INTRODUCTION

This project presents an interactive dashboard analyzing global liver cancer mortality rates and smoking prevalence patterns using Gapminder data. The analysis focuses on gender-specific trends, cross-country comparisons, and continent-level summaries to uncover public health insights that can inform policy and awareness campaigns.

The primary objective is to explore the relationship between liver cancer death rates and smoking behaviors across different countries, with a focus on how these patterns vary between men and women(2005). The dashboard integrates multiple visualizations, including line charts, bar graphs, bubble plots, choropleth maps, etc to reveal trends, disparities, and potential correlations in the data.

The dataset used includes liver cancer deaths per 100,000 people for men and women(2005), as well as smoking rates for men and women (aged 15 and above) in the year 2005. These metrics are complemented with region-based aggregations to identify continents with the highest and lowest burden.

By combining epidemiological and behavioral data, the dashboard offers a rich platform for exploring the intersections of lifestyle, geography, and public health outcomes related to liver cancer deaths and smoking rates.

Male lowest Rate

0.97

Niger

Male Global Average

8.6

Male Peak Rate

151.0

Mongolia

Female lowest Rate

0.43

Niger

Female Global Average

4.0

Female Peak Rate

88.4

Mongolia 
Summary Line Chart:
The graph presents the trend in liver cancer death rates among men and women from 1990 to 2022 for four countries: Ghana, China, Japan, and Egypt. 
China made significant progress in reducing liver cancer deaths, while Egypt experienced increasing rates before stabilizing. 
Japan shows steady improvement, and Ghana maintained low and stable rates.

Bar Summary(Male):
Liver cancer deaths in men have shown varying trends globally.
Countries like Mongolia and Gambia have consistently reported high rates, while developed nations such as the US and Japan have seen more stable trends.
The global average in 2005 stands at 8.60, with Mongolia having the highest rate of 151.00 deaths per 100,000 men.

Bar Summary (Female):
Liver cancer death rates in women have trended differently across regions.
While some countries such as Mongolia report extreme high rates, other countries show gradual improvements.
The global average in 2005 is 4.00, with Mongolia experiencing the highest rate at 88.40 deaths per 100,000 women.

Box Summary (Male):
Mongolia (Asia) is an extreme outlier in terms of male liver cancer death.

Oceania and Africa show high variability and generally higher male death rates.

Europe and America have more consistent and lower death rates.

This visualization helps highlight both intercontinental disparities and intra-regional differences that might warrant further investigation or targeted interventions.

Box Summary (Female):
Asia again has extreme outliers (e.g., Mongolia) with very high death rates.

Oceania and Africa show elevated and varied female death rates.

Europe and America exhibit relatively lower and more consistent liver cancer death outcomes for women.

This visualization underscores regional disparities and reveals a similar pattern to male death rates—though female mortality is generally lower, the geographic inequality persists.
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Interpretation of Tables and Charts: Regional Summary Statistics for Male Smoking Rate (2005)

  • Asia had the highest average male smoking rate at 42.02%, with Indonesia reaching 65.9%.

  • Europe followed closely with 40.52% on average and Russia topping at 70.1%, the highest male smoking rate recorded.

  • Oceania showed a similarly high average of 41.17%, with Tonga at 61.8%.

  • America had a moderate average of 30.04%, led by Cuba at 43.4%.

  • Africa recorded the lowest average at 23.05%, with Ethiopia as the lowest country at 7.6%, but still had some high outliers like Tunisia (51%).

Regional Summary Statistics for Female Smoking Rate (2005)

  • Europe had the highest average female smoking rate (26.69%), with Serbia reaching a peak of 42.3%.

  • Oceania followed with an average of 20.42%, and Nauru reported the highest rate at 52.4%, the highest individual country rate overall.

  • America showed a moderate average (16.75%), with Chile at 33.6%.

  • Asia had a relatively low average of 7.25%, with Nepal reaching the regional peak of 26.4%.

  • Africa had the lowest average female smoking rate (3.9%), and Algeria recorded the lowest value worldwide at just 0.3%.

Male vs Female Smoking Rates in Asia (2005)

The bubble chart visualizes male and female smoking rates in various countries of the highest male smoking continent in 2005.

Bubble Size: Gender gap in smoking rates (Male % – Female %)

The chart illustrates a significant gender disparity in smoking across most Asian countries in 2005. The public health burden of smoking in Asia is heavily male-dominated, pointing to the need for targeted anti-smoking policies for men, while remaining alert to rising female trends in certain countries.

