These data visualizations are my three entries to the May 2023 Visual Capitalist Creator Challenge. The contest centered on the topic of international trade and supplied two online datasets. Beyond those constraints, we were free to tell any story we could find from the vast amount of data on countries, commodities and natural resources.
1 Largest Trade Flows of Agricultural Products. This dataset is deep and full of a hundred stories! The hardest part of the challenge is choosing which story to tell. I found the wide array of traded natural resources fascinating. More intriguing, who is trading with whom? Please enjoy this glimpse into the flow of agricultural commodities across our globe.
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2 Import/Export Ratio. For this one, I focused on the guidebook Visual Capitalist provided for optimizing mobile design. Once again, because the dataset has so many stories waiting to be discovered, it was difficult to choose which one to dive into. So I asked myself, What do I personally want to know about the world when it comes to international trade? The answer was a simple question. Who imports the most and who exports the most? Who is in the middle? Where do the major economies and most populous countries stand on this spectrum? I hope you will enjoy finding the answers to these questions in my graphic “Imports-Exports Ratios of the World”.
3 Where Does the U.S. Import its Food From? For my third entry in the Visual Capitalist Creator Program Challenge, I focus on a single country, the United States. If you live in the U.S. (like me), are you curious where your food comes from? While the U.S. grows and exports many natural commodities, it also imports a surprisingly large amount of edible goods. In a mouth-watering way, I wanted to show which countries these everyday products exported to the U.S. are most likely to originate from. The data at resourcetrade.earth focuses on natural resources and a large portion of these goods are products from the grocery store shelves, items we probably have in our homes right now. The next time you are shopping at your favorite market, see if the product stickers match this data. At a recent trip to Costco, I found they did. I always learn so much while designing a dataviz. This time for example, I learned what “pulses” are... a pulse is a chickpea, lentil or pea. Some of my favorite foods, it turns out. Bon Appetit!
UPDATE: This graphic won 2nd place! It was published on Visual Capitalist August 9. I am now a Creator Program Ambassador.