AP Human GeographyName______

Using Gapminder

First view Hans Rosling’s discussion of Gapminder at

Go to and select Gapminder Tools to complete the following activities.

The first graph you will see focuses on “The Wealth and Health of Nations”

First things first – which means READ this carefully:

  1. All data are presented on an x and y axis - the play button starts the graph/time into motion
  2. Countries are depicted by the size of their population – that is, the size of the circle indicates how large the population is.

Which country will have the largest circle for almost anything you measure? ______

  1. The color of the circle indicates the region of the country. Identify each

Yellow ______

Orange ______

Green ______

Dark Blue ______

Light Blue ______

Red ______

  1. You can place your cursor on a particular circle and it will indicate what country it is, as well as see data about it displayed in the top, right corner of the graph
  2. You can select and deselect the countries to watch/use on the right side of the graph
  3. Note the Chart and Map option tabs at the top of the graph. Be sure to look at both
  4. There are many more options to learn, but these are the basics – now, begin to play with it
  1. Wealth and Health of Nations

A. Which two components were chosen for this topic?

______

What observations can you make from this graphic?

  1. CO2 Emissions since 1820 (Climate)

Change the Y axis to CO2 per capita

Do not change the X axis

What observations can you make from this graphic?

  1. Africa is not a Country! (Global Trends)

Change the Y axis to Child Mortality Rate

Do not change the X axis

Hover over Africa on the map, click and choose “Remove everything else” so that only the countries of Africa are visible on the graph

What observations can you make from this graphic?

  1. Is Child Mortality Falling? (Child Health)

Click on “remove everything else” so that you can see the whole world

Do not change the Y axis

Change the X axis to Babies per Woman

What observations can you make from this graphic?

Which seems to have a greater effect on child health – wealth or siblings?

  1. High Age at Marriage (Family)

Change the Y axis to Age at First Marriage in the Population folder

Do not change the X axis

What observations can you make from this graphic?

  1. Create a Gapminder graph of your own. You will print this one
  1. Choose the element of the Y axis and X axis
  2. Title it
  3. One the back, write a paragraph explaining why you chose the two elements you used and what trend your graph describes.