Can you compress two hundred years of social and economic history into a 4 minute youtube video?

Yes, if you are Hans Rosling, The Jedi Master of Data Visualization, (and the Professor of International Health at the Karlinska Institute.)

Prof Rosling is also director of the Gapminder Foundation – ‘Unveiling the Beauty of Statistics for a Fact Based World’.

Gapminder is a non-profit foundation based in Stockholm. Our goal is to replace devastating myths with a fact-based worldview. Our method is to make data easy to understand. We are dedicated to innovate and spread new methods to make global development understandable, free of charge, without advertising. We want to let teachers, journalists and everyone else continue to freely use our tools, videos and presentations.

In the video below, life expectancy is plotted against income for every country since 1810. “Instead of studying history one year at the university, you can watch this video for less than five minutes”, according to Gapminder. 

(Australia is a small red circle that leads the world during the early 1900s and thereafter always orbits like a moon around the US)

This particular segment was made as part of a BBC Documentary, the Joy of Stats. You can experience your own joy at Gapminder World. (One for you, Laura)