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StatPlanet

StatPlanet		 · SACMEQ Home
Interactive Data Visualization through Maps and Graphs

StatPlanet interactive choropleth maps

  
Download (free)

· Download StatPlanet
(No installation required - read more)

Import your own data

· Use Map Maker to import your own data into StatPlanet.

Latest updates

· June 8, 2009: New data added.

· May 6, 2009: StatPlanet v1.3 released; new graph options added.

· Read more
 

Be sure to check back regularly for updates and new features.
For more information, please contact Frank van Cappelle:

Explore over 250 world development indicators

Explore world development indicators through interactive maps, bar charts, trend lines and scatter plots. StatPlanet includes the latest demographic, education, environment, health and socio-economic indicators as of February 2009*, for more than 200 countries.

Sources of data:

Indicators:

> Read more

*Please note that the most recent available data is from 2006 or earlier for most indicators. (For example, for most indicators in the EFA Global Monitoring Report for 2009, the most recent data provided is actually from 2006).

If you wish to add your own data, you can do so using StatPlanet Map Maker.

About StatPlanet

StatPlanet is a free application for creating thematic maps and graphs with the click of a button. It enables you to explore demographic, education, environment, health and socio-economic indicators from various sources such as UIS and WHO. It is also possible to produce customized interactive maps and graphs by adding or importing your own data. StatPlanet can be used either online or as a stand-alone desktop application.

The aims of StatPlanet are (i) to facilitate data analysis through interactive visualization, (ii) to provide a user friendly interface that is accessible also to non-technical users, (iii) to automate the processes of visualizing data, (iv) to automate the processes of merging and synchronizing data from different sources, and (v) to enable anyone to explore and create data visualizations - regardless of technical skills, availability of Internet connectivity, and computer hardware or software.

StatPlanet was conceptualized and is being developed by Frank van Cappelle since 2005. Since 2008, the development of a tailored version of StatPlanet is being undertaken as part of the SACMEQ research programme at the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). For more details, please contact


StatPlanet Features - Download PDF

Symbol Map Icon
 Save/export map; Select region; Thematic maps (choropleth and proportional symbol maps); Map controls
Bar Chart Icon Timeseries Icon Scatterplot Icon
 Bar chart; Time series; Scatterplot graph; Adjust graph scale
Table IconFloppy Disk Icon
 Save / Export table
Star Icon
 Bookmark indicator; Indicator definitions
Wrench Icon
 General options; Customize appearance
Select countries
View eye icon
 Show / Hide map details and StatPlanet components

Minus IconPlus IconMinimize IconMaximize Icon

 Resize / Maximize / Minimize windows;
Fullscreen / Window mode

Maps: (see also the Wikipedia article Thematic map)

choropleth map Choropleth Map
This is the main thematic map type in StatPlanet. The legend window in the top-right corner of the screen allows you to customize both the map colours and the map scale. To adjust the map colours click on the top, middle or bottom colour and select a new colour. To adjust the map scale, click on the top or bottom value of the value range, then use the popup to increment or decrement the value, or enter a whole new value. The intermediate values or colours will be adjusted automatically.
   
Symbol Map Icon Proportional Symbol Map
A proportional symbol map scales symbols (usually circles) according to the indicator being mapped. In Statplanet the symbol can represent either a country or a region within a country. To create one, click the 'proportional symbol map' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. The proportional symbol map is overlaid on top of the choropleth map. If you have bookmarked an indicator, the symbol map represents the data for the bookmarked indicator, whereas the choropleth map represents the data for the selected indicator. (If the bookmarked indicator is currently selected, both the symbol map and the choropleth map represent the bookmarked indicator).
   
  Select regions (e.g. Sub-Saharan Africa): use the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the screen to select a region. To define your own region, click on 'select countries' in the drop-down menu.
   
  Select country on the world map
Moving the mouse over a country on the world map brings up a popup containing information about that particular country for the selected indicator (as well as the bookmarked indicator, if there is one). When a country is selected, the country data for all indicators in the current category is shown in the indicators window, along with corresponding bars. The bars are scaled in proportion to the maximum value of that particular indicator for all countries in the selected region. You can also scale the bars as a percentile by selecting 'Percentile' as the Visualization type in the options window.

See also different ways of selecting a country.
   
  National / regional / custom maps
In an upcoming version of StatPlanet it will be possible to add your own maps, although you would need the Adobe Flash software to do so. The possibility of importing maps in the form of GIS shape (SHP) files is currently being explored.
   
