Infographic: 2010 in a few numbers

As our human race enters another decade of the new millennium, I wanted to visualize some of the data relating to pitfalls we’ve experienced in the past year. I’ve hit up a few reputable sources, collected latest estimate data and represented it visually to give myself a bird’s-eye view of our economy and society. I’ve divided all data into economic and social indicators and pulled some of the most interesting numbers associated with each.

You can enlarge the diagram by clicking on the thumbnail below, or alternatively download it in PDF format.

Each piece of data is represented by a circle; the variance in radius is calculated as a percentage ratio to the next highest number.

Statistics are very easy to misinterpret – a lot of these numbers, for instance, depend on specific definitions that make various assumptions in their formula. This visualization wasn’t meant to show an accurate representation of the world economy or society as a whole, but rather as a highlight of things I’ve found to jump out at me. Putting these assumptions aside, there are some visually-staggering differences in how the money that runs world economies is spent and allocated and how various groups within our populations are treated.

This data makes me question the headlines that fill today’s paper. Our media paints a very different picture of the world – one where terrorist attacks are all too common and children living below poverty line aren’t all that much of an issue. For example, it’s incredibly unsettling to see the world-wide expenditure on war ($1.5 trillion) compared to estimated costs of solving world hunger ($30 billion a year for the next decade). Or the amount of children that live below the poverty line (close to 1 billion) compared to how many people died last year in terrorist attacks (approximately 912 – a drop in the bucket compared to how many people die in armed conflicts – 1.6 million).

Comparing and visualizing this data makes me question the economic priorities set by our society and world leaders. It’s hard to build a case for funding projects to alleviate world poverty just by looking at a few numbers – but it’s very easy to see how economic resource allocation isn’t designed to maintain a sustainable world without war or hunger.

I hope seeing this will make you think about what you can do to paint a different picture of the world.