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The FIFA World Cup is more than a festival of sport. It’s a chance for nations to measure up on the global stage. An event where economic superpowers can become footballing minnows. And basketcase economies produce world-beating teams.
At Bloomberg we have the data for every country on earth. So we turned each match into a head-to-head between rival economies and displayed the results on a huge screen in our European headquarters in London.
Animating data sourced directly from the Bloomberg Terminal, we put the performances of all 32 teams in context – and revealed the statistical mismatches between the countries involved:
• Populations from 200 million to 300,000
• GDP per capita of almost $80,000 to just $953
• Unemployment rates from 16.1% to 2.5%
• Inflation rates of over 25% to only 0.1%
• And debt levels from 224% to just 12% of GDP.