Hans Rosling’s 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes: they never taught history this way when I was in school. If you’re not familiar with Hans Rosling, you’re in for a treat.

In this engrossing edition of “The Joy of Stats,” Dr. Rosling tells the story of the world in 200 countries over 200 years using 120,000 numbers – in just four minutes. Hans Rosling’s justly famous lectures combine vast amounts of data in a visual way that makes the information very accessible.

If you’re interested in how your various family lines progressed over time, you’ll enjoy this video. Plotting life expectancy against income for every country since 1810, Dr. Rosling illustrates how the world we live in is radically different from the world most of us imagine. This is a fascinating demonstration of social and economic history in the various countries of the world and how things have changed and progressed over time.

More about this program: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgq0l