Pitched Unfairly

roslingA data story in 200 years

200 countries. 200 years. One chart.

Income against health, for every country, from 1800 to today.

01 / The misconception

Most of us still sort the world into two boxes: us and them.

ThemPoor, sick, big families

UsRich, healthy, small families

and a big empty gap

02 / Test the room

Take the chimp test. Random guessing scores 33%.

Three questions from Gapminder’s 2017 study of 12,000 people in 14 rich countries.

You
? / 3
The chimps
1 / 3
The public
0.6 / 3

The scores

  1. Extreme poverty, last 20 years Almost halved 9%
  2. One-year-olds vaccinated 80% 13%
  3. World life expectancy 70 years 37%

Share of the public who got it right The chimps, at random

03 / The question

Every country started poor and sick. How fast did each one get out?

Sick and poor

Healthy and wealthy

  • AcrossMoney: income per person
  • UpHealth: years of life
  • BubblesCountries, sized by people

04 / The one chart

Press play: 200 years, and the world moves up and right.

  • Africa
  • Americas
  • Asia
  • Europe
IndiaChinaUSASweden

2025: most of the world now lives in the healthy middle.

05 / Zoom in

In 1965, 63% of people lived where life expectancy was under 60. Today, 0.9% do.

0.9%

of humanity lives where life expectancy is under 60, in 2025

06 / One country’s path

From 40 to 75 years of life, Sweden took 117 years. South Korea took 48.

Sweden Sweden, 1800

South Korea

48 years

Under 40 in 1950. 75 by 1998.

Sweden: under 40 in 1857. 75 by 1974.

07 / The outliers

Every dip has a name. Every one recovered.

China, 1960

53.3 in 1957 26.4 in 1960

The famine that followed the Great Leap Forward.

World 20406080
190019251950197520002025

08 / What it means

The gap is time. India lives as long as Sweden did in 1953.

Read it as a clock: every country is somewhere on the same road.

09 / What to do with it

Before you argue about the world, check the bubbles.

Replay 200 years
  1. 01Look for the middleMost people live there now. Two boxes hide them.
  2. 02Compare with timeAsk where a country was, not only how far behind it is.
  3. 03Name the outlierA dip is a story. Find it before you average it away.

Optional finale: swallow a sword. Rosling did, at TED in 2007.

Data: Gapminder.org, CC BY 4.0