Sustainability Math A Quantitative Literacy and Mathematics Resource for Instructors

Life Expectancy vs Income Per Person

July 20, 2017

With health care in the news, let’s take a look at the knowledge that can be gained by using Gapminder. For example, the graph here is life expectancy vs income per person for 2015, with the bubbles representing population size of the country. Can you guess the bubble for the U.S.? Go to the graph on Gapminder to find out. As a bonus their is a play button so that the graph will scroll from 1800 to 2015. You will also find a number of tools to change the graph and create others. All the data used by the Gapminder graphs is located on their data page.

Tags data source health income statistics

About Thomas J. Pfaff

Thomas J. Pfaff is a Professor of Mathematics at Ithaca College. He created this website because he believes that sustainability, ranging from climate change to social justice, should be included in all courses whenever possible.

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Sustainability Math originated as a site that posted sustainability themed material for mathematics courses. Over time these pages have expanded to included other material, such as animations and interactive graphs, that relate to mathematics and quantitative literacy. Material posted here will likely also be useful to those interested in promoting quantitative literacy. Posts, 0-3 times per week, focus on data recourses, interesting quantitative information, and sustainability (broadly interpreted) in the news and so consider signing up for email alerts below. Questions, comments, and thoughts are welcome.