Economy
Visualizing East Asia's Explosive Urban Growth
A winning data visualization highlights the successes—and perils—of the recent East Asian city boom.
In January, the World Bank released a monster report—an eBook, really—on the rise of urban East Asia. Between 2000 and 2010, the international financial institution reported, nearly 200 million people moved to East Asia's urban places. 200 million! As the World Bank points out, if just those people were to create their own nation, it would be the sixth largest in the world.
These sorts of gigantic numbers can be difficult to comprehend. So the World Bank set up a contest, with first prize going to whomever could design the best data visualization to accompany its expansive database on urbanization. Data scientist Nadieh Bremer answered the call. Her winning entry is below.