Factfulness

I just read a really interesting book by the Swedish physician and health statistician, Hans Rosling, called Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things Are Better Than You Think.  He wrote the book during the final year of his life (he passed away from pancreatic cancer on February 7, 2017), which was finished by his son and daughter-in-law.  If you want a glimpse of Rosling's work, check out a really cool video that he did for the British Broadcasting Company called "200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats". 


Rosling served as a public health expert in many countries around the world.  He is perhaps most famous for his investigation and subsequent publications on an outbreak of Konzo, a debilitating paralytic disease cause by consumption of inadequately processed cassava (resulting in excessive cyanide intake).  During his career, he served as a health adviser to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and several other aid agencies and was one of the founding members of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) in Sweden.  On a completely unrelated note, Rosling is also a sword swallower! 


Bill Gates listed "Factfulness" as one of his five books worth reading for summer 2018.  Basically, the premise of the book (and really much of Rosling's work) is that the world is doing much better than we are commonly led to believe.  For example, birth rates are stabilizing, life expectancy all around the world is increasing (with the notable exception of the United States, as I have previously mentioned in "Invest your money wisely..." and "Our national embarassment"), the gender gap is closing, and poverty across the world is shrinking.  He goes on to argue that subdividing the world into "developed" and "developing" countries is no longer correct (similar to the argument that the term "Third World" no longer applies either).  Rather, in today's global economy, most countries are "developed" and should be classified based upon income levels into four categories:


1.  $1-$4 a day
2.  $4-$8 a day
3.  $16-$32 a day
4.  > $32 a day


Check out Rosling's highly interactive website at www.gapminder.org for a detailed explanation and analysis of these four income levels (you can compare the different countries in the different income levels based upon a number of qualitative and quantitative measures using the link "Dollar Street").


Rosling begins "Factfulness" with a quiz (he calls it the "Gapminder Quiz") on our views of the world - take the quiz and see how you do.  I will explain more in the next post.

1. In all low-income countries across the world today, how many girls finish primary school?

A. 20%

B. 40%

or

C. 60%?

2. Where does the majority of the world population live?

A. Low income countries

B. Middle income countries

or

C. High income countries?

3. In the last 20 years the proportion of the world population living in extreme poverty has?

A. almost doubled

B. remained more or less the same

or

C. almost halved?

4. What is the life expectancy of the world today?

A. 50 years

B. 60 years

or

C. 70 years?

5. There are 2 billion children in the world today aged 0-15 years old, how many children will there be  in year 2100 according to the United Nations?

A. 4 billion

B. 3 billion

or

C. 2 billion?

6. The UN predicts that by 2100 the world population will have increased by another 4 billion people,  what is the main reason?

A. There will be more children aged below 15

B. There will be more adults aged 15-74

or

C. There will be more very old people aged 75 and older?

7. How did the number of deaths per year from natural disasters change over the last 100 years?

A. More than doubled

B. Remained about the same

or

C. Decreased to less than half?

8. There are roughly 7 billion people in the world today, which options more accurately represents  where they live?

A. 1 billion in Europe, 4 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America.

B. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 2 billion in Africa and 1 billion in America

or

C. 1 billion in Europe, 3 billion in Asia, 1 billion in Africa and 2 billion in America?

9. How many of the world's 1 year old children today have been vaccinated against some diseases?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

10. Worldwide, 30 year old men have spent 10 years in school on average, how many years have  women of the same age spent in school?

A. 9 years

B. 6 years

or

C. 3 years?

11. In 1996 tigers, giant pandas and black rhinos were all listed as endangered, how many of these  three species are critically endangered today?

A. 2 of them

B. 1 of them

or

C. none of them?

12. How many people in the world have some access to electricity?

A. 20%

B. 50%

or

C. 80%?

13. Global climate experts believe that over the next 100 years the average temperature will on  average?

A. get warmer

B. remain the same

or

C. get colder?