GapMinder Quick Guide
Gapminder is an online tool for generating scatter plots of over 400 indicators ranging from Births and Deaths to Trade,
Aid and Investment. Developed to show the “world's most important trends”, these indicators are used to create online
graphs that display the development for over 200 countries and territories over the past ±200 years on both linear and
log scales. In addition to the visible display, the underlying data can be downloaded for further analysis or mapping in a
GIS.
Basic Use
Begin at http://www.gapminder.org. On the home
page a set of pre-constructed graphs are available
for viewing. Select one of interest or select the
Gapminder World tab at the top of the page or Load
Gapminder World button to launch Gapminder.
Data, videos and support material downloads are
also available from the homepage.
Launches
Gapminder World.
Pre-constructed
graphs which
will launch Gapminder World.
A Gapminder graph can display up to three indicators. In addition to the indicators on the X and Y-axis, the Bubble size
(lower right-hand corner) can be used to display a third indicator using the size of the bubble; the default setting is Total
Population.
Select the Play button to start
the animation
Indicator “trails” to track
specific countries can be set
by either selecting a country
in the “Select” box or by
clicking on a country bubble
on the graph. Hovering your
mouse over a bubble will
reveal the country name.
By default, the circles
themselves are color-coded
to indicate geographical
categories of a region or
continent. The corresponding
traditional map is in the upper
-right of the interface. These
“categories” can also be
switched to income groups,
landlocked status, or G77 and
OECD countries. Any
indicator can also be used to
color-code the bubbles.
Gapminder Quick Guide
Telling a Story
The power of Gapminder lies not only in its ability to graph a wide variety
of indicators but also the story that the graph tells over time. View the
video “200 years that changed the world” under the videos tab.
Gapminder’s team-led, Hans Rosling, uses the graph of Income per
person vs. Life expectancy to tell a story of the world economic growth
followed by improving health as well as a comparison between the United
States and China from 1809 to 2007. Using “trails” on China and the U.S.
you can see how the economic growth went in different directions in the
1800s for these two countries and it was not until the 1950s that China
began to catch up with the U.S. in economic growth.
Creating Your Own Graph and Story
First consider a relationship you wish to explore like life expectancy and family size. Questions, such as, “What has
been the trend over the last 200 years?” and “Has the size of the family (children per woman) affected life
expectancy?” can be addressed.
1. Change the X-axis to Children per woman (total fertility).
2. Change the Y-axis to Life expectancy at birth (years).
3. Select Play. Stop play at anytime and manually drag time slider back-and-forth to examine a specific period of time.
Also use the zoom tools in accessed in the
lower right-hand corner of the graph.
4. Make observations about general trends
over time. As family size decreases what
happens to life expectancy? Is there a
relationship between these two indicators?
Although any to indicators can be graphed it
is important to remember that not all
indicators are related.
5. Select one or two countries to place a trail
and observe how these indicators change
over time. Can specific events in that
countries' history be attributed to the overall
trend. Consider events such as war,
changing economic conditions or government
policy and how they could affect the size of
the family? Compare the trends of China and
the U.S. What differences can you observe?
Trails can be toggled on/off to the right of the
Time Slider.
Zoom in and
out tools.
View data
on/off
Turn trails
Review the video “What stops population growth” for additional insights into this relationship discussed by Hans Rosling.
Downloading Data
In addition to the graphing capability of Gapminder, the data can be downloaded in spreadsheet and PDF formats.
1. To view and/or download the data
used in the graph select the “view data”
button next to the axis label.
2. Select the Download link and the
desired file format to either open or save
the file.
Gapminder Quick Guide
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