The health-and-wealth gap is disappearing

Common sense tells us there's a correlation between wealth and health, but to actually be shown that correlation is pretty amazing.

That's what Hans Rosling does for us in this eye-popping video. Rosling, a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute, offers visually animated data to show how the health- and wealth-related disparities between nations have narrowed over time. The stunning thing is this: The entire world is becoming healthier and wealthier, though at different rates.

"Despite enormous disparities today, we have seen 200 years of remarkable progress," Rosling says. "That huge historical gap between the west and the rest is now closing. We have become an entirely new converging world, and I see a clear trend into the future. With aid, trade, technology and peace, it's fully possible that everyone can make it to the healthy-wealthy corner.

Our thanks to Jason Blumer for blowing our minds with this yummy piece of eye candy. Watch the video in its entirety here.

Comments

[Tom Hood]

Once again you beat me to it and so did Jason. I found that video from David Stephenson's book, Data Dynamite where he emphasizes the importance of data visualization. It also fits with our i2a: Insights to Action methodology where we emphasize the ability to make your thinking visible to others.

I really think this is a huge opportunity space for CPAs (firms, CFOs, consultants). Combine it with "big data"and XBRL as a way to standardize the data to feed data analysis and visualization and you have a killer app made for this fast changing world.

As CPAs, we can help people "make sense of the rapidly changing world" we live in.