Data link roundup (week of January 4, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...

WHERE TO BE BORN

Back in 1988 The World in 1988 ranked nations according to the "best place to be born." The Economist Intelligence Unit crafted a more modern ranking scheme, based on a quality-of-life index, and published the results in The Economist.

The verdict: Switzerland is the place to be (born).

Source: The Economist

Best quote of the article:

Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese.

...but fascinating reading, nonetheless.


CORRELATION BETWEEN AGE, EDUCATION, AND BIRTH OUTCOME

Philip Cohen provides unique data to show that while pregnancy risks increase with mother's age, the relationship between educational attainment and birth outcome is much stronger.


BEST CHART OF THE WEEK

Brandon Martin-Anderson mapped every person (341,817,095) in the United States and Canada, according to the 2010 and 2011 Census counts, respectively.

Source: Brandon Martin-Anderson

The map is visually appealing, but, as an active user of small-area Census data, my favorite bit the author's response to FAQs:

Nobody lives in Central Park/Pier 12/County Lockup/Abandoned Themepark.
The census reported that someone lived there.
This says someone lives in the middle of a lake.
The census reported that someone lives in a block which includes a lake, and that's where their dot was randomly placed. Also, some people live in the middle of lakes.