pitch unfairly

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Hans Rosling, 2010. Pitched unfairly, 2026.

Press play on 200 years. Same story, same numbers. Rebuilt the way we'd pitch it today.

Template: Data story

  • 200 countries
  • 200 years
  • 4 minutes
Play the 2026 deck Read the real story Steal the structure
2010 Data story

Hans Rosling

Press play on 200 years.

Legend
Original craft
Unfair

The story→10 slides

It's a live deck. Press start, then scroll or use the arrow keys, or play it full screen.

Play the 2026 deck

Hans Rosling's data story, slide by slide

Every slide opens the live deck right where it is.

  1. Hans Rosling deck, slide 1: 200 countries. 200 years. One chart. 01200 countries. 200 years. One chart.
  2. Hans Rosling deck, slide 2: Most of us still sort the world into two boxes: us and them. 02Most of us still sort the world into two boxes: us and them.
  3. Hans Rosling deck, slide 3: Take the chimp test. Random guessing scores 33%. 03Take the chimp test. Random guessing scores 33%.
  4. Hans Rosling deck, slide 4: Every country started poor and sick. How fast did each one get out? 04Every country started poor and sick. How fast did each one get out?
  5. Hans Rosling deck, slide 5: Press play: 200 years, and the world moves up and right. 05Press play: 200 years, and the world moves up and right.
  6. Hans Rosling deck, slide 6: In 1965, 63% of people lived where life expectancy was under 60. Today, 0.9% do. 06In 1965, 63% of people lived where life expectancy was under 60. Today, 0.9% do.
  7. Hans Rosling deck, slide 7: From 40 to 75 years of life, Sweden took 117 years. South Korea took 48. 07From 40 to 75 years of life, Sweden took 117 years. South Korea took 48.
  8. Hans Rosling deck, slide 8: Every dip has a name. Every one recovered. 08Every dip has a name. Every one recovered.
  9. Hans Rosling deck, slide 9: The gap is time. India lives as long as Sweden did in 1953. 09The gap is time. India lives as long as Sweden did in 1953.
  10. Hans Rosling deck, slide 10: Before you argue about the world, check the bubbles. 10Before you argue about the world, check the bubbles.

Then · 2010

How it really went

Read the real storythe talk, via Wikipedia (The Joy of Stats, BBC Four, 2010; data from Gapminder)
  1. Rosling stands beside a huge, empty chart: income across, life expectancy up
  2. He starts in 1810: every country is poor and sick, bottom left
  3. The industrial revolution lifts Europe and its offshoots first
  4. World War I and the Spanish flu knock the world back down
  5. After the war, independence and health care pull Asia, Africa and Latin America up
  6. By the present, most countries sit in the middle, not in two groups
  7. He splits China: Shanghai is like Italy, inland Guizhou like Pakistan
  8. He closes on the gap: everyone can make it to the healthy, wealthy corner

Now · 2026 · 10 slides

What we changed

  • You take the chimp testThree questions in the spirit of Factfulness, scored live against the 2017 public (9%, 13%, 37% right) and against chimps guessing at random (33%).
  • The chart actually plays184 countries from 1800 to 2025 on Gapminder's open data, with a play button, a year scrubber, live captions, and a number for every bubble you hover.
  • Sweden is the clockSweden's whole road on the chart, with South Korea, China, the USA, India or Nigeria laid beside it, then every country pinned to the year Sweden lived as long.
  • The dips get namesClick the outliers: the 1918 flu, China's famine, the Khmer Rouge, HIV in Botswana. Every one recovered.

Steal the structure

Build your data story like Hans Rosling did.

  1. 01 Cover Name the dataset and the promise: what the one chart will show.
  2. 02 Misconception Draw the picture the audience already holds, so the data has something to overwrite.
  3. 03 Test the room Three quick questions that prove the misconception, scored against chance.
  4. 04 The question Explain the axes and ask the one question the chart answers.
  5. 05 The one chart Play the data over time; let people scrub, pause and hover.
  6. 06 Zoom in Stop the clock on the surprise and put one number on it.
  7. 07 One path Follow a single case the audience knows, against one they don't.
  8. 08 Outliers Name the exceptions and what explains them, instead of averaging them away.
  9. 09 What it means Turn the chart into one sentence the audience can repeat.
  10. 10 What to do Three habits to take home, and a way to replay the chart.

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