From no schooling → mass education
In 1950, nearly half of the world had no formal education.
By 2020: just 13% — and secondary became the norm (49%).
Access expanded massively.
Now the challenge is progression and inequality within systems.
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
Day 20 — Global change
In 1900, most children were out of school.
Today, it’s a small minority.
But not for everyone —
girls were left behind for decades.
Progress is real. Inequality too.
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
Day 19 — Timeseries (Evolution)
Higher education enrolment across EU countries, 2000–2024.
Each small chart shows one country in focus (yellow), against the EU context (grey).
Education expansion is not uniform — but it is widespread.
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education #EU #Timeseries
Day 18 — UNICEF data
In most countries, girls outperform boys in reading in class 2-3 of primary school.
Across 34 countries (MICS6), girls are ahead in 24 — often by a small margin, but consistently.
Data: UNICEF MICS6
#DataViz #Education #GenderGap #UNICEF #30DayChartChallenge
Day 16 — Remake
Back to Day 9, but simpler.
Same idea, new chart:
wealth vs years of schooling.
The relationship is still there — clear and strong.
#DataViz #Education #Wealth #30DayChartChallenge
Day 16 — Causation
37% vs 98%. A child's chance of finishing primary school, depending on where they're born.
Poverty causes low education. Low education causes poverty. A cycle — but not an unbreakable one. In 1990 that 37% was only 14%.
#DataViz #Education #R #30DayChartChallenge
Day 15 — Correlation
A clear shift in new students in the UK after Brexit:
fewer from the EU, more from elsewhere.
Correlation or causation?
#DataViz #InternationalStudents #30DayChartChallenge
Sorry forgot to mention it 2024
Germany (≈84M persons) sends the most students. But population alone doesn’t explain it — France (≈68M) plays a different role.
Day 14 — Trade
Where European students go to study.
This Sankey maps flows of tertiary students across the EU — from top sending countries to main destinations.
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education #EU
Day 13 - Education doesn’t run on good intentions. It runs on funding.
In the EU, public spending on education varies from 2.9% to 7.3% of GDP.
Same ecosystem. Very different levels of support.
3 highest and 3 lowest spending countries.
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
Most European adults are learning more than in 2016. Sweden leads at 37.5%. Bulgaria sits at 1.8%. The EU target is 60% by 2030 — most countries have a long way to go.
Day 12 of #30DayChartChallenge — Built in R · Data: Eurostat
#DataViz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge
81% of adolescents worldwide don't move enough. Girls: 85%. Boys: 78%.
Every square = 1 child. The gold ones are the minority.
Day 11 of #30DayChartChallenge — Physical.
Built in R · Data: Guthold et al., The Lancet (2019)
#DataViz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge
Day 10 — Pop culture
A few iconic dropouts—Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates—have shaped how we think about success.
But they are exceptions.
Across countries, OECD data shows that higher education still brings substantial economic returns.
#DataViz #Education #Inequality #30DayChartChallenge
That explains the difference. Here the data is for all educational years starting from primary school.
Lisa, That data doesn't show that
The most educated country is Germany (14,3 years of school)
United States and Canada are both on 13.9, and indeed USA's GPD is a bit bigger than Canada.
Day 9 — Wealth
Wealth and education move together.
Across countries, the richer the country, the longer people stay in school.
A strong relationship (r =0,84).
Distance = years of schooling
Size = GDP per capita
#DataViz #Education #Wealth #30DayChartChallenge
#30DayChartChallenge Petal chart
Day 8 · Circular
Same dataset, different view.
The gap is now small almost everywhere — and sometimes reversed.
Still work to do in Asia and Africa.
More to explore at country level.
#DataViz #Education #30DayChartChallenge
Day 7 — Multiscale
Girls are catching up.
Across every continent, schooling is rising — and the gap with boys is shrinking.
Not at the same pace, but in the same direction.
#DataViz #30DayChartChallenge
Day 6 of #30DayChartChallenge — Reporters Without Borders
Does education buy press freedom?
Somewhat. r = 0.40 across 148 countries — a real but imperfect relationship.
Education matters. But it's clearly not enough.
Tools: R · ggplot2
Data: UNESCO / Our World in Data · RSF 2025
#DataViz #Rstats
Day 5 of #30DayChartChallenge — data art.
Each spiral is a country. Its length = years in school. From barely 1 to 14. Some barely get started. Others unwind freely.
That gap is what this is about.
Same data as Day 3 — UNESCO via Our World in Data.
#DataViz #RStats #Education
Iliteracy has declined. Literacy raised.
Less people can't read now than in 1980.
Day 4 — Slope
Illiteracy is declining across the world.
Countries don’t start from the same place — far from it.
But over time, the slopes of decline look strikingly similar.
#DataViz #RStats #ggplot2#Education #OpenData #30DayChartChallenge.
alphabétique du pays. Mais le but n'est pas de pouvoir lire les pays mais de voir la diversité.
Mais je peux en faire une version interactive avec nom du pays et durée de études au survol.
Day 3 mosaic
Friday = something more artistic.
193 tiles = 193 countries
Color = average years of schooling
From 1.4 (Nigeria) to 14.3 (Germany)
Data: UNDP (2025), via Our World in Data
#30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #RStats
For Day 2 I used it to visualise a striking gap in global education: upper secondary school enrolment stands at 95% in developed countries — and just 44% in the least developed.
Same age. Very different futures.
🔗 Give ggpop a try: jurjoroa.github.io/ggpop/
#30DayChartChallenge day 2: Pictogram
A shameless bit of self-promotion today. Give a try to ggpop.
A couple of years ago I made a plot that caught the eye of Jorge Roa who build (together with others) ggpop, an R package for creating icon-based population charts.
#DataViz #ggplot2 #ggpop
For Day 2 I used it to visualise a striking gap in global education: upper secondary school enrolment stands at 95% in developed countries — and just 44% in the least developed.
Same age. Very different futures.
Give ggpop a try: lnkd.in/eB9G2yP3
Day 1 of #30DayChartChallenge
This year: education data.
Good news to start — global illiteracy has fallen drastically.
I used a donut chart. Yes, the one I tell everyone to avoid. When the message is this simple, it can work.
R + ggplot2
#rstats #dataviz #education