Floppy Disk Icon Save map
You can find the save map button in the bottom-left corner of the screen. To change the image type, size or quality, use the options window. This feature is only available in the online version. However, it is possible to save an image of a map produced with your own data if you download StatPlanet Map Maker. You need to open StatPlanet in the directory 'Offline', click the icon shown on the left, and then follow the on-screen instructions. Please include a reference to StatPlanet when publishing the image.
   
Map controls:
  • Zoom: the map zoom controls are normally hidden from view. Move the mouse towards the bottom-right of the screen to make them appear. You can zoom in and out of the map using the 'zoom in' and 'zoom out' buttons, or by dragging the zoom slider up or down. If your mouse has a scroll wheel, you can also use this to zoom in and out.
  • Moving the map: click and drag the map with the mouse to move it to a new position.
  • Restore map position: the button shown on the left restores the map to the original coordinates for the selected region.

Graph window:

Bar Chart Icon Bar chart
Click the 'graph' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to open the Graph window. You will find the same graph button in the graph window. Use this button to switch between horizontal and vertical bar charts.

Using the pull-down menu, you can sort the graph from lowest to highest, highest to lowest, highest to lowest starting in the middle, or alphabetically.
   
Timeseries Icon Time series
In the Graph window (see "Bar chart" above) you will find the time series button. When you click on this button, a list of countries appears which you can add to the time series graph. Click on a country to add it to the graph, and click on it again if you wish to to remove it. (See also Country selection window)
   
Scatterplot Icon

Scatter Plot
In the Graph window (see "Bar chart" above) you will find the scatter plot button. To create scatter plot graphs you need to select two variables or 'indicators': (i) bookmark an indicator by clicking the 'star' button (see also Indicator window below), (ii) select another indicator, (iii) select the 'scatter plot graph' button in the graph window.

Use the drop-down menu to select an indicator according to which you wish to scale the size of the "bubbles".

You can hide the trendline by clicking on "Hide trendline" below the drop-down menu. The slope of the trendline is also shown here. Move the mouse over the slope to see the trendline equation. (See also the Wikipedia article Linear regression)

   
  Adjust graph scale: you can adjust the graph scale by selecting and editing the values. The graph updates as you type.


Indicators (variables) window:

Star Icon Bookmark indicator
Click the 'star' button in the indicators window to bookmark the selected indicator. This allows you to (i) create scatter plot graphs, (ii) compare the bookmarked indicator with indicators from other categories, and (iii) compare two indicators through the choropleth map (representing the selected indicator) and the proportional symbol map (representing the bookmarked indicator).
   
  Bookmark window - national map
In the national map (currently only available for Kenya), the choropleth map associated with the bookmarked indicator is displayed in the bookmark window. This allows you to compare the bookmarked map side by side with the map for the indicator selected.
   
  Indicator definitions
If a definition exists for an indicator, the definition will appear in a popup when moving the mouse over the indicator. The definition only shows for the indicator which is selected or bookmarked.


Select countries window:

Icon select Click the 'select' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to get a list of countries. Then click to select the countries you wish to show on the map or in the graph window. To narrow down the list of countries, select a region from the drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the screen. You can also press the first letter of a country name to quickly jump to a country in the list.
   
Select countries
Press this button to confirm your selection. Note: for the time series graph, there is no need to press this button as the countries will appear in the graph window as soon as you click on them.
   



Remove selection
   
Remove countries
To remove countries, select the countries you wish to remove and press this button.


Table window:

Table Icon Click the 'table' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to get a data table of the selected indicator. If an indicator has been bookmarked, the data for both the bookmarked and selected indicator will be displayed. The table also shows the mean, standard deviation and range.
   

Floppy Disk Icon

Copy Icon

Online version: Save / Export table
You can save the table as a .CSV file which can be opened by most spreadsheets (such as Excel). You can find the save table button in the top-right corner of the table window.

Offline version: Copy table
The offline version of StatPlanet does not allow you to save the data as a file. Instead, you can copy the entire table into Excel using the 'copy' button, and then 'paste' it in Excel. If you do not have Excel, you can also do the following: (i) paste the data into a basic text editor such as Notepad, (ii) save the document as 'data.html', (iii) open the file using your Web Browser.


