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East Asia & Pacific is facing some great development challenges today: urbanization, protection of the environment, the need to find renewable energy sources and many others. This site wants to create a conversation around those important issues. More »

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New visualization tool displays development data with simple, animated graphs

Submitted by James I Davison on Thu, 2009-10-22 15:52
Click to view large.

A colleague over at the PSD blog first pointed out yesterday a brand new data visualization tool recently rolled out by the World Bank. The Data Visualizer displays the 2009 World Development Indicators – including 49 indicators for 209 countries from 1960-2007 – in an attractive, easy-to-understand and highly customizable way. The data contains social, economic, financial and environmental indicators and can be filtered in a number of different ways, including by region and country.

Someone familiar with Gapminder.org, which I wrote about last spring, will quickly notice that this new tool from the World Bank is quite similar to the Gapminder World animated graphing tool. As I mentioned in that post, I think one of the most interesting aspects of this type of data visualization is being able to literally hit Play and witness how the data indicators have changed over time right in front of your eyes.

Showing vs. Telling: map shows half the world represented by 5 percent GDP

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2009-07-29 14:27

It always seems to be the case that by simply writing or saying something, you can hardly get the same point across as by presenting it in a visual way. For example, it’s one thing to say, “three billion people (a little less than half the world’s population) comprise the bottom 5 percent of global GDP contributors.” But as the Strange Maps blog points out, it’s a little more eye-opening to show a map with those countries completely missing.

I’m not sure this map accomplishes much more than to illustrate a single interesting point – unlike the SHOW World animated maps we wrote about earlier this year or the popular WorldMapper Collection, both of which put several data sets in a visual format.

The map does, however, highlight the interesting fact that most of the countries represented are either in Southeast Asia or Africa. Check it out here.

Internet usage in China jumps to 338 million people, latest data show

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2009-07-22 16:59

Internet usage in China continues to grow, and the latest figures released by the Chinese government’s Web research organization show that the total number of online users, at 338 million, surpasses the population of the United States. The impressive statistics – which reflect a 13.4 percent jump from 2008 – had a number of blogs and news sites buzzing late last week. The full report is available in Chinese here (pdf), and WSJ’s China Journal blog has a nice roundup of the findings in English here.

The growth in China – and the rest of East Asia and the world for that matter – is nothing new. Last year, we shared 2008 comScore statistics showing Asia’s internet audience growing faster than all other regions worldwide. And according to more recent information from comScore, the Asia-Pacific region has the highest global share of internet users, at 41 percent (although it’s important to note that the penetration rate of the region is only around 17 percent of the population – well below most other regions – according to this web stats site).

We’ve seen that increased connectivity through mobile phones and the internet may lead to improved economic growth, job creation and good governance, as well as other activities like mobile banking. And as more people, particularly in developing countries, get connected, this growth trend clearly seems to be a positive one.

Image credit: TimYang.net at Flickr under a Creative Commons license.

New web and mobile connectivity report: China, the Philippines lead region in IT jobs

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2009-07-01 15:28
Students take a computer course at a private school in Cambodia.

A number of fascinating web-related findings came out of a World Bank report, released this week, which ties Internet and mobile phone access in developing countries to economic growth, job creation and good governance. Connectivity in the developing world seems to be better than ever. In developing countries worldwide, there are currently three billion mobile phone users, and the number of Internet users in developing countries increased by 10 times between 2000 and 2007.

In East Asian and Pacific countries, the number of Internet users (15 percent) was slightly above the developing-country average in 2007 (13 percent), but was still below the world average that year (22 percent). The connectivity and access to new information and communications technologies changes the way companies and governments do business, while bringing vital health, financial and other market information to people like never before.

While India is the clear leader in creating information technology-related jobs, China and the Philippines both stand out as benefiting by generating new job opportunities. And within the industry, the Philippines is also notable, because its IT services workforce is made up of 65 percent women, who hold more high-paying jobs than in most other sectors of the economy.

You can take your own look at the statistics compiled on each country, or create your own custom reports, from the IC4D Data & Methodology page.

You can also submit questions now for Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, World Bank economist and editor of the report, for a live online chat on July 28 at 11 a.m. in Washington, D.C.

As prices fall internationally, developing countries still face high food costs

Submitted by James I Davison on Thu, 2009-05-07 15:33

A little more than a month ago, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced a database tool and a press release highlighting a rather disconcerting trend. As the global economic crisis worsened, food prices have fallen at an international level. But, surprisingly, the cost of food has not dropped at the same rate, or at all, in poor developing countries, according the FAO.

