How do people in different countries spend their time?

Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by noahlt on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @04:15AM (#2465759)

Fascinating statistics. I wish the charts had been designed in a way that made it easier to compare the numbers: for instance, I want to visually compare the number of hours that each country spends sleeping, but these charts force me to read the numbers instead of interpreting the graphics.

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by pmjoyce on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @07:54AM (#2466190)

A classic example of a poor choice of visualisation. Pie and donuts aren't always useless but they're very awkward to interpret here.

I made a quick'n'dirty replacement using a stacked column chart if anyone is interested:

https://demo.geckoboard.com/dashboard/CF6225A8BF97972D/

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by billybob on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @08:29AM (#2466298)

Better, but still hard to read, I think. If I want to compare the green bars for two countries, they don't sit side by side, because the sections under them are of varying heights.

I think this would be more ideal:

Country 1 Work :XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (X%)

Country 2 Work :XXXXXXXXXXXXX (X%)

Country 1 Sleep:XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (X%)

Country 2 Sleep:XXXXXXXXXXXX (X%)

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by pmjoyce on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @08:59AM (#2466393)

OK, I've added detail charts - one for each metric - so you can easily compare metrics for each country side-by-side.

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by stralep on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @07:01AM (#2466083)

Pie charts are mostly useless...

I really don't see any reason for their usage here, except of their resemblance to the shape of the sun (and analog clock).

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by aslakhellesoy on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @07:12AM (#2466113)

If only the world would stop using pie charts. They are inherently broken. http://blog.jgc.org/2009/08/please-dont-use-pie-charts.html

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Re:How do people in different countries spend their time? by lell on Wednesday April 20, 2011 @07:08AM (#2466101)

Agreed --- looks like the rankings of the variables are the same for each country, and even the ratios vary only slightly. This information would be better presented in a table (with standard error reported) or a bar graph. The original OECD[1] report presents this information much more lucidly. When The Economist filtered the OED report, they should have paid more attention to clarity of presentation.

[1] http://www.oecd.org/document/24/0,3343,en_2649_34637_2671576...

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