Gapminder demonstrates the beauty of statistics

The passionate and hugely entertaining lectures of Professor Hans Rosling have deservedly become an internet phenomenon. His website www.gapminder.org makes his incredible visual statistical displays freely available for all to see.

Together with his son and his daughter-in-law, Professor Rosling from the Karolinska Institut in Stockholm developed the Gapminder Foundation as a non-profit venture to promote sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistical data.

Based on the use of a piece of visualization software called Trendalyzer, Gapfinder is able to unveil the full power and beauty of statistical time series by converting the numbers into wonderfully realised animated graphics.  Dry spreadsheets are transformed into moving bubbles and flowing curves that make global trends clear and accessible.

The revelations that flow from these presentations help debunk many commonly held myths about the Global South, shatter simplistic conceptions of the HIV/AIDs epidemic and explode lazy generalisations about ‘developing' continents.