Different ways of selecting a country:


Options window:

Wrench Icon Click the 'options' button in the bottom-left corner of the screen to open the options window.
  General options:
  • Change the number of decimal places shown.
  • Adjust the map/graph scale: StatPlanet automatically adjusts the map and graph scale to suit the data set. However, in some cases you may wish to keep it fixed, for example if you made some changes to it yourself. You can set (or prevent) the automatic updating of the map/graph scale on (i) changing indicator, (ii) changing region, (iii) changing year. The default setting is for StatPlanet to adjust the scale when changing indicator or region, but not year.
    If you have chosen to not have the map scale updated, the map legend has a shortcut which you can use to 'refresh' the map legend at at any time for the current indicator, year and region:
  • Choose to view statistics as percentiles.
Customize appearance:
  • Set the animation duration
  • Change the map colours (map background, map borders, map text colour, map text outline colour, etc.)
  • Change the size of map text
  • Change the size of map symbols (for the proportional symbol map or scatter plot graph).

Save/export map: (online version only)

  • Set the image type: PNG or JPEG
  • Change the image size as % of original
  • Change the image quality (for JPEG images only)

View menu:
View eye icon Move the mouse over the 'View' button to see various options for showing or hiding StatPlanet map and graph elements and windows.
  • Show or hide country/region names on the map or graph (country names can be shown in full, in abbreviated form or as ISO3 codes);
  • Show or hide country statistics on the map or graph (country statistics can only be shown on the horizontal bar chart);
  • Show or hide the map popup and its components - bar chart, indicator and statistic;
  • Show or hide various windows.

Resize windows:
Minus IconPlus Icon Shrink / enlarge windows: Use the buttons shown on the left to shrink or enlarge the StatPlanet windows. This may be useful for space management when you have several windows open at the same time, or to focus in on certain areas.
Minimize IconMaximize Icon Minimize / maximize windows: Use these buttons to minimize or maximize the windows. The indicators window has a special minimized state in which indicators can still be selected.
Fullscreen: Click on this button to go to fullscreen mode or back to window mode.

Additional notes:


FAQ


For questions or comments, see also the StatPlanet Forum.

Questions about usage:

Adding data:

Installation & System Requirements:

Language:

Other:

 

StatPlanet can be used to visualize and analyze any kind of data, but it is particularly useful for the rapid visualization of large data sets.

StatPlanet is used by various organizations (besides SACMEQ) for visualizing and analyzing large data sets, such as UNESCO, Global Environment Facility , Root Capital and the South African Ministry of Education. If you are using or would like to use StatPlanet, please contact us:

StatPlanet can also be used to visualize non-geographical data. A graphs-only version of StatPlanet will be released soon, as well as a version for creating your own customized spatial visualizations.

Yes, StatPlanet can be freely downloaded, copied and distributed to others. It is small enough to be sent by e-mail, although some e-mail providers (such as Gmail) do not accept programs as attachments.

Please also read the StatPlanet License.

Yes, you can create interactive maps of your own data by downloading StatPlanet - Map Maker.

The data editor can be used to import data automatically, but it can also be entered manually.

Any kind of data can be automatically imported, although non-country based data currently requires some adjustments to the Data Editor file.

Any format readable by Excel can be imported regardless of the structure (e.g. XLS, XLSX, CSV, TXT, HTML). The data editor can recognize most commonly used spellings of country names and will automatically switch columns/rows if necessary. See also importing data from HTML and PDF documents.

Read more about importing data

The offline version of StatPlanet requires no installation and no additional software for it to run.
You can download StatPlanet either as a ZIP file or as an EXE file:

Link
Type
Size
EXE
3.2 MB
ZIP
1.8 MB

(For help on extracting ZIP files see this video on extracting ZIP files).

The offline version of StatPlanet has the Adobe Flash Player built in. However, the online version of StatPlanet requires Adobe Flash Player to run (version 9 or above).

A modern PC is not required to run StatPlanet. For a Windows PC, the minimum requirement is an Intel® Pentium® II 450MHz processor with 128 MB of RAM. The web-based version of StatPlanet requires the Adobe Flash Player (version 9) to run, which supports Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms. The offline version of StatPlanet is currently only available for Windows.

You can also use the Adobe Flash Player system requirements as a guideline.

StatPlanet is available in French, Spanish and Dutch. If you wish to create your own translation of StatPlanet, that is also possible. Read more

The current priority is to integrate regional maps of SACMEQ member countries. An upcoming version will provide an option to add or create your own maps, but this will require the Adobe Flash software. A solution for importing GIS Shape files is being worked on and may become available in a future release.

StatPlanet and DevInfo were developed for different purposes and target users. DevInfo is particularly suitable for the creation or development of visualizations for use in reports, presentations and advocacy materials, and where advanced GIS functions are required. In contrast, StatPlanet is designed mainly for explorating data and data visualizations through the software itself, although the visualizations can also be saved or exported for use in reports and other media.

StatPlanet Timeline & Updates

StatPlanet Presentations & Workshops