The best stats you've ever seen | Hans Rosling

TED5 HN recommenders · 2013–2026
4.4M views · talk · evergreen · Uploaded 2007-01-16

Hans Rosling uses the Gapminder animated-data tool to debunk myths about world development, with sportscaster-like energy. It shows trends in health, income and child survival across countries.

HN invokes it as the classic evidence that the world has improved and that people misjudge it, and as an example of great data presentation.

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15 comments from Hacker News

@nl2013 · in “We Need to Talk About TED”

80% of everything is crap. And yet the original 2007 Gapminder talk[1] still surprised and educates people today [1] [VIDEO]

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@trevorstrohman2013 · in “The real use of money is to buy freedom”

This Hans Rosling talk from a few years ago shows how most indicators are improving worldwide (e.g. reductions in child mortality, GDP per capita). [VIDEO]

@oconnor6632016 · in “Challenging the myth that the rich are specially-talented wealth creators”

> If you buy some shares in M&S or BP on the stock market, the money you pay goes to the previous owner, not the company. You are what Keynes called a ‘functionless investor.’ When such so-called ‘investments’ pay off they extract wealth from the economy without creating anything in return. This doesn't seem very coherent. How could a company ever sell stock to raise capital, if the people who bought that stock didn't have a functioning market to resell it on? Obligatory link to Hans Rosling's economic play-by-play of the last 50 years: [VIDEO]

@jsperson2019 · in “Economists don’t understand much about the macroeconomy”

You should check out the book Factfulness by Hans Rosling. Rosling, a now deceased Swedish doctor, makes the case that the world has improved immensely over the past two centuries. He backs it up with copious statistics from the UN and other international NPOs. Rosling also gave one of the best TED talks ever: [VIDEO]

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@keanzu2020 · in “James Lovelock: 'I Would Not Waste My Fortune on Colonizing Mars'”

> if you try to objectively make life better for the billions According to Hans Rosling the world has already changed dramatically for the better, you just didn't notice. [VIDEO]

@asjw2020 · in “A New Cold War Has Begun (2019)”

Hans Rosling explained very well why advancements in National wealth leads to smaller families (less children per family) and longer lives It's linked to becoming richer countries, which China has become [VIDEO]

@mywacaday2020 · in “Fighting poverty accidentally stopped deforestation”

Probably been posted a lot before but always worth a watch. [VIDEO] The Great Hans Rosling. His book is well worth a read as well.

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@sdht02021 · in “Gapminder: A non-profit fighting global misconceptions”

The choices are deliberately wide. The idea is that people are unable to make even broad estimates of the state of the world correctly. This classic TED talk [0] by Hans Rosling presents the same idea. I recommend watching all his other talks as well [e.g., 1-2]. [0] [VIDEO] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK]

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@rocknor2021 · in “Australia opposes Great Barrier Reef ′in danger′ listing”

> if the 1 billion "rich people" drop their emissions down to below average then the majority of the problem will still be here. True. But the "majority" is not as big as you think. > there will be 1 billion less wealthy people Just wrong. There are lots of ways to reduce emissions without any effect in wealth. Eating less meat is one example. > for no particular net gain. Very wrong, there are huge gains: [LINK] > I advocate the radical approach of encouraging people to have less children. I knew you would say this, I was just waiting for it. Global birth rates have been in freefall for decades now, it's tragic that people don't know about it. You'd assume that supposedly "better" education in western countries would make people more aware, but western governments are only concerned with maintaining global western hegemony which requires falsely accusing the rest of the world and keeping their citizens ignorant. Also, you can't force people to have less children, that's inhumane. I suggest you go through the following links. [LINK] [LINK] [VIDEO] [LINK] [LINK]

@cowl2021 · in “100 years of whatever this will be”

By every measurable metric, Humanity has gotten better. Longer lifespan, lower child mortality, better education, easier access to basic life neccessities and goods, (ironic to say at this time but yes even) better health, etc etc etc. We live in an age where every problem is weaponised and we are hyperaware of the problems now so that we don't see all the progrees that is done. [LINK] [VIDEO]

@incomingpain2022 · in “Ask HN: I am losing hope in humanity. What should I do?”

>Is losing faith/hope in humanity something others experience as well? Generally considered the 'doomer' political circle. No proper political alignment, often seen as purple or populist. Also not necessarily a pessimistic world view. >s it due to the way i perceive things (i.e. my entourage)? Most likely yes, but can be independently derived. >Am I in a bubble and I don't see it? How do I get out? Should I be in a bubble to keep my sanity? How do I build those filters? Everyone is in a bubble. Imagine a venn diagram of things you know and things you dont know. That's your bubble. Being in a bubble isn't inherently bad. Being in an echo chamber is bad and the probability you are in an echo chamber is very high. To evaluate if you're in an echo chamber, pretend to say something you dont agree with inside your echo chamber just see how it's reacted to. "climate change is false for X reason" >- climate change or how society/corporations/governments are destroying the environment and/or are barely doing anything. All I think about sometimes is how we'll begin to see famines spreading across poor countries until it's all too late... Yet Elon buying Twitter is still in the news till this day. Climate change is often the first one in the doomer field lately. Take extinction rebellion for example, or the maya calendar or y2k doomers. They are all climate change now. Their climate change echo chamber is quite problematic. All this 10 years left or various ultimatums are absurd. They'v

@yencabulator2024 · in “A woman bought a vintage dress. It had a secret pocket with a mysterious note”

Having more children is near-universal reaction to poor child survival rate, and vice versa. (Though usually it's not about the offspring dying as adults .) [VIDEO]

@vishalontheline2024 · in “Vietnamese property tycoon sentenced to death in $27B fraud case”

Hans Rossling's talk, "The best stats you've ever seen" had something to say about this: [VIDEO] Urbanization and education are the two most effective ways of getting a population to have fewer children. Singapore is a highly educated and urbanized country.

@Gud2025 · in “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence”

This is completely wrong. Even “the poor” in most parts of the world has a pretty good life weight where they are. [VIDEO]

@mzi2026 · in “Child marriages plunged when girls stayed in school in Nigeria”

This kind of data was shown by late Hans Rosling and his foundation Gapminder¹. He gave a Ted talk² about similar subjects as well, and I find him an excellent lecturer. ¹ [LINK] ² [VIDEO]

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