Tag Archives: WawamuStats

Worldwide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Trends, 1960 – 2017, and Projections, 2018 – 2100

All Posts, Economy, Information Technology, , ,

Peter Lobner

Ian Fraser is an award-winning journalist, commentator and broadcaster who writes about business, finance, politics and economics.  In 2018, under the banner of WawamuStats, he started posting a series of short videos that help visualize trends that are hard to see in voluminous numerical data, but become apparent (even a bit stunning) in a dynamic graphical format.  On its Facebook page, WawamuStats explains:

“Historical data are fun, but reading them is tedious. This page makes these tedious data into a dynamic timeline, which shows historical data.”

Regarding the GDP data used for the dynamic visualizations, WawamuStats states:

“Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced in a period of time, often annually or quarterly. Nominal GDP estimates are commonly used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region, and to make international comparisons.”

Here are the three WawamuStats GDP videos I think you will enjoy.

Top 10 Country GDP Ranking History (1960-2017)

This dynamic visualization shows the top 10 countries with the highest GDP from 1960 to 2017.  At the start, most of the top 10 countries are from Europe and North America. You’ll see the rapid rise of Japan’s economy followed decades later by the rapid rise of China’s economy.

Top 10 Country GDP Per Capita Ranking History (1962-2017)

This dynamic visualization shows the top 10 countries with the highest GDP per capita from 1962 to 2017.  As you will see, most of the top 10 countries are from developed regions in Europe, North America, and Asia. Since 2017, Luxembourg has been regarded as the richest country in terms of GDP per capita.

Future Top 10 Country Projected GDP Ranking (2018-2100)

This dynamic visualization shows how Asian economies are expected to grow and eventually dominate the world economy, with China’s economy, and later India’s economy, exceeding the US economy in terms of GDP, and several European economies dropping out of the top 10 ranking. While the specific national GDP values are only projections, the macro trends, with a strong shift toward Asian economies, probably is correct.

You can find additional dynamic video timelines on the WawamuStats Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/WawamuStats/?ref=py_c

You’ll also can find more information on Ian Fraser on his personal website here:

http://www.ianfraser.org/biography/

Thanks to Lyncean member Mike Spaeth for bringing the WawamuStats dynamic visualizations to my attention.

World Federation of Great Towers

All Posts, Architecture, Engineering, , , , , , , , , , ,

Peter Lobner

The tower is one of mankind’s oldest architectural accomplishments. The World Federation of Great Towers is an international association with 48 members in over 20 countries that exists to showcase the world’s great modern towers and celebrate the feats of architecture and engineering that led to their creation. You can examine many of the tallest buildings in the world at the following link:

http://www.great-towers.com/towers/

The following members of the World Federation of Great Towers were completed in the last decade include:

  • Oct 2005 – Spinnaker Tower, Portsmouth, NH, 170 m (558 ft) tall
  • Apr 2006 – Goryokaku Tower, Hokkaido, Japan, 107 m (351 ft) tall
  • Oct 2006 – Eureka Skydeck 88, Melbourne, Australia, 300 m (984 ft) tall (see photo below)
  • Oct 2007 – The Hague Tower, The Hague, Netherlands, 132 m (433 ft) tall
  • Jan 2010 – Burj Khalifa, Dubai, UAE, 828 m (2,716.5 ft) tall
  • Sep 2010 – Canton Tower, Guangzhou, China, 600 m (1,968 ft) tall
  • April 2011 – Henan Tower (Tower of Fortune), Zhengzhou, China, 388 m (1,273 ft) tall
  • May 2012 – The Shard, London, UK, 310 m (1,016 ft) tall

image Eureka Skydeck 88   Source: Melbourne Library

The World Federation of Great Towers membership does not include all of the very tall buildings in the world, such as the new One World Trade Center in New York City. You can find a listing of all of the world’s buildings that have a height exceeding 300 meters (984 feet) at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_the_world

Sorting this list by date highlights the great number (72) of very tall buildings that have been completed in the past decade:

  • 2005:  2
  • 2006:  0
  • 2007:  5
  • 2008:  2
  • 2009:  5
  • 2010: 13
  • 2011: 8
  • 2012: 14
  • 2013:  7
  • 2014:  9
  • 2015:  7

There definitely is a building boom for giant skyscrapers.

22 May 2016 Update: Global Tall Building Database

Another source of information on skyscrapers is the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH). Their home page is at the following link:

http://www.ctbuh.org

From here, you can navigate to their Tall Buildings Information & Resources, including The Skyscraper Center, which contains the Global Tall Building Database. The direct link to the Skyscraper Center is:

http://skyscrapercenter.com

5 January 2019 Update:  Top 30 tallest buildings dynamic info-graphic

Ian Fisher (WawamuStats) created the following dynamic Info-graphic that compares the world’s top 30 tallest buildings ever built. Most of these buildings are located in China, UAE, or the United States.  The oldest of these buildings was completed in 1974 and the newest in 2018.  The Empire State Building is not among the top 30. Here’s the link to the dynamic Info-graphic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCoEGFaDvjQ