Visualizing Public Health

Understanding the Greek Economy

When I had originally started my search I was interested in understanding the current Greek
economy and what factors that make a country succeed or fail. I realized to be able to
understand The Greek economy I needed to have something to compare it to. I decided that I
wanted to compare it to economies of similar size and population so I compared Greece to
Latvia, France, and Italy. I also wanted to compare it to some countries that are considered to be
doing very well so I compared Greece to The United States, The United Kingdom, South Korea,
and Japan. I chose the many of my indicators off of The Fund For Peace's annual Fragile State
Index and from their economic indicators.
Research Question
How does Greece's economy compare to others countries?
Essential Question
How is Greeces economy weak compared to other countries economies?

Wealth Inequality
Wealth inequality in the United States ( known as the wealth gap) refers to the unequal
distribution of assets among residents of the United States.
Highest amount in the lowest ten percent is 3% of wealth
to 10% owns more than 20% of the wealth
Best equality in france
Gini Coefficient
Is a measure of statistical representation of income distribution of a nation's residents,
and is most commonly used to measure wealth inequality. When you are looking at the
Gini Coefficient it is better for a country to have a lower number. A .2 to .3 would mean
that the country's wealth is distributed pretty equally, and a bad Gini Coefficient would
be a .5 and above.

Unemployment Rate
The unemployment rate is a measure of the prevalence of unemployment and it is
calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of unemployed individuals by all
individuals currently in the labor force. During periods of recession, an economy usually
experiences a relatively high unemployment rate. I thought It would be best to show the
unemployment rates between Greece and Latvia because they are countries who went
through very similar economic problems.
GDP
'Gross Domestic Product - GDP' The monetary value of all the finished goods and
services produced within a country's borders in a specific time period, though GDP is
usually calculated on an annual basis.

Inflation

This Chart explains inflation through the CPI Rate. Through this chart it is visible that
the majority of the economies rose and fell the same time. Inflation is one of the most
important things to keep in mind when examining a countries economy. As you can see
in the chart many counties CPI increase a lot between 2006 and 2008 this was the
beginning of the economic recession in the United States.
Country
Name
China

France

German
y
Greece

Italy

Japan

Latvia

United
United
Kingdom States

2000

0.25530 1.69941 1.47133 3.16608 2.51931 0.65301 2.64859

4778
1423
4348
2521
8302
5156
2284

0.
7852694 3.37685
29 7271

2001

0.72290 1.63025 1.98385 3.37396 2.78781 0.80337 2.47866 1.235894 2.82617

2508
7581
6851
641
6211
5801
7208
68
1119

2002]

0.76594 1.91690 1.42080 3.62936 2.46107 1.31088 1.92307 1.256192 1.58603

9287
7283
6713
2936
4837
2915
6923
498
1627

2003

1.15590 2.10907 1.03422 3.53065 2.67647 0.16779 2.95662 1.362921 2.27009

9711
3739
3392
0792
0588
4547
3225
545
4973

2004

3.88418 2.13487 1.66573 2.89884 2.21522 0.00827 6.18741 1.344595 2.67723

2625
4759
6088
7969
009
5405
7344
759
6693

2005

1.82164 1.73558 1.54691 3.54507 1.99906 0.27311 6.74317 2.049668 3.39274

7757
7081
0755
3049
5857
0982
2316
311
6845

2006

1.46318 1.68372 1.57742 3.19594 2.06978 0.24066 6.53387 2.333527 3.22594

9043
645
9241
597
661
39
7823
794
4101

2007

4.75029 1.48807 2.29834 2.89500 1.82144 0.05795 10.10717 2.321035 2.85267

6622
3528
058
102
4594
1817
359
915
2482

2008

5.86438 2.81391 2.62838 4.15279 3.37504 1.37348 15.4031 3.613498 3.83910

3723
5043
3067
6359
4061
9988
9716
886
0297

2009

0.70294 0.0880 0.31273 1.21007 0.75014 1.34671 3.52767 2.166231 0.35554

9137
84169 7723
395
9177
8903
3459
372
6266

2010

3.31454 1.52963 1.10380 4.71298 1.53989 0.71978 1.09419 3.285714 1.64004

5929
9382
8561
1579
3392
1584
6004
286
3442

2011

5.41082 2.11748 2.07517 3.32987 2.74143 0.28333 4.40115 4.484239 3.15684

9643
6809
2931
018
8213
3333
4401
645
1569

2012

2.65243 1.95568 2.0084 1.501519 3.04136 0.03342 2.21147 2.821709 2.06933

9936
55
91182 789
253
8046
2011
747
7265
2 2.63084 0.8636 1.50472 0.92127 1.21999 0.35947 1.34459 2.554546 1.46483
013 5103
0693
2267
1909
2129
166
5759
687
2656

mean

2.318398 1.697594 1.616568 2.872921 2.22986 0.23089 4.66946 2.2582176 2.430168

497
977
121
473
2614
64438
4107
11
862

median

2.226246 1.697465 1.626941 2.851981 2.20918 0.20074 4.813812 2.3634281 2.362548

43
231
962
398
7207
51072
094
95
262

standard 2.138973 0.63621 0.579797 1.418924 0.72382 0.714508 4.168693 1.0440178 1.093699
deviation 458
83593
9793
407
82718
3803
809
3
293

Key Findings
- there is a causation between countries economies
- Greece's economy in some ways seems like it is beginning to stabilize but
in others it is getting worse
- All economies go through unstable times and if the conties is able to
survive it will eventually balance out
Recommendations

How it is best to solve economic problems is one of the most debated things people
when talking about politics so I dont believe that there is one way to solve economic
problems. I believe that the most important information for people to glean is that
economies rise and will eventually fall so it would be wise of people to be knowledgeable
of their current economies as to not unstabilize by the capricious nature of a countries
economy. For this understanding of the economy I would recommend to go even farther
back than the fourteen years that I was looking at to understand the length of a country's
economic cycle and to see how the length of the cycles has changed.
References
http://www.worldbank.org
http://data.oecd.org/greece.htm
http://econ4dummies.tumblr.com
http://ffp.statesindex.org/rankings-2014
Limitations
- The OECD did not have all that much information on latvias economy
- In some of my data certain years were lacking