What’s the best method of life extension? Diet and exercise? Or polygamy and pets? The latest data visualized.

» How to extend your lifespan
» See the data and studies

As requested, we’ve completed a full, scene-by-scene, truthiness analysis of Bohemian Rhapsody.

The results for our fact-checking of the 2018 movie about Freddie Mercury’s life, starring Rami Malek, have been added to our Based On a True True Story? interactive. What was the real nature of his relationship with Mary Austin? Did he really meet Jim Hutton after a party? We’ve got the answers.

» Comb through our findings
» Explore the data

The results are in. After combing through hundreds of impressive, insightful and creative entries, we’ve decided on the winners of the World Data Visualization Prize 2019.

Conducted in partnership with the World Government Summit, the prize focuses on how governments are improving citizens’ lives. We asked entrants to use the power of data-visualization to illuminate data on the innovations and decisions – seen and unseen – that drive progress.

Scroll through the interactive, static and hand-drawn “napkin” category winners to see who took the grand prize of $25,000.

Interactive

Winner – $6,000

GOV | DNA
This beautiful interactive graphic shows the “DNA” of good government. You can compare multiple indicators to investigate their influence on countries, and share your findings with others.
By Werner Helmich

Runner Up – $3,000

Mapamundi
We had so many great interactive entries that we’ve chosen two runners-up. The first uses artificial intelligence techniques to cluster countries together based on different indicators, creating a new world map.
By Christian Parsons

Runner Up – $3,000

Good Governments Help People Succeed 
The second of our two runners-up in the interactive category takes a nuanced, analytical look at the quality of government, through the lens of social well-being and enablement of individual progress.
By Jim Vallandingham

Napkin

Winner – $1,500

What Makes The Government Effective?
This colourful chart shows the correlations between different development indices.
By Eileen Huang

Runner Up – $750

Worst of the Best, and Best of the Worst
This graphic asks what the richest countries are bad at, and what the poorest countries are good at.
By Rasagy Sharma

Static

Winner – $3,000

Small States can be Big Players in Development and Good Governance
Using our Small Countries are Beautiful dataset, this infographic shows how government effectiveness correlates with different development indices, as well as illustrating how small countries tend to be more politically stable and free, and less corrupt.
By Dimiter Toshkov

Runner Up – $1,500

The Value Proposition of Good Government
By normalising for national wealth, this graphic shows the countries in the world that are doing the most impressive work with the least resources.
By Anna Jacobson

Grand Prize Winner – $25,000

An Alternative, Data-Driven, Country Map
This dazzling, winning entry from Nikita Rokotyan uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to find previously-unseen connections and harmonies between different countries. It uses an AI technique called t-SNE to discover clusters of nations that are related by happiness score, health expenditure, investment in education and many other variables. It then presents these patterns visually, creating an interactiv e world map that we can explore, tweak and filter to find unexpected pairings and insights. It uses design, code and artificial intelligence to bring data and statistics to life.
By Interacta – Nikita Rokotyan, Olya Stukova and Dasha Kolmakova

A big thankyou to our judges, who agonised over the decision-making process – Stefanie Posavec of Dear Data fame, Alberto Cairo, author of The Truthful Art and The Functional Art, Patrick Burgoyne, editor of design magazine Creative Review, Alexandra Mousavizadeh, director of the Legatum Prosperity Index, and Information is Beautiful founder David McCandless.

Thanks also to everyone who entered. We were seriously impressed by the diversity and incredible creativity shown by the entries. We’ll be showcasing a wider selection of entries in the coming week. Keep an eye out for future dataviz competitions that we run, and consider submitting your work to the Information is Beautiful Awards 2019, which will launch later this year.

Struggling to understand or even maintain interest in Brexit? Don’t worry. Here’s a four-minute video with a soothing voiceover, explaining it all visually. It’s like a lie-down for your brain.

» Watch the video

Sketch! Design! Code! Your interpretation of our datasets could win prizes of up to $25,000.

Enter by: Fri 25th Jan 11:59 AST

There’s also a special hand-drawn ‘napkin’ category for non-designers and those who like it tactile.

We’re proud to announce a lovely panel of judges to celebrate your work:

: Stefanie Posavec of Dear Data fame
: Prof. Alberto Cairo, author of The Truthful Art & The Functional Art
: Patrick Burgoyne, editor of design magazine Creative Review
: and myself, David McCandless.

» More details
» Challenge datasets
» Challenge website
» Some creative direction

Good luck to you! Looking forward to seeing your work.

Here are some of our best visualizations of the past twelve months.

Our first exhibition took place at the recently opened, Rem Koolhaas-designed Qatar National Library. We created ten interactive data-visualizations on a series of three-metre touchscreen totems, one face in English, the other Arabic. Subjects included the history of civilisation, Middle-Eastern science, and a timeline of the Far Future. So just some small topics! And we learned that data visualizations look beautiful in Arabic.

(more…)

We’re launching a dataviz challenge in partnership with the World Government Summit.

(A little something to keep your creative neurons firing over the holidays.)

The focus is how governments are improving citizens’ lives – via environment, happiness, technology or other areas of support.

We’re supplying the datasets and themes. You provide data-visualizations that tell a story or reveal something interesting about the data.

Winning works receive cash prizes of up to $25,000 and have their work exhibited at the summit in Feb.

Best of all, you don’t need to be a pro-designer to enter. There’s a special ‘napkin’ category where hand-drawn sketches & prototypes can be submitted.

Closing date is Jan 25th 11:59 AST.

» More info, FAQs and submission details

the datasets

Visualise one or all three.

1) The Future of Government
What factors & technologies might shape the society, government and even citizens of the future? Give us a way to see and explore the landscape of the next fifty years.

2) What Makes A “Good” Government?

How do you measure the success of a government or a society? What factors from this megasheet seem more interesting or revealing to you?

3) Small Countries are Beautiful
Smaller nations (<5m population) are often overshadowed in the stats. But where might be such countries innovating, growing or teaching us?

Here also is an intro sheet for creative and conceptual direction.

Good luck, look forward to seeing what you come up with…

Another week, another three data breaches.

Track the biggest and most notable of the last ten years in one interactive dataviz.

» See the graphic
» Check the data

Generated by our forthcoming VizSweet software.