Gapminder

Here is a fun program called Gapminder. I've seen videos of it being used before, and I was able to find the usable program itself. It uses mountains of UN statistical data and transforms it into time-scale bubble graph.

Its interesting that considering factors like life expectancy and per capita income, China is usually ahead of India. Both countries share a similar history (being ruled by foreign powers) and population size. India has a democratic form of government, and China is communist/dictator. So why does China come out ahead?

Update
Well, today I was reading an article in Forbes magazine. The article was about foreign investment and globalization in China and India, "Why Globalization Is Good".

It raised a lot of interesting points and explains why the people protesting against the WTO are wrong. I can understand Forbes' viewpoint on the issue, but would they have any other view? I mean, would a magazine like Forbes publish an article against globalization and warnings about the poor getting poorer while the rich get richer? Probably not.

Anyways, some of the points I find pertinent to the question about China vs. India, were somewhat answered. For Example:

"[India] thwarted foreign companies intent on investing there and hampered Indian firms trying to sell abroad... India all but banned foreign investment until 1991."

"Foreign companies have invested $48 billion in India since 1991... $7.5 billion of that just in the last fiscal year, the same amount dumped into China every six weeks.

"Foreign direct investment, the very force so virulently opposed by the good do-gooders, has helped drive China's gross domestic product to a more than tenfold increase since 1978.

Forbes, April 16, 2007

So does foreign investment lead to higher life expectancies and higher per capita income?


Try it yourself:
http://tools.google.com/gapminder/
(I recommend using the linear instead of the logarithmic option.)