Does Money = Longer Life??
Data Visualization Lab | Global Health & Economics | World Bank / WHO Data 2022
I am looking at data from 20 countries to see if having more money (GDP) means people live longer. I made 3 different charts to show this.
My argument/thesis: Rich countries generally have higher life expectancy, but after a certain point more money doesn't help that much. How you spend money on healthcare matters more than how much you spend.
The Data I Used
This is the dataset. It has 20 countries with their GDP, life expectancy, and how much they spend on healthcare.
| Flag |
Country |
Region |
GDP per Capita ($) |
Life Expectancy (yrs) |
Health Spend (% of GDP) |
Source: World Bank & WHO 2022
My Three Charts
Chart #1 - GDP vs Life Expectancy (Scatter Plot)
What this chart shows:
This is a scatter plot where each dot represents a country. The x axis shows gdp per capita and the y axis shows life expectancy. Countries with lower gdp tend to have lower life expectancy, and countries with higher gdp tend to have higher life expectancy. However, the relationship flattens out at higher income levels. Norway has a higher gdp than Japan but Japan has a longer life expectancy. This suggests that after a certain income level, more money does not add many more years of life.
Why I chose a scatter plot: A scatter plot works well here because it shows the relationship between two numeric variables across many countries at once.
Chart #2 - Healthcare Spending vs. Life Expectancy by Country (Bar Chart)
What this chart shows:
This grouped bar chart compares healthcare spending (red bars, as a percentage of gdp) with life expectancy (blue bars, in years) for each country. The usa has the highest healthcare spending at 17.8% of gdp but its life expectancy is lower than many other high-income countries. Japan and South Korea spend less on healthcare but have longer life expectancy. This suggests that spending more on healthcare does not always lead to better outcomes.
Why I chose a grouped bar: Placing both bars side by side for each country makes it easy to compare spending and life expectancy at the same time.
Chart #3 - Average Life Expectancy by Region (Horizontal Bar)
What this chart shows:
This chart groups countries by region and shows the average life expectancy for each one. Western Europe and East Asia have the highest averages, while Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest. The gap between the top and bottom regions is close to 20 years. This shows that where a person is born has a significant effect on how long they are likely to live.
Why I chose a horizontal bar: The region names are long and a horizontal layout makes them easier to read. Sorting the bars also makes it simple to compare which regions rank higher or lower.
My Conclusions
1. Money does help, but only up to a point. Chart 1 shows that going from poor to middle-income adds years to your life.
2. The USA is a outlier. It spends the most on healthcare but doesn't get the best results. This is probably because of how the healthcare system is set up - it's not universal like other countries.
3. Where you're born still matters the most. The regional chart shows almost a 20-year gap between. actually matters more once you reach a certain income level.