Tableau Public assignment

Russia & South Africa Recovering, Brics Group Progress Continues

GDP and mortality indicators reveal different paths to progress for the emerging national economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa over the 1990s and 2000s. In all cases the GDP has improved since 1990, the largest growth being that of China in which GDP has risen from close to $2,000 to over $10,000 in 2011. As for life expectancy, only South Africa ended the period with an overall decrease. Life expectancy has risen for the rest of the group, by over 10 years on average for India, China and Brazil.

In their pursuit of the same development levels in GDP and life expectancy as the developed economies (located in the upper right quadrant), South Africa and Russia experienced the period from 1990 to 2011 very differently from their BRICS counterparts. South Africa has still not bounced back from the AIDs epidemic that so impacted its life expectancy and GDP in the 90s. Russia’s turnaround only just surpassed its 1990 levels in 2010, after spending 20 years recovering from the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Developed economies tend to be marked by High GDP and High Life Expectancy, which would place them in the upper right hand corner of the chart. Each point represents a year of measurement for the respective countries, and the size of a dot is a measurement of infant mortality. Countries strive for this measure to be as small as possible.