The new online tool allows for anyone to easily keep track of food prices in 55 developing countries, comparing the data on both domestic and international levels and tracking change over time. In East Asia, the tool includes data from China, Mongolia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

I am struck that the release of this data seems to be the first time I’ve heard of this trend. And apparently, even the experts aren't sure what is causing food prices to stay high for those who can least afford it. On his blog, Oxfam’s Duncan Green quoted FAO's Henri Josserand:

"The reasons for this 'stickiness' are not fully understood at this time. We hypothesize that there are several factors, possibly interacting in complex way. So far, we have not found any set of explanatory variables that apply to the whole sample. Actually, we are pretty sure that understanding the reasons will require in-depth analysis at the national or regional levels."

FAO says it hopes the database will provide information for "policy and decision-makers in agricultural production and trade, development and also humanitarian work." Hopefully, this database will help bring attention to high prices and food shortages in the places that can least afford them.

 

Watch how the world has changed through animated bubbles

Submitted by James I Davison on Tue, 2009-04-21 12:22

I was never too great with numbers or math. I guess you could call me a visual learner. Which is why I was intrigued after exploring Gapminder.org. The non-profit organization behind the website says it's dedicated to "unveiling the beauty of statistics." They attempt to do this with impressively interactive and animated graphs. The cool part is in the Gapminder World, which visually displays a wealth of statistics "about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels." Their goal is to make the data, which comes from organizations like the United Nations and World Bank, accessible and understandable by anyone.

The key is seeing how different parts of the world have changed over time. After setting and comparing data based on a wide range of variables, you can hit Play, setting into motion the bubbles (each of which represents a country or more specific location) that float around the axes as the years change.

Your questions on China's economy answered - see the transcript

Submitted by James I Davison on Thu, 2009-03-26 14:38

In case you weren't able to join World Bank economists and regular bloggers David Dollar and Louis Kuijs earlier today in a live online chat, a transcript from the in-depth discussion is available here. David and Louis spent an hour and a half answering more than 30 questions about the recently released China Quarterly Update economic report, as well as topics ranging from foreign trade, health care reform and the long-term impact of the financial crisis on China's economy.

Also, recently on the blog David wrote about the data behind the Bank's recent economic report in, "Reading tea leaves for signs of China's recovery," and Louis wrote about the policy choices facing the country in, "China and stimulus packages: the best way to respond to more bad news?"

Do you have any follow-up questions about the report or China's economy? Submit them in the comments section below.

Chat live with China experts David Dollar and Louis Kuijs on March 26

Submitted by James I Davison on Mon, 2009-03-23 09:25

With the release last week of its latest quarterly assessment of the Chinese economy, the World Bank lowered its projection for China's GDP growth to 6.5 percent in 2009, yet remained optimistic that the country's economy has started to show signs of stabilizing amid global financial turmoil. The Bank's China country director David Dollar explained on his blog the statistics behind the forecasts in the China Quarterly Update and explored the signs of China's recovery.

Do you have your own questions about the report? Are you wondering what else might be in store for China? David Dollar and Senior Economist Louis Kuijs, will answer questions Thursday in a live online chat. You can join them on March 26 at 9:30 a.m. in Washington, DC, which is 9:30pm in Beijing, China, or submit your questions in advance for a better chance to have them answered. Check it out here.

Changing the world (map), one dataset at a time

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2009-02-18 13:34

If you are a visual learner like me, or you just happen to like nifty animated maps, a site called SHOW World may be worth spending an afternoon coffee/tea break or two to check out. Similar to the popular WorldMapper collection, this site displays a lot of data from a number of sources (including, apparently, the World Bank) in map form. On an Excel spreadsheet, the information would just look like numbers or a boring old graph. But this site, as SHOW World puts it, offers "a new way to look at the world by resizing countries on the map according to a series of global issues."

The site appears to be adding new datasets to compare, but as it stands you can compare countries on everything from urban populations and CO2 emissions to even Internet usage.

The embedded map below enlarges countries with higher gross domestic product, shrinking those with smaller GDP. Click the center of the map to resize it (or check it out here).

 

(hat tip information aesthetics)

China experts to answer questions in live online chat

Submitted by James I Davison on Wed, 2008-11-26 12:44

Amid all the news of the slowing global economy, I’m not sure anyone was too surprised that the World Bank’s latest China economic projections estimate the country’s economic growth, despite remaining relatively strong, will continue to slow in 2009. The latest edition of the China Quarterly Update, released Monday, also says that to continue growth, China needs to utilize already announced stimulus policies to rebalance its economy and improve standard of living and support long-term development.

Have questions about the report? Do you wonder what the future holds for China? Our own bloggers David Dollar and Louis Kuijs, who authored the report, will answer questions Monday in a live online chat. You can join them on Dec. 1 at 8 a.m. EST (13:00 GMT/UTC and 9pm in Beijing), or submit your questions now. Check it out here.