This is definitely worth 4-minutes of your time

by · 13 comments

December 14, 2010
Nelson, New Zealand

Professor Hans Rosling is a sword-swallower. Crazy, I know. But as freakish and mesmerizing as that talent may be, the data that he has been compiling about developing countries is even more mesmerizing, and I promise it will surprise even the most worldly and well traveled among us.

Rosling has an uncanny ability to take enormous heaps of data, crunch the numbers, and present them in such a fluid way that it would make the most disinterested viewer sit up and take notice, and his focus on developing countries shatters a lot of misconceptions.

In the video below, Rosling charts a moving 200-year history of the wealth and life expectancy of 200 countries. In just 4-minutes, he shows that the gap between developing countries and developed countries is actually rather small, and that places like Shanghai, Taiwan, South Korea, and Singapore have already caught up with the west.

Two of the things that I thought of immediately when watching this video were-

1) The catastrophic long-term effects of government-organized folly (war, central planning, currency debasement, etc.) are very clear when watching the progression of his data set;

2) It’s incredible how fast developing nations can catch up with the west; technology, productivity, and a high savings rate are key drivers, and those are the critical ingredients to look for when assessing the long-term growth capacity of any economy.

I highly recommend the above video, it’s only 4-minutes.  If you have time for a more in-depth presentation about the growth rates of developing nations (particularly India and China), check out Rosling’s lecture at a 2009 Ted conference, it’s about 15-minutes.

And finally, if you want to play with the data yourself, you can do so at Rosling’s website.

Anyone considering a move or exploratory trip overseas, might want to consider starting his or her research in some of the developing nations that rank highly in Rosling’s data set. Chile ranks the highest in Latin America, Malaysia in developing East Asia, and Sri Lanka in developing South Asia… 3 of my top picks.

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2010-12-14
  • Chuck B.

    Great post. Rosling's data is fascinating and very useful.

  • Defencev

    Malaysia is the place I frequently visit and like. They have an excellent retirement program. However, I would never consider it as a place of living. There is a serious lingering problem between several ethnic and religious groups over there and even within dominating Malay group there is a serious split between Anvar and ruling elite. Though Islam in Malaysia is probably the most moderate in the world, the usual brainwashing takes place and radicalization is always possible in case of a serious crisis. There is a lingering problem of ethic Malays living in former Pattana Kindgdom which is currently a part of Thailand and where de facto civil war takes place. This group can cause radicalization of Islam in Malaysia. Though Malaysia so far avoided major terrorist attacks from radical Islam groups, nevertheless several cases of kidnapping of Western tourists by groups operating from Muslim part of Phillipines took place on the islands belonging to Malaysia. Overall, I consider Malaysia as extremely poor recommendation for permanent relocation.

  • Rj

    It's not fair to call the top right the wealthy corner, if you took into consideration inflation that is.

  • Lost in Paradise

    Hello,

    Over five years ago, I retired to the Republic of the Philippines and I am not returning to the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

  • mitspanner

    So, it looks like authoritarian state capitalism pays. i.e. Singapore, South Korea, China. But for how long? Might be a good way to bootstrap up from nothing, but the growing middle classes of those societies will one day want more than material improvements. The next great leap forward for mankind will come from new forms of societal organization that are based on voluntary cooperation as opposed to coercive collectivism. As an American I hope that my people will regain their senses and revive our libertarian traditions.

  • http://twitter.com/StarvinMarvin Jared Lemmon

    I was very impressed when I say this chart/video linked from a TED affiliate RSS feed. All the comments are worth reading and digesting as one sees fit. Yet I take away that all things good triumphant over all that is not…just sayin in a rather cynical and easy going manner :) Cheers Sovereign Man! @starvinmarvin

  • Brian

    Simon, what are the issues with governments doing central planning? Here in Vancouver, the desire to create density and hence reduce urban sprawl like what happens in Surrey (3 municipalities away) seems to be a good thing… what don't I know about what doesn't work with central planning?

  • Raun

    I'd take the idea that many developing countries are further ahead than we think with a grain of salt…

    They enriched themselves primarily by producing goods for us in a manner our own citizens would find unacceptable to do so themselves. They clawed their way into the 21st century through incredible suffering and it hasn't ended yet, social security is a joke in many of those nations. Internal consumption is only just beginning to exist in any meaningful fashion, without export to foreign markets, where would they be?

  • Rchan4u

    Brilliant use of the technology, excellent investment of my time. I love big picture stuff and hope he does a lot more of this type of work.

  • ndale27

    A lovely graphical approach but dangerous in its alluring simplicity, its collapsing of health into a simple measure of longevity and wealth as simply dollar currency. A common experience in developing countries where village life is substituted by a move to overcrowded barrios is that monetary income is no longer buttressed by non-monetarized goods and services once obtained from the local environment. Further, the seductive visuals of, in the end, arbitrary scales, can lead to such preposterous generalizations as when Black says that Rosling's work shows that “the gap between developing countries and developed countries is actually rather small.” One longs to see Black parachuted without credit cards or ID, into one of the countless urban and rural communities worldwide where getting the simplest basics of life are a constant struggle. The gap might well look quite a bit more imposing from that other side.

  • Anbaner

    Imagine calling Pakistan and Bangladesh (two failed states) “asian giants”, that too in 1948, when they didn't exist !

    • Zamedine

      Well, Pakistan did. August 14th 1947. And Bangladesh was East Pakistan.

  • Claire Soh

    Professor Hans Rosling is creative in his presentation. My impression is, he begins with the end in mind to design an animated video to engage the audience and make Statistics easily understandable and one can learn about the development of our world.

    Did he use Design Thinking to make this video? Yes, I think so?

    According to Professor, with techonology and a converging world, everyone CAN make it to the healthy and wealthy corner.

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