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22 August 2025

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'Factfulness' test: how well do you know the world around you?

It's not often that I read a book which makes me think differently about the world. Hans Rosling's Factfulness has a subtitle, "Ten reasons we're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think."

Bill Gates said of this book: "One of the most important books I've ever read - an indispensable guide to thinking clearly about the world."

Please take the test before reading the review of the book in the following article. We asked the publisher and Book Depository for a special discount for our readers without success, but since the latter offers free postage of a hard cover version for only $20 (or $14 if you want to wait for the release of the soft cover), there's not much point shopping around.

Many of you will know Rosling from the extraordinary visualisation he created in 2010 on '200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats'. Viewed some 8.5 million times, in only four minutes he takes us through how life expectancy and income changed around the world over 200 years. The Youtube link is here.

The Factfulness book starts with a quiz to test yourself about the world and how you understand it. We have recreated the test below so we can compare Cuffelinks readers with both the Australian and worldwide results. Please take a few minutes to do the test. 

Create your own user feedback survey

We will report the results in the next couple of weeks. In the meantime, you can read about some of the answers on this link.

Footnote: The material provided in Factfulness and Gapminder uses free global development data. They upload content to their website using animated techniques which make it easier to use. The World Bank initially objected, but Gapminder asked, "Don't you believe in free access to information in order for global forces to work as they should?" In 2010, the World Bank decided to release all its data for free. Gapminder operates a Creative Common Attribution Licence 4.0.

Free fact-questions from www.gapminder.org.

 

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