Data Visualization Assignment #1: Visualizing government debt
Part 1: Working with web-based visualization tools and data
This bar chart visualization represents data from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focusing on general government debt-to-GDP ratio in 2014. Within this bar chart, we can also see which countries fall above or below the OECD-Average (bar colored back). It is an interactive visualization where you can click on a bar, and it will display its information (Country, Year, % GDP).
Part 2: Working with Flourish
This grid of line charts visualization represents data from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focusing on the general government debt-to-GDP ratio between 1995 to 2019. Within this grid of line charts, we can see that generally government debt-to-GDP has increased among most OECD countries from 1995 to 2019. For some countries, data is missing for some years, but using 1995 to 2019 provided the most comparable data. It is an interactive visualization where you can drag your cursor down any line, and it will display the Debt-to-GDP ratio for the associated year.
Part 3: Create your own visualization
This race line chart interactive visualization represents data from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) focusing on the general government debt-to-GDP ratio (given as a percent, %) between nine countries between 1995-2022. Within this race line chart, there are two options, Debt-to-GDP Ratio or Country Ranking, to view government debt-to-GDP ratio which are located at the top of the graph to the left. If you click on Debt-to-GDP Ratio, it will provide the actual ratio values associated with the correct year, otherwise, if you click on Country Ranking, it will provide a ranking associated with the correct year among the nine countries. Although the race line chart already moves for you, once it reaches the 2022 year, it becomes a static line plot, and you can click on any of the lines to highlight them specifically. If you would like to “replay” the race for either of the options, just click on the “replay button” located at the top of the plot next to the options. Although some countries’ ratio varies over time between increasing and decreasing, the interactive visualization shows that Japan has steadily increased and has the highest ratio by far.
In order to create this visualization, I had to reformat the original general government debt data table from a long format to a wide format, which I was able to complete by using the .pivot() function in Python. These nine countries were chosen because they had the highest general government debt-to-GDP ratio within 2022, but their data was also complete from 1995-2022 (the 10th highest country, ZAF, data only available for the last ~14 years).
Reflection: Comparing the three visualizations
The data represented from all of the three visualizations comes from The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) within their general government debt data. The most important elements of the data for the purpose of this assignment are the location (country), year, and government debt-to-GDP ratio (given as a percent, %) for that given year. Data is available from 1995-2022, but not all countries reported data for all of the years. General government debt-to-GDP ratio measures the gross debt of the general government as a percentage of GDP, and it is important because it is used as a key indicator for the sustainability of government finance.
The government debt bar chart (part 1) is just a simple plot from the OECD general government debt data website that only provides data for 2014 since the objective was to find a year where most countries reported the data. The grid of line charts (part 2) generated using Flourish provided multiple line plots (one for each country) for their ratio over the years 1995-2019. Finally, the race line chart I created using Flourish, is an interactive plot that allows the reader to visually see how the top nine countries with the highest ratio in 2022 have progressed from 1995-2022. Luckily, all of these countries had data available over all of the years, so there was no data missing (the 10th country had more missing data, and therefore was excluded). The first and second visualizations are most similar because they provide data for more countries and provide a subtle interactive element that allows you to hover over a bar or line and see the country and the value, but compared to the third, it is most difficult to feel the impact of government debt-to-GDP ratio over time. Additionally, in the first and third visualizations, Japan clearly stands out as the country with the highest ratio, but in the second, there is no indication besides the viewer having to look at all of the individual line charts. Although the three different visualizations tell a different story, I believe the third visualization is most impactful since it is not too cluttered (only focused on a few countries rather than all) and the viewer can visually see the impact over time as the line moves for them. Overall, I decided to create the race line chart because I believe it gives the reader a visual that they can follow year by year, allows them to really see the difference in ratio trends between the top countries, highlights how much higher the ratio is in Japan and how it has skyrocketed over time.