General Government Debt

This is a visualization of the general government debt data from 1995 to 2019. It was downloaded from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development website.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 37 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. General government debt-to-GDP ratio measures the gross debt of the general government as a percentage of GDP. It is a key indicator for the sustainability of government finance. More information on this can be found here.

Three different charts were used to visualize the data. Find them below.

1. Bar Chart

2.Grid of Line Charts

3.Heatmap

Notes

On Line Charts

Line charts provide a means to view the evolution of several distinct data points as one continuous line. They are helpful in visualizing one data point relative to another, in the context of this work: the debt-to-equity ratio in relation to time. In using a grid of line charts, we can see how individual countries are performing and how things have progressed or declined over the years, allowing us to see a trend in the data.

On Heat Maps

Heat maps,on the other hand, present a means to compare data across categories. I used a heat map here because it provides a new dimension to view our data. Now we get to really see how sustainable the government finances of a country are and compare it with other countries and visualize the trend of liabilities for each country. In hindsight, the different categories being visualized here are, instead of distinct categories, a range between 0(the lowest) and 240(the highest).