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Happy birthday Dollar Street!

Happy Birthday Dollar Street 1st Year

Today is Dollar Street’s first birthday. And what a year it has been!

Dollar Street has grown from 160 to more than 260 homes.

And it is now available in English, Spanish and Swedish!

Our mission has been to show how people around the world really live. And Dollar Street has received an overwhelming response! A lot of teachers, public speakers, researchers and students have used Dollar Street to better understand how people eat, brush their teeth and sleep on different income levels across the globe. Country stereotypes have simply fallen apart in front of our eyes; at the same income level, there are a lot of similarities in how people live, independently of their culture or religion.

Thanks to our Dollar Street photographer, we now have 100 new homes; a total of 260 homes in 50 countries, from the hills of Peru in South America, to the furthest Islands of Papua New Guinea along the Pacific Ocean.

Guispe de Tenori's Family, Peru

Guispe de Tenori’s, Peru
 Geenkai's family, Papua New Guinea

Geenkai’s, Papua New Guinea

Our goal is to have at least 10 homes per country. Volunteer with your home or become a Dollar Street photographer (just like these fantastic folks). Or maybe you prefer to help translating Dollar Street to more languages? Welcome to join us! Please sign up here.

This year Dollar Street has been travelling the world. It has been presented in classrooms and at meetings and conferences in several countries including Sweden, Spain, U.S., Austria, South Africa, Canada and Germany. Some other highlights are articles in Business Insider, Fast Company and BuzzFeed and winning the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award (category: Photography and Visualization). Last but not least, Dollar Street made it to TED! The TED Talk is coming out soon, stay tuned!

Finally, we would send our warmest hugs to all the families who generously welcomed us into their homes. Without you there would be no Dollar Street! Thank you!

Now, for the coming years, let’s make Dollar Street even better. Together.

Yours sincerely,

Anna & the Dollar Street team

Updated Gapminder World Poster 2015!

Thanks to all Gapminders on Facebook for feedback on the previous version!

We have updated the graph with the latest Life Expectancy numbers from IHME!

countries_health_wealth_2016_v15

Click here to download the PDF file. Suitable for print. This chart was produced in December 2016.

This chart shows the Life Expectancy and Income of 182 nations in the year 2015. Each bubble is a country. Size is population. Color is region.

It’s clear in this chart that there is are not two groups of countries. There is no developing vs. developed, rich vs. poor. Instead of labeling countries in two groups, we suggest using the 4 income levels marked on the chart. Remember that next year the countries may change their positions, so let’s not label them, but mention the levels in which they find themselves now.

No country on level 4 has really short life expectancy, and no country on level 1 have long life expectancy. Most people live in the middle, on levels 2 and 3. There are huge differences in life expectancy in the middle, depending on how income is used.

 

INTERACTIVE TOOL

You can find a free interactive version of this chart at www.gapminder.org/tools, in which you can play historic time series & compare other indicators.

 

DATA SOURCES

The chart shows last year’s numbers because it takes time for all countries to collect and publish the latest statistics.

LIFE EXPECTANCY: IHME – Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

POPULATION: UN World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision.

INCOME DATA: World Bank’s GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2011 international $), with a few additions by Gapminder. The x-axis uses a log-scale so that doubling incomes show the same distance on all levels.

INCOME LEVELS: Gapminder uses four income groups which roughly correspond to those used by the World Bank, with minor differences. The World Bank uses the indicator GNI per capita in US dollars, while Gapminder uses the indicator GDP per capita in PPP (constant 2011 international $).

 

CC LICENSE

Our posters are freely available under Creative Commons Attribution License. Please copy, share, modify, integrate and even sell them, as long as you mention ”Based on a free chart from www.gapminder.org”.

 

 

Gapminder World Poster 2015

Here is the new Gapminder World Poster showing the health and wealth of all countries in 2015!

UPDATE:
We have updated the graph with the latest Life Expectancy numbers from IHME!
See the update here

 

countries_health_wealth_2016_v8

Click here to download. Suitable for print. This chart was produced in September 2016.

This chart shows the Life Expectancy and Income of 182 nations in the year 2015. Each bubble is a country. Size is population. Color is region.

People live longer in countries with a higher GDP per capita. Or put differently; in countries with longer lives, GDP per capita is higher. The connection between health and wealth doesn’t tell us which comes first. But one thing is clear: there are not two groups of countries, despite what many people think. Dividing the countries into two groups, developing vs. developed, is extremely misleading.

Labels make it easier to talk about groups of countries. But the labels should be relevant. So we recommend using the 4 income levels marked on the top of the chart. It’s better practice to divide the world into 4 groups and it’s better to label the levels and not the countries, because next year the members in each group will change.

Notice how none of the countries on level 4 have really short life expectancy. And none of the countries on level 1 have long life expectancies. Most people live in countries on level 2 and 3, where there are huge differences in life expectancy. For example Vietnam and Nigeria are both on level 2. Most people live in middle income levels 2 and 3 where there is a wide range in lifespans, depending on differences in how the income is used to save lives.

INTERACTIVE TOOL

A free interactive version of this chart is available online at gapminder.org/tools, which lets you play historic time series & compare other indicators.

DATA SOURCES

The chart shows last year’s numbers because it takes time for all countries to collect and publish the latest statistics.

LIFE EXPECTANCY: IHME – Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

POPULATION: UN World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision.

INCOME DATA: World Bank’s GDP per capita, PPP (constant 2011 international $), with a few additions by Gapminder. The x-axis uses a log-scale so that doubling incomes show the same distance on all levels.

INCOME LEVELS: Gapminder uses four income groups which roughly correspond to those used by the World Bank, with minor differences. The World Bank uses the indicator GNI per capita in US dollars, while Gapminder uses the indicator GDP per capita in PPP (constant 2011 international $).

CC LICENSE

Our posters are freely available under Creative Commons Attribution License. Please copy, share, modify, integrate and even sell them, as long as you mention ”Based on a free chart from www.gapminder.org”.

 

Income Distribution, 2003

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Compare income distribution within or between countries. Based on data from Professor Xavier Sala-i-Martin.

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