The best stats you've ever seen | Hans Rosling
Why Hacker News recommends it
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.
What it is
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.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 5 different months, 2013 to 2026.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec nl · 2013-12 · on “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] [this video]
Strong rec jsperson · 2019-09 · on “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: [this video]
Strong rec mywacaday · 2020-06 · on “Fighting poverty accidentally stopped deforestation”
Probably been posted a lot before but always worth a watch. [this video] The Great Hans Rosling. His book is well worth a read as well.
Strong rec sdht0 · 2021-05 · on “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] [this video] [1] [LINK] [2] [LINK]
Recommends mzi · 2026-05 · on “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 [this video]
Cites trevorstrohman · 2013-12 · on “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). [this video]
Cites oconnor663 · 2016-05 · on “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: [this video]
Cites keanzu · 2020-02 · on “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. [this video]