The Data-Visualization-Presentation on How Africa is Changing

www.Africa in Data.org A Data-Visualization-Presentation from www.OurWorldInData.org.

One of the most fundamental changes in Africa is the huge improvement in education.

This data visualisation for the entire world is available in the Data Entry on The Global Rise of Education.

And throughout the continent the health of the population is improving.

Throughout this presentation: Click on the chart to see the interactive version and study the data (including the sources) in detail.

After long years of oppressive colonial rule, …

Colonial Africa in 1912

This map is from the World Bank’s World Development Report (2009) — online here.

…and decades of brutal dictatorships…

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…many countries in Africa are now becoming democratic!

You may want to Click on the chart to see the interactive version and study the data (including the sources) in detail.

And what is happening in Africa is important for the entire world: Currently there are 1 billion people living in Africa, by the end of the century there will be 4 billion (UN medium fertility projection).

One of the most important recent changes is that Africa started growing, and poverty is now falling rapidly.

This graph is taken from Pinkovskiy and Sala-i-Martin (2010) here.

Poverty continued continued falling post 2006 as you can see in the entry on World Poverty here.

It is not just a couple of big countries that are growing. African growth is remarkably general — the whole continent is changing.

Innovation and modernisation in Agriculuture are improving food provision.

Over millenia malaria cost many million lives in Africa. And with increasing population the deaths were rising — this trend has recently been reversed.

And other diseases have been eradicated entirely!

Smallpox was a horrible disease that was common around the world. With global vaccination campaings it was completley eradicated by 1977.

The fact that the young generation in Africa is vastly better educated than ever before is for me the biggest reason to be optimistic that Africa’s progress continues.

Spread the word about progress in Africa and share this presentation on Twitter — Tweet

On OurWorldinData.org I viusalize the Empirical Evidence on how the World is Changing. Other presentations include:

1. The Visual History of Improving Health around the World
2. The Visual History of the Rise of Political Freedom and Decrease in Violence
3. Increasing Prosperity, Declining Poverty, and Decreasing World Income Inequality
4. The Visual History of Decreasing World Hunger and Improving Food Provision

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Originally published at www.ourworldindata.org.