A Date with Data — Issue 7
It’s Tuesday, and this your weekly date with data!
These are our favorite stories about data from the past week, Sept. 10— Sept. 16.
The map we need if we want to think about how global living conditions are changing
Sept. 12, 2018
While geographical maps are often used to display various types of data, they’re primarily designed to show countries’ territories and their borders. To accurately show and compare where the world’s people live, Our World in Data used data from the United Nations Population Division to create population cartograms: “geographical presentations of the world where the size of the countries are not drawn according to the distribution of land, but according to the distribution of people.” Instead of highlighting large countries on the map, population cartograms draw our attention to the areas of the world that are home to the most people. For example, while Russia occupies 11% of the world’s land, its population makes up only 2% of the global population. Explore the maps that have the human factor at the heart of their design and explore an interactive map of the world’s population density between 1960 and today. OUR WORLD IN DATA [Learned about it via Graphic Content]
Being 18 in 2018
Sept. 13, 2018
What should people that were born in 2000 expect of their lives in the U.K. as they reach adulthood? According to a recent report from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics, they should expect to live into their 90s and get married in their 30s. Also, less than half of the 18-year-olds will start working (compared to 60% in the early 2000s), and one in three will be accepted at British universities. Finally, do they really live up to the label “Generation Sensible”? The answer is yes, as the report reveals the numbers behind the dramatic decline in smoking, a significant decrease in their alcohol consumption, and also in the time spent socializing. OFFICE OF NATIONAL STATISTICS (U.K.)
The Secret Drug Pricing System Middlemen Use to Rake in Millions
Sept. 11, 2018
Through a series of graphics, Bloomberg exposed how drug middlemen, better known as PBMs (pharmacy benefit managers), bleed dry the U.S. taxpayers who fund the Medicare program. In this investigation of the little-known tactic called “spread pricing,” Bloomberg examined 90 of the best-selling generic drugs used by Medicare managed-care plans. They uncovered a pattern: the newer the generic drugs, the biggest the markups. To understand the magnitude of profit, the markup in Ohio for Novartis AG’s leukemia pill Gleevec was as high as $3,000 per prescription. This generic drug that cost $482 in mid-2016, cost $3,342 in late 2017. While some states cut out PBMs from their Medicare managed-care program, and others audit PBMs’ practices, critics of the industry don’t believe that this raised awareness will signal the end of these dealings. BLOOMBERG
Still not sure what PBMs are and how they operate? I’ve found this video helpful:
How big will the iPhone get?
Sept. 13, 2018
Last last week Apple announced the release of the new iPhone XS Max, with a screen real-estate greater than 100 square centimeters. The Economist took the rate of increase in iPhone screen size (which tripled since 2007 when the first iPhone was released) and tried to forecast how big the iPhone could get by 2025. The technique they used for their prediction is called extrapolation, whereby you estimate how a value will evolve in the future assuming that the estimated value follows logically from the known values. But you have to be careful with extrapolation as it won’t apply indefinitely. So what external factor or change of trend could call a halt to the growing iPhone screen? Would the complaints that the latest iPhones are too heavy for some people’s hands or too big for some others’ pockets, be the turning point or would it be something else? GRAPHIC DETAIL — THE ECONOMIST
That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading!