Male vs Female Smoking Rates in Europe (2005)

The bubble chart visualizes the smoking behavior of countries in the highest female smoking continent in 2005, comparing male and female smoking rates on the x and y axes respectively. Each bubble represents a country, and the bubble size corresponds to the gender smoking gap (i.e., the absolute difference between male and female smoking rates).

Europe in 2005 showed relatively high smoking rates among both men and women, but with varying degrees of gender disparity. Countries in Western and Northern Europe (e.g., Denmark, Switzerland) appear to have more gender-equal smoking behaviors, while some Eastern and Southeastern European countries (e.g., Albania, Bosnia) reflect traditional gender norms where smoking is predominantly a male behavior.

Male Chart Insights

  1. Countries like Mongolia and Egypt show very high liver cancer death rates but moderate or low smoking rates.

  2. The gender gap in smoking is significant in many of these countries, male smoking rates are far higher than female, which may partially explain why male liver cancer deaths are higher.

Female Chart Insights

  1. Mongolia and Gambia again top the list for liver cancer deaths in women, but their female smoking rates are very low, further reinforcing the role of non-smoking contributors.

  2. There’s generally a weaker correlation between smoking and liver cancer in women compared to men which may be due to lower female smoking prevalence in many countries.

This study explored the relationship between liver cancer death rates and smoking prevalence across countries using Gapminder data from 2005 and 1990–2019. It focused on gender-specific patterns, regional differences, and the strength of association between smoking and liver cancer.

  1. Liver Cancer Mortality Shows Wide Global Variation

  • Countries like Mongolia, Egypt, and China consistently exhibit high liver cancer death rates, especially among men.

  • Developed countries showed more stable or declining trends, likely due to improved healthcare and preventive measures.

  1. Male Liver Cancer Death Rates Are Significantly Higher Than Female Rates
  • A clear gender gap exists, with most countries reporting higher mortality in men, which may be linked to behavior (e.g., smoking, alcohol), biology, and occupational exposures.
  1. Smoking Patterns Are Gender and Region-Specific

  • Asia has the highest male smoking rates but very low female rates, showing strong gender disparities.

  • Europe has high rates among both men and women, suggesting broader cultural acceptance of smoking.

  • Africa shows low smoking prevalence, particularly among women.

  1. Smoking Alone Does Not Fully Explain Liver Cancer Trends

  • While countries like Russia, Indonesia, and Vietnam exhibit alignment between smoking and liver cancer rates in men, others (e.g., Egypt and Mongolia) show high death rates but low smoking prevalence. This may indicate the influence of other factors like:

  • Hepatitis B/C infections

  • Alcohol consumption

  • Environmental or occupational toxins

  • Limited access to early diagnosis and treatment

It can therefore be concluded that, there is a weak correlation between smoking and liver cancer death.
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This analysis uses publicly available datasets from Gapminder, which compiles reliable global statistics from institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations (UN), and World Bank.

Key Indicators:
  • Liver Cancer Death Rate

    • liver cancer, deaths per 100 000 women: Number of death due to liver cancer in 100,000 female residents during the certain year. This rate is calculated as if each country has the same age composition as the world population.

    • liver cancer, deaths per 100 000 men: Number of death due to liver cancer in 100,000 male residents during the certain year. This rate is calculated as if each country has the same age composition as the world population.

    • Separate data for men and women

    • Covers the period 1955 - 2019

  • Smoking Prevalence

    • Smoking men (% of men over age 15): Percentage of men (over age 15) that smoke. Note: only 2005 tobacco data is provided by WHOSIS. In order to compare with 2002 lung cancer data, 2005 tobbaco data was copied into 2002, based on the assumption that people’s habit of smoking won’t significantly change during 3 years.

    • Smoking women (% of women over age 15): Percentage of women (over age 15) that smoke. Note: only 2005 tobacco data is provided by WHOSIS. In order to compare with 2002 lung cancer data, 2005 tobbaco data was copied into 2002, based on the assumption that people’s habit of smoking won’t significantly change during 3 years.

    • Separate data for men and women

    • Covers the period 2000 - 2005

These datasets were cleaned, merged, and transformed to enable gender-based, temporal, and cross-continental comparisons using python library like pandas, plotly, itables etc.