
Furthermore, Rosling asked his students the question: What do you think about the current world? The answer he got was Western World and Third World. This was broken down into:
Western World = Long Life and Small Family
Third World = Short Life and Big Family
Rosling goes on to show a chart of collated data from 1962 representing the fertility rate and life expectancy of all the countries in the world. The data collected shows that:
- In 1962, the world was divided
- By 2003, there was a new world through third world countries changing socially, resulting in the population having longer lives and smaller families. This is the exception of many African countries which suffered from the HIV epidemic in the late 90s.
Rosling illustrated that by collating data, it was possible to see that family planning had occurred in the 80s, resulting in countries developing socially. An example of this can be represented through understanding that by 2003, the population in Vietnam had the same life expectancy as the population of the United States.
Rosling explains that huge social change was seen in Asia, before any economic change had happened. He demonstrates this by illustrating the world's distribution of income. His representations show the following:
- Population (2003) = 6.1 billion
- 60% of the world population take 26% of global income.
- 20% of the world population take 72% of global income (The worlds richest people)
- 20% of the world population take 2% of global income (The worlds poorest people)
However, Rosling explains that as population increases, the majority of countries in Asia decline in poverty.
The world bank predicts that by 2015, most of the countries in the world will become richer. This can be demonstrated through looking at Growth Percentage (The current concept of economy).
Rosling explains that the real divide between countries can be seen through GDP per Capita. His illustrations show that Africa is hugely varied, as some countries have managed to increase their GDP per Capita through trade (A prime example being Mauritius and their sugar trade).
Furthermore, in a graph showing the changes in GDP per Capita from 1962 - 2003, it can be seen that GDP increases for the majority of countries, however differentiation can be seen in different continents. He concludes this by showing the fast development of South Korea, average paced development by Brazil and the slow development by Uganda.
Rosling emphasises that average data is difficult to use for analysis due to the huge variation of growth in economic and social life within countries. However, by using data, it is extremely difficult to talk about solutions to solving economic and social problems within these countries, because the data is so varied within different countries that it is not possible to get a representation of all developing countries as a whole.
In conclusion, Rosling states that by linking data to design, it is possible to liberate UN data in order to create a search function that allows the searching of data which can be shared with the world. This will allow for the illustration of income distribution in new ways.
This blog is in relation to the video 'Making sense of too much data' by Hans Rosling. Viewable here
(http://www.ted.com/playlists/56/making_sense_of_too_much_data.html)
