The Big Picture on Health and Wealth

It can be hard to step back and see the big picture when every day we witness the type of back-and-forth nastiness that I've written about this week.

So, I encourage you to visit an amazing visual history of the past 200 years from Gapminder. Click here and press "Play" to witness mankind's progress as shown in a bubble chart tracking income per capita and life expectancy for the world's nations.

The bottom line: 200 years ago, all countries were poor and life expectancy was less than 40 years. Today, no country has less than 40 years in life expectancy.

Hope it puts you in a positive frame of mind for the weekend!

Here's a screen shot of the starting point from the year 1800.


P.S. Check out the latest Health Wonk Review at Boston Health News.