World’s Biggest Economies – Economist Chart Rework!

The other day during my web browsing (web window shopping) sessions, I stumbled upon a Charting animation from The Economist that used IMF data to show how the top 3 economies of the World have been changing over time. This (below) is what they published

My Opinion on this Chart

• I found this chart difficult to read because of the Indirect Color Labels (refer the color bar first and then look up for the country name)
• Also it becomes really difficult if I want to see how India or US has performed over the time?

So I thought of redoing this in Excel and here is a my reworked Chart. Check it out, it is pretty interesting!!

How I reworked on this Chart

1. The first step was simple, it was just collecting the data. I looked at the Chart and assumed closest numbers for each data point
2. Jotting down the problem areas. There were 2 of them
   • Remove the Indirect labeling (somehow)
   • Create a provision for a Country Wise View
3. I quickly drew a Mock Chart (here is a little hand drawing!!) Although this is the 3rd iteration before I finally finalized the on this structure!
   • 
   • It is always a best practice to do a mock chart first.. it saves a lot of rework and give a lot of mental clarity. Now I knew what I wanted, it was all about crunching the numbers and making the chart!
4. Data Crunching and Finishing – Crunched the numbers and formatted the Chart

Download the reworked Economist Chart from Down Below. I have clearly laid out the calculations and logic, it is pretty easy to follow along!

Resources and Tips

Here are some related awesome resources for you to follow along!

1. How to create a scroll bar list
2. How to do Conditional Formatting in the Chart
3. Pivot Tables – a free video course for you
4. How to use the Index and VLookup Function
5. How to use Cell Naming

Some more amazing Charting resources for you!

1. How to Plot cities on a Map! – [A Must Read]
2. How to have total bubbles at the end of line chart
3. Check button chart
4. REPT function chart

Please Share you Comments!

Please let me know what you think about this chart. Also If you would like to know how I did it, please leave a comment and I’ll post a detailed video tutorial on it! Cheers!