How Do the African States Compare to Each Other?

A hat tip to John Kelle for bringing to my attention an interesting and useful interpretive infographic, “Scoring Africa.” Using a matrix, each country is scored on health, stability, economy, infrastructure, education, biodiversity, rights, and size. Each of these categories is in turn broken down into four sub-categories. Under "health," for example, the sub-categories are HIV/AIDS, medical persons, life expectancy, and under five mortality.

There is a composite score for each country and also country scores for each category and sub-category, based on a scale of zero to one hundred. The scoring is based on data from UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (including the Mo Ibrahim Foundation), and international financial institutions, such as the Africa Development Bank.

The data is presented via a map of Africa. A user clicks on a country, then on a category or subcategory as desired to access a score. The presentation is especially clear and attractive.

“Scoring Africa” was developed by Great Business Schools and is available for use by everyone. It is a great introductory tool to a host of African issues. It also provides a fascinating overview of the differences among the various African countries—and the differences within a single country—from one category to another.

John Kelle, a part of the development team, is a graduate student in research psychology at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, and also works as a researcher/marketer for a private firm.