1. The y-axis is life expectancy (average number of years a newborn would live if mortality rate is constant). The x-axis is income (specifically, GDP per capita adjusted for inflation). Each bubble is a country and the color of a bubble indicates the region the country is located in (Americas, Africa, Asia and Australia, Europe). The size of each bubble indicates the population of the country represented by that bubble.
There is a positive correlation between income and life expectancy (as the GDP per capita in a country increases, the life expectancy in that country increases as well). The size of a country does not appear to be linked to income or life expectancy, as there are small countries with both a low and high life expectancies and incomes, respectively.
2. My ancestors are from India. India’s life expectancy is 69.1 years, and its income is 6890 international dollars. It has a population of 1.35 billion.
3. The bubble size is now the number of births for every 1000 people in the country. It seems that the bubble size (crude birth rate) decreases as the income level and life expectancy of the country increasing. The crude birth rates of different countries are more similar than the population, which is why bubbles for the graph overlap a lot.
4a. There seems to be a strong positive linear correlation between Human Development Index and Income (GDP/capita). As we move to the top right of the graph, the countries become more closely clustered. That is, countries with lower incomes have higher variation in HDI than countries with higher incomes.
As we increase the year, in general, most countries move towards the top right (high HDI and high income). In in 1990 there are many countries with HDI less than 0.4 and
income less than 2000. In 2015, there very few countries with HDI less than 0.4, and fewer countries with income less than 2000.
b. There is a general negative correlation between a country’s child mortality (number of deaths of children under five per 1000 births) and Income. In 1800, all the countries in the graph had nearly the same child mortality rates, but with some countries being richer than others. Also, income was lower than it is today, with the most being around 4000 GDP/capita. As time went on, countries in general became richer, but in 2018 there is a much greater variation in income among countries than there was in 1800. Additionally, child mortality decreased as well (due to advances in medicine), but there is also a huge variation in mortality rates. That is, countries with higher incomes, have lower rates (as they can afford advanced medical treatments), whereas countries with low incomes have higher rates.
c. In 2011 (the most recent year), as income level decreases, the literacy rate also decreases indicating a positive correlation between income and literacy. The relationship is not necessarily linear, it flattens out at 4000 international dollars. There are very few data points in 1975 and some of the extremely early years, but it is still possible to see this positive correlation. As years increase countries’ income and literacy rates increase as well (the data points move to the top right of the graph). For instance, in 1984 about half of the countries in the graph had literacy rates above 64%, but in 2011, more than three-fourths of the countries had literacy rates higher 64%.
5.
Countries that are democratic are generally richer than non-democratic countries. Democracies also have higher human development indexes, lower child mortalities, and higher literacy rates. This is evident by the cluster of red data points in the top right (for human development index and literacy rates) and the bottom right (for child mortality). There are exceptions to the above trends, however. The democracy scores of countries increased as time passed. At first in 1890s, there were only a few democracies. The number of democracies increased from that point, but a majority of countries were still non-democratic until around 1988. After 1988, many countries became more democratic, and the number of red bubbles surged.
6. The measure of democracy used in this graph is the polity measure of democracy from the polity IV dataset. The range is from -10 to 10. A score between 6 and 10 is considered a democracy ("About Polity").
7. If a country’s level of development increases, then its democracy score will also increase.
8. (“World’s Top 10 Oil Exporters”)
Country
GDP/Capita
Score
Saudi Arabia
20.6 k
-10
Russia
11.2 k
4
Iraq
4700
3
United Arab Emirates
35.7 k
-8
Canada
48.5 k
10
Nigeria
2380
4
Kuwait
39.7 k
-7
Angola
3540
-2
Venezuela
13.9 k
-3
Kazakhstan
9600
-6
Most oil exporters are not democratic (all of them have low to mid democracy scores except for Canada). Canada is the only democracy in this entire list.
9. The oil in countries that are dictatorships allow the dictator to stay in power as funds from oil can be used to fuel his regime; they help sustain the authoritarian government, so it can go about enforcing its rules on its citizens. Oil in countries that were democracies before oil was found do not have this negative effect. However, if a country finds oil when it is non democratic, then it will remain a non democracy.
If one found a country that was democratic when oil was first found, and if this country then became a authoritarian regime my hypothesis would be disproven. Alternatively one could also disprove my hypothesis by finding a country that found oil as a dictatorship, and then this country evolved into a democracy.
10. As years change from 1960 to 2011, there is a net increase in the number of countries with a democracy score of nine and ten. Many of these are coming from the autocracy range of the polity’s scoring system (probably upheaval of a dictatorship). Additionally, the GDP per capita of countries with democracy scores between nine and ten increases. Furthermore, the countries with a score of nine frequently move up to a score of ten as time passes.
11. India and China are the two biggest bubbles. Both of them switch between different democracy scores that are not very different from their current status. China and India are on opposite ends of the democracy scale – one is authoritarian, and the other is a democracy. The GDP/Capita of these two countries increases with time. This increase in GDP/capita is accompanied by an increase in population. This means that GDP of these countries outpaces the growth of their respective populations.