What Happens to Life Expectancy at Birth During Genocides?
Visualizing the most horrific events of human history
Hi, and welcome to a new data visualization. Let me know what you think, and make sure to like, share, and subscribe if you’re enjoying the content! 😀
Today, I decided to create a visualization showing the terrifying change in life expectancy at birth in countries that have undergone genocide.
I’m using data from the World Bank, which goes back to 1960. Since then, there have been three severe genocides that I’ve included in the chart.
The Rwandan Genocide in 1994
The Cambodian Genocide between 1975 and 1978
The Bangladesh Genocide in 1971
In all of these, a significant portion of the population died, and life expectancy plunged to unimaginable levels.
In this data visualization, I’ve plotted life expectancy at birth as separate bar plots for each of the three countries. You can see how the values decrease drastically when the genocide begins.
It’s impossible to imagine that the life expectancy for someone born in Cambodia in 1975 is only twelve years!
About the design
The design doesn’t look fantastic at first glance, but that’s because it communicates a horrible message, and we need a sober presentation.
Colors
Since I wanted a bright chart, I decided to use grayscale colors. I aimed to create a minimalistic chart communicating the message clearly without unnecessary details.
With data like this, it’s best to create a plain design that leaves no room for interpretation since people associate colors differently.
By only using gray colors, I’m saying that I want you to know this fact, but I’m not trying to impress you.
Information
I like charts that only add the information you need. One example in this design is that I don’t add labels for all years on the x-axis. No one looking at this chart cares about that information, and it’s irrelevant to my message.
Also, by adding the three events at the bottom, you still get a good enough feel for the timeline, which is from 1960 to 2021.
Thank you for reading! 🙏