Hans Rosling: 200 Years in 4 Minutes.

In class, we watched a video by Swedish global health teacher Hans Rosling. Rosling used visualization to show the difference by nation in life expectancy and GDP per capita between 1810 and 2009, when the video was made.
In 1810, life expectancy was below age 40 worldwide, and GDP per capita was below $400 worldwide, but this didn't take inflation into consideration.
As time progressed, western, particularly European, nations had a significant increase in GDP per capita because of the industrial revolution. The better economies led to better healthcare, and longer lifespans in these nations. Meanwhile, colonized countries in Asia and Africa were doing poorly both in life expectancy and GDP per capita because they were not impacted by the industrial revolution.
In the video, we saw how WWI and the Spanish Flu epidemic impacted the world's population as nations all over the world had great decreases in the life expectancy.
Seeing these countries recover and come back stronger strengthened the idea that with all the advances of the modern world, many impoverished countries can become richer and healthier, like many western nations.
We also focused on how a country can't be called better than another because it's richer, and poor countries shouldn't be called terrible.

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