Web Secret 543: Gapminder

Gapminder is a non-profit venture that promotes sustainable global development and achievement by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

Boring, you say?

Think you know basic facts about the people who inhabit the world?

No and no.

First, take the Gapminder Test, 13 questions, 45 seconds per question. If you pass the test, you are qualified to become a Gapminder and you will be honored with the Gapminder Facts Certificate 2018.

The questions include:

In the last 20 years the proportion of people living in extreme poverty worldwide, has...? followed by 3 multiple choice options

and

How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last hundred years? followed by 3 multiple choice options.

I scored a 35%.

Fail.

The Gapminder folks imagined the world as a street. All the houses are lined up by income, the poor living to the left and the rich to the right. Everybody else somewhere in between. Where would you live? Would your life look different than your neighbors’ from other parts of the world, who share the same income level?

It is all visual - they visited 264 families in 50 countries and collected 30,000 photos.

Start here.

Be amazed.