The Statistics of Poverty and Inequality

This paper describes a case study based on data taken from the U.N.E.S.C.O. 1990 Demographic Year Book and The Annual Register 1992 giving birth rates, death rates, life expectancies, and Gross National Products for 97 countries. Suggested activities include exploratory graphical analyses to answer several central questions. These include an investigation into the wealth and life expectancies of different country groups and their population growth. Inequalities in the life experiences of different groups become readily apparent. Students are stimulated to generate their own questions and to find possible solutions.