So on the YouTube channel Healthcare Triage doctor Aaron Carroll often says that data is not the plural of anecdote

But in a world where there are so many factual anecdotes out there

it can be difficult to see the larger truths that data can tell us for instance

there are terrible crimes every day in the United States, but that doesn't change the fact that the US

homicide rate is lower than it was 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 years ago

Anyway to try to understand the world better

I often use maps and here are seven that I found especially helpful.

First we have this map which divides the human population into tenths

I like this one because it reminds me that Canada, the United States, Mexico, most of the Caribbean, Chile, Peru and more

only constitute 1/10 of the world's population

The world is so much bigger than my world

and the human story is so much bigger than the human stories I usually hear

also since I mentioned Peru, Peru is big, as is Somalia

Those are not among the seven maps by the way. Those are bonus maps. You're welcome

Then there's this map from Our World in Data which shows the average years of school people had around the world in 1950

the yellow is between 0 & 2 years the green between 2 & 6 and then as the colors get darker people get better educated

here's 1970 and then here's

1990 and here's what it looked like in 2010

There are still huge gaps between rich and poor countries and between rich and poor people within many countries

But even so all around the world kids are getting more educational opportunities

Which is good because it means more potential innovators to solve all of the problems

we are leaving those kids with. Speaking of which here's what global CO2 emissions look like in 1950

Almost all the emissions coming from the world's wealthiest countries

Here's 1970 and here's 1990 and this is 2016 a few countries starting to get lighter

but only a few. Meanwhile this map shows average temperature changes between

1965 and 2014

red areas are where the earth has gotten warmer white areas are where the temperature hasn't changed and blue areas are where it's gotten cold-

there is no blue. Then there's this amazing map of global borders and when they were created I'll put links in the doobly-doo

So you can explore all these maps in detail

but the fascinating thing to me here is just how recent many national borders are like we often think of nation states as

Intractable realities and national borders as fixed, but in fact most national borders are less than 120 years old

Okay let's return to Our World in Data to look at this map of the percentage of births in

1991 that were attended by trained health care workers - doctors, nurses, midwives etc.

in Brazil it was under 70 percent, in India 34 percent, in Mali 26 percent

Now let's flash forward to 2015 in Mali 60 percent of births are attended by a health care worker

in India It's over 80 percent and in Brazil, it's over 95 percent the benefits of this are staggering

522,000 mothers died in childbirth in 1991

in 2015 303,000 did. We still have a long way to go but that is real progress and lastly

Let's look at my favorite map; life expectancy

I know this is a controversial position, but I believe that human lives should be long and healthy

here's what global life expectancy looked like in 1980 and here's what it looked like 35 years later

All around the world low and middle income countries from China to India to Peru to Angola have seen life

expectancy go up by at least 10 years and in some cases 20. So thank you map makers for giving me hope

and also when appropriate, fear.

Hank before I go, one thing: I enjoy sponsoring AFC Wimbledon so much and it has made me want to sponsor other things

So if you're part of a club or team or organization or whatever that could use modest

sponsorship, like think high three digits to low four digits email me at sparksflyup@gmail.com with the subject line

Sponsorship and when I say sponsorship, I don't mean donation, which is a separate thing

I mean getting some kind of

"marketing value" in exchange for the sponsorship like our logo on your uniform or something if it sounds like I said that to make sure

I'm cool with the IRS, I did. But write sparksflyup@gmail.com. I apologize in advance for all the awesome things

I won't be able to sponsor but I'm gonna try to sponsor at least a few things. Hank, I'll see you on Friday