Gapminder—geographical identity visualisation

Seamus McCauley points us to what is effectively a geographical identity visualisation tool.

Here's a lovely bit of design and presentation - the Gapminder tool from the Gapminder foundation. It plots all sorts of demographic and economic data from different countries on a chart over time, so you can see for example how life expectancy plots against per capita income or how the gender balance in schools relates to Internet users per thousand. Fascinating. Reminds me a little of my favourite tine-series design ever, the BBC's US elections since 1948 map.

Why not have a play? It's an intriguing experience (hint: you have to press "PLAY", after selecting some options, to see it working).