Have you ever wanted to see a chart showing how carbon dioxide emissions, internet users per 1000 people, and phone users per 1000 people have interacted over the past 30 years? Go ahead, raise your hand. It kept you awake last night. Okay, so maybe that’s not the best example. How about charting child mortality vs. contraceptive use? Gapminder comes to your rescue, and with a bunch more data.
Gapminder is a non-profit venture developing information technology for provision of free statistics in new visual and animated ways. Goal: enable you to make sense of the world by having fun with statistics. Method: turn boring data into enjoyable interactive animations using Flash technology. Gapminder is a Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden. Funding has been mainly by grants from Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida. In collaboration with United Nations Statistic Division Gapminder promote free access to searchable public data and all animations of different types of data are freely available at www.gapminder.org. (Source.)
A one-minute demo is available, but be prepared to spend more time than that exploring.