116 Country Report: Data Visualization

Data Visualization 1:

Data Set 1:

Source:

Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2018). Regional Economy: Gross Domestic Product, Large Regions. [Data Set]. OECD Statistics.
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=REGION_ECONOM

Data Visualization 2:

Data Set 2:

Source:

National Institute of Statistics and Geography. (2019). National Survey on Availability and Use of Information Technologies in Households (ENDUTIH). [Data set]. Statista Research Department. https://www.statista.com/statistics/731127/mexico-share-households-with-internet-access-by-state/

Explanation of Data Visualization:

In this day and age, I find that it is still common to associate access to the internet, social media, and other forms of digital communication with wealth. While digital connection is certainly easier to attain in locations where the amount of wealth is higher, I thought it would be interesting to see if and how this assumption holds when applied to countries other than the United States. After finding my data sets and noticing that everything was reported by state, I thought it would be interesting to plot the numbers against the map of Mexican states in a heat map format. This way, viewers of the data visualization can easily see how a state differs from one measurement to the other based on its color in each of the charts. Once put into a visual format like this, even I was surprised by some of the findings. A state like Campeche really stands out to me in this format, as it is very dark in the first map (indicating a high GDP per capita) but of a medium shade in the second map (indicating only a 50-60% share of households with internet access). Having a state that differs this strongly among the two measurements was somewhat unexpected, but is again very easy to notice when shown with a heat map.

The benefit of this style of data visualization is that it also helps to draw in other variables that may be contributing to certain data findings, like regional differences. For example, though Campeche is the wealthiest state, it has less widespread access to the internet; however, instead of having to do with the amount of wealth in the state, it could have more to do with Campeche’s location, specifically its proximity to other states with very low internet access, like Chiapas. Quintana Roo is another example of a state where the relationship between wealth and internet access might be influenced by an outside variable. Quintana Roo is home to many tourist destinations like Cancún. Tourists obviously like the option of using the internet during their vacations, so that could be a reason why Quintana Roo has such a high level of internet access despite its middle-standing in terms of GDP.