The world is about numbers and figures. The death of an individual is a tragedy, the death of thousands but a statistic. We can paint a good picture of a particular country, city, town, village with a few statistics. GDP per head, PPP, agricultural dependency, literacy, etc. Throughout our lives (as privileged, numerically literate, socially aware individuals), we are immersed in environments that show up as words + pictures. 

For example, "one in four adults in Botswana are HIV positive" narrated over a video of children playing on the ground by a mud hut with a thatched roof. Or "35-hour work week" against views of the Seine and people dining al-fresco along the river. 

I picked up the Economist's "World Pocket in Figures" and skimmed through it. It's always interesting to dip into here and there, esepcially if you're interested in infographics. Visualized data is beautiful, although to be honest, it does not always make sense. Still, the best ones usually do. I find it interesting to be able to skim through a bunch of figures and piece together a coherent picture of a world in my head. How coherent or accurate this picture (or video rather, as most of us don't think in snapshots, I suppose) is is questionable.

Some people believe you can trust your gut instincts, that estimation is sufficient. I know there are some figures we are not hardwired to understand with primitive brains that are more used to coping with no more than what we can count with our fingers and toes for thousands of years as we evolved on the Savannah.

I don't think we can ever truly comprehend some numbers. But there are plenty of people out there trying to visualize some of it. Trying to visualize numbers is an art. You're taking all these numbers and turning them into something that people can understand, and people understand things best if they can form a personal narrative in their heads. 

It's extremely important for people to be able to do this, especially when you start thinking about the numbers thrown around in politics and by charities and aid organizations. People don't have the patience to trawl through the actual data, and any little snippet that supports a sob story will do for the most part. 

There are some good sites out there, such as Hans Gosling's Gap Minder that give us a narrative of social progress, as well as accurate data. But for something more personal, there's Daytum.

Good fun.