Charts Lab: Global Life Expectancy & Health Outcomes
A data visualization exercise exploring how income, healthcare, and clean water relate to how long people live.
The Dataset
I chose a health and economics dataset covering 10 countries from different regions and income levels. The five variables are: life expectancy at birth, GDP per capita (USD), healthcare spending as a percent of GDP, infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births), and share of population with access to clean water. Data is from WHO and World Bank estimates for 2022.
Country
Region
Life Expectancy (yrs)
GDP per Capita (USD)
Health Spend (% GDP)
Infant Mortality (per 1k)
Clean Water Access (%)
Japan
East Asia
84.3
33,815
11.1
1.8
99.9
Sweden
Europe
82.8
55,395
11.0
2.1
99.8
Germany
Europe
80.6
48,717
12.8
3.1
100.0
United States
North America
76.4
76,330
16.9
5.4
99.2
China
East Asia
78.2
12,720
5.4
5.6
95.0
Brazil
South America
73.8
8,917
9.9
13.6
87.6
Mexico
North America
70.2
10,046
5.5
11.2
96.4
India
South Asia
67.2
2,389
3.0
26.6
89.9
Ethiopia
Sub-Saharan Africa
66.0
925
3.4
37.4
42.7
Nigeria
Sub-Saharan Africa
53.6
2,065
3.9
55.5
60.1
Sources: WHO Global Health Observatory, World Bank Development Indicators, UNICEF JMP (2022 estimates)
Chart 1: Life Expectancy by Country
This bar chart ranks all 10 countries by life expectancy so you can easily compare them side by side.
Analysis: There is almost a 31-year gap between the longest-lived country (Japan at 84.3 years) and the shortest (Nigeria at 53.6 years). The chart makes it easy to see that European and East Asian countries cluster at the top, while Sub-Saharan African countries are at the bottom. One interesting thing is that the U.S. ranks lower than several countries with much less wealth — that gap is worth investigating further. A bar chart works well here because you're comparing a single value across categories, and ranking them makes the differences immediately obvious.
Chart 2: GDP per Capita vs. Life Expectancy
This scatter plot looks at whether wealthier countries simply live longer. Each dot is one country, labeled on the chart.
Analysis: There is a general trend — richer countries do tend to live longer — but the relationship isn't as clean as you might expect. The biggest outlier is the United States, which has by far the highest GDP per capita ($76,330) but only ranks 4th in life expectancy. Meanwhile Japan achieves the best life expectancy at a much lower income level. This scatter plot is effective because it shows the relationship between two variables at once, and outliers like the U.S. stand out immediately. The argument here is that wealth alone doesn't determine longevity.
Chart 3: Clean Water Access vs. Infant Mortality
This grouped bar chart compares two public health indicators across all countries, ordered from lowest to highest life expectancy (left to right).
Analysis: This chart makes the strongest case in the whole dataset. As you move from left to right (shorter to longer-lived countries), clean water access rises while infant mortality drops. Nigeria has just 60% clean water access and 55.5 infant deaths per 1,000 births. Japan has 99.9% water access and only 1.8 infant deaths. The pattern suggests that basic infrastructure — not just wealth or healthcare spending — is one of the most important factors in how long a population lives. A grouped bar chart works well here because it lets you compare both variables for each country at the same time.