Factfulness

Hans Rosling (July 27, 1948–February 7, 2017) was a Swedish physician and public speaker. His specialization in infectious disease took him across the globe, and his most prominent work involved konzo (a disease prevalent in the countries of Africa that is caused by eating insufficiently processed cassava). Rosling also taught at institutions around the world, where he discovered the widespread belief in outdated information. Rosling spent the last twenty years of his life battling misconceptions and false information by promoting the fact-based worldview through teaching, TED talks, and Factfulness (which was published posthumously). With the help of his son and daughter-in-law, Rosling founded the Gapminder institute and the simple approach of expressing statistics through interactive bubble charts.

Factfulness was Rosling’s last project and represents his final stand against global ignorance. Through the book, he sought to promote the fact-based worldview by presenting evidence of our own emotions as the culprit for drama. With data from countries at every income level and from people at all levels of education, Rosling shows the problem of ignorance is not restricted to any particular group and is instead a shared condition of humanity. To show a more accurate image of today’s world, Rosling pulled data from the United Nations and World Bank, which clearly show an improving world. In addition to data and analysis of human thought processes, Factfulness contains stories from Rosling’s experiences as a doctor, professor, and presenter to illustrate how the overdramatic worldview persists worldwide.