Gapminder Screencast & Analysis

Variable Set #1

Variable Set #2

Part 1-

Variable Set #1:

a. Income per person, GDP/capita, PPP$ inflation adjusted: shows money made per person per year

Life expectancy, measured in years: shows expected age one is to live to 

b. A high rate of income per person in a country shows that that country is centered in the tertiary sector where jobs are better paying, this would also mean that this country is highly developed if a majority of their jobs take part of the tertiary sector. A high life expectancy shows that a country is developed because a high life expectancy shows that the country has good health care and education opportunities needed to obtain a good job.

Variable Set #2

a. Ratio of girls to boys in primary & secondary education, measured in percentage enrolled: shows the number of girls in comparison to the number of boys registered for school.

Children per woman (total fertility rate): measures number of children born to each woman on average

b. An equal ratio of girls to boys in primary & secondary education shows that a country is well developed because girls have been given the opportunity to go to school instead of being forced to work or stay home to help with chores. A low total fertility rate shows that a country has a developed economic system because it shows the country is developed to the point where girls can go to school and not only gain sex-education but also be in school and begin a career where in a less developed country they may already have had children at that point. 

Part 2-

Variable Set #1

a. The more developed countries started and continued consistently towards the top of the data, countries such a the U.S., Japan, and Switzerland included in this. The African and middle-eastern countries stayed primarily near the bottom with low life expectancies and low income/person. After the 1940's the lower remaining countries took off, shifting at relatively the same pace as the countries higher up in the statistics.

b. Generally, the more developed countries industrialized sooner and have stronger economic developments. Perhaps the jump in life expectancy and income/person is explained partially by the end of WWII in 1945 because of the fact the fighting is over, people are living longer afterwards and governments are stabilized after the war. 

Variable Set #2

a. After the 1980's most all countries, with the exception of several African states, shift substantially towards 100% equality of genders in schools, along with dropping in their total fertility rates. Most countries in Europe & central Asia, East Asia and the Americas focus around 2 children per woman, while a lot of African and middle-eastern countries are anywhere from 4 to 8 children.

b. African and middle-eastern countries typically have more children simply because they need help with taking care of family, farming, etc. This also correlates with their slightly lower percentage of women in school because they need help around the home or need extra money so they send their girls to work. 

Crossing the Line GIS Activity

View Larger Map Where are they?

The location of the state I chose to split apart was Somalia, Somalia split off on the upper north and middle section of the country. These new sections are to be called Somaliland and Puntland, Somaliland in the northwestern corner and Puntland in the northeastern down into the middle of the country. The countries I chose to come together were China and Siberia. Siberia is located to the upper northeast corner of China

WHY are they there?

I believe the boundary changes to Somalia will occur because things have already began to separate, but are still in need of outside recognition. The centrifugal forces tearing the country of Somalia apart are the forces of war and lack of government. I believe the boundary changes of China will change to accommodate Siberia because Russia’s failing and emptying east give China the incentive to take control of major resourceful and large chunks of Siberia.

Why are they THERE?

The criteria I used to create the new boundaries of Somalia where based off of existing geometric separations in the country. The criteria I used to create the new boundaries of China that include large parts of Siberia were influenced by the direct connection to Chinese territory. The part of Siberia that will join China is directly connected to the upper northeastern corner of China where China can easily access to take over Siberia.

What difference will it make?

The differences the separation of Somalia will make include the higher probability of continuous war because of differing opinions on separation between the parties, but separation of the parties could also end wars. The combining of China and Siberia could strengthen China’s economic power even more because of useful resources available in Siberia, but could also influence a problem to arise between them and Russia.

Cultural Geography Photo Collage

Census Data Mapper Map & Analysis - October 2013

LINK to this map on Google Drive This thematic, chloropleth map illustrates the percent of Black or African American people living across the United States by county. The largest concentration of African Americans is centralized in the Southeast, stretching all the way from Maryland to the eastern corner of Texas; this region is known as the “Black Belt”. There appears to be large populations of African Americans living in the larger cities outside of this main cluster, such as Minneapolis, MN., Detroit, MI., and Chicago, IL. Although there are some fairly well populated areas outside of the Black Belt, such as in Southern California and Texas, most of the African American population is focused throughout the Southern East Coast. In contrast, there are barely any African Americans in the West and Midwest regions,

Reasons why African American people are located mainly in the Southeast or what is known as the Black Belt region is because this is where many people who owned African slaves lived. After slavery was abolished, most slaves stayed where they were or moved to other states near them. This explains the high population percentages in this region because descendants of slave laborers still live in this region and people tend to stay where they and their parents were raised. Reasons that explain why there are high percentages of African American people living in larger cities such as Minneapolis, Detroit and Chicago may be related to how people can live in larger cities and still have a good life even if they don’t have a lot of money. People in larger cities have access to a lot more resources, such as stores and schools, than people in smaller, more rural towns. An explanation to the extremely low percentages of blacks in the West and Midwest is that a lot of the land in these areas is farmland and it isn’t very populated with humans in general, not just African Americans.

These patterns make an impact in many ways, but strictly in culture differences. This means that in the areas where there are higher populations of African American people, you will experience that culture more than you would if you were in the West/Midwest where there are very low concentrations of African Americans. For instance, if a resident of McLean County, North Dakota, where there is a population percentage of 0.1% African Americans, were to go on a vacation to Jefferson County, Mississippi, where there is a population percentage of 85.7% African Americans, that would be quite a culture shock. This would be a culture shock not only in the difference of the amount of African American people, but probably also in the food, music and maybe even in the way they talk.

Activity Space Map - September 2013

View Activity Space Map in a larger map