Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About The World — And Why Things Are Better Than You Think

“Factfulness is a book that very much embodies what Hans Rosling tried to do in his lifetime. He was a Swedish doctor and academic, who became quite famous because of his TED Talks where he presented, in a very entertaining and insightful way, the state of the world. In particular, he became famous for telling people that they kept getting everything wrong. He used to test Swedish students, politicians, and journalists, and he consistently found that people had a very warped and biased view of the world. In general, what he found is that people did not have an accurate sense of how much progress had been achieved. People, on average, tended to be extremely pessimistic about the state of the world, whether it was about deaths from natural disasters, child mortality, or how many girls in the world go to school now.” Read more...

The best books on Using Data to Understand the World

Edouard Mathieu

“It’s an interesting book, it’s very challenging. It may be over-optimistic. But it does have this startling effect on the readers of challenging widely held assumptions. It’s a plea to look at the empirical data, and not just assume that you know how things are now.” Read more...

The best books on Critical Thinking

Nigel Warburton, Philosopher

“I think it’s a fantastic book. Rosling died last year while completing the book. I think it’s really almost a summation of his life’s work. He was a health expert in Sweden and spent a lot of time in Africa. He became convinced that we were too pessimistic about the world and that it was actually in better shape than we imagine.” Read more...

The best books on GDP

David Pilling, Journalist