2026-03-18

Introduction

This presentation explores the Gapminder dataset, which tracks:

  • Life expectancy (years) for 142 countries
  • GDP per capita (USD) as a measure of economic development
  • Population size
  • Data spans 1952 to 2007 in 5-year intervals across 5 continents

Key Questions:

  1. How does GDP per capita relate to life expectancy?
  2. Which continents have improved life expectancy the most over time?
  3. Has the global wealth-health gap narrowed since 1952?

Dataset Snapshot

Top 10 Countries by Life Expectancy in 2007
Country Continent Life Exp (yrs) GDP per Capita (USD) Population
Japan Asia 82.603 31656 127,467,972
Hong Kong, China Asia 82.208 39725 6,980,412
Iceland Europe 81.757 36181 301,931
Switzerland Europe 81.701 37506 7,554,661
Australia Oceania 81.235 34435 20,434,176
Spain Europe 80.941 28821 40,448,191
Sweden Europe 80.884 33860 9,031,088
Israel Asia 80.745 25523 6,426,679
France Europe 80.657 30470 61,083,916
Canada Americas 80.653 36319 33,390,141

Animated Bubble Chart

Hover over bubbles to see country names. Press Play to animate through years.

Life Expectancy Trends by Continent

Conclusions

Key Findings:

  • Strong positive correlation between GDP per capita and life expectancy across all years
  • Asia showed the most dramatic improvement — average life expectancy rose from ~46 years (1952) to ~70 years (2007)
  • Europe and Oceania consistently lead with high life expectancy (75+ years by 2007)
  • Africa lags behind despite some gains, with average life expectancy ~55 years in 2007
  • The wealth-health gap has narrowed since 1952 — poorer countries today live longer than richer countries did in 1952

Tools Used: R, R Markdown, Plotly, Gapminder dataset

Presentation created on 2026-03-18 | Author: Rahul Vijay Data source: Gapminder Foundation via the gapminder R package