Why Gapminder Exists
Gapminder exists to prevent idiotic global strategies, created based on stereotypical and outdated views of the world, which in some cases might have been right 70 years ago. But the world constantly changes and, today, the world is more developed than ever before, with extensive global collaborations and institutions. And never before have we had access to more data to learn from! Globally, with the evidence at hand, we should be able to drive sustainable progress, tackle global challenges and prevent the major global crises. We need and should be able to collaborate internationally to:
- Prevent wars;
- Prevent pandemics;
- Prevent climate crisis;
- Help people out of extreme poverty;
But in the world today, none of this is done successfully! Why? Part of the reason is that people are generally WRONG about the world. We are lacking a coherent fact-based overview of global proportions and trends to guide global priorities. People don’t have the time or the means to stay up to date with the latest annual reports. Most policy debates are going on without basic factual understanding, and instead, many times ignorance is driving the global agenda.
When stereotypes and outdated facts are driving our decisions, we can’t make the right ones. The world could look very different, if we understood it better! The issue is – most people are not even aware they are wrong, so they can’t change. We at Gapminder know this, as we have extensively tested people’s knowledge and found that people are systematically and devastatingly wrong about lots of crucial global trends and proportions.
This is an exciting problem because it seems very solvable and solving it would have enormous long-term impact. Like the visionaries who imagined that all children should learn to read and write, Gapminder is envisioning a world where all people are aware of their misconceptions and instead use facts to understand the world, which would enable an endless amount of smarter decisions for sustainable global development. People aren’t trying to make bad decisions. They just aren’t equipped with the habits to question their assumptions and the tools to do it quickly and often. Gapminder exists to provide that. By extensive knowledge testing, we identify systematic misconceptions and build free tools for anyone to become aware of and rid themselves of the common misconceptions, and acquire skills to maintain a fact-based worldview and ultimately make fact-based decisions.
OUR MISSION
Fighting devastating misconceptions with a fact-based worldview everyone can understand.
OUR VISION
A world where all people can use facts to understand the world, to make better decisions for positive change.
OUR METHOD
By extensive knowledge testing, we identify systematic misconceptions about the world, and develop free communication and teaching materials to dismantle them.
For further reading, please see the full text to Why Gapminder Exists here.