NatGeo Shows Health Care Spending vs Life Expectancy

National Geographic has published an infographic that uses OECD Health Data 2009 and information from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development to show relationships between health care spending per person (on the left) and the average life expectancy at birth (on the right).  The thickness of the line indicates the average number of doctor visits a year.

Ideally, you’ll like to see lots of lines going up-and-to-the-right, meaning a low cost of health-care, but a high life expectancy.  Sadly, that bright orange line diving drastically downward is the US, having the highest health care spending of all shown nations, and a slightly lower than average life expectancy.

National Geographic via Infographic comparing health care spending to life expectancy Boing Boing.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a visualization scientist working for a federal research lab, aiding researchers to discover the insights buried within their terabyte datasets generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. He also runs VizWorld.com .