The variables I chose are Children per Woman (total fertility) and the primary completion rate. I chose these because I think these are indicators of how a country is developing. If the average family size is 8 and only 50% of children complete primary school, the nation has some serious work to do in terms of social services. Even if an economy is strong, the fact that the population is growing rapidly means that jobs will be hard to find and unemployment will be high. A high percentage of uneducated people means that poverty will be high and social mobility will be rare. In countries with low education and high GDP, inequality will likely be high. These are all things which I think are very important to a nation’s development and welfare of its people. These are indicators of weak states. As I expected, the chart shows that the higher the fertility rate, the lower the percentage of primary completion. The general trend over the 40 years of data provided is that fertility is slowly decreasing and education is increasing, so this is positive. The chart also shows a distinct divide between regions of the world, where Subsaharan Africa is consistently at the unfortunate end of the data, with high fertility and low education. I was surprised at how many American (South, Central, and North) and Southeast Asian/Pacific nations have reduced their fertility rates over the 40 years. Indonesia, Ecuador, Peru, and Nicaragua were reporting between five and seven children per woman in the 1970’s, but almost all American and Asian countries reported less than three children per woman by 2010, while most African nations still report five to seven children per woman in 2010. I was also surprised that European countries have always had low fertility rates, while it wasn’t a surprise that they rank highest in education.
Jennifer Kim 