Visualization: Student Visas in the U.S. 2000-2008

Not to long ago I was looking for interesting data sets on a couple of websites when I came across a file that contained all visas issued by the U.S. for the last decade and a half. I'll be graduating in a few months and for most of my college career I have been in classes with students from around the world. So I thought that this would be an interesting data set to visualize.

After exploring the data, I thought that I would compare the affects of GDP per Capita and population on the amount of students that come to the United States to study. This meant that I needed to find data on Per Capita GDP and populations. I found this data available from the world bank in the form of a large excel file.

I thought that the best way to visualize this data would be to make a motion chart. So the first thing that I had to do was concatenate the data in a form that Google Spreadsheets could create a motion chart. I will add a photo of the data organization below.

The next step was to create a motion chart using Google Spreadsheets built in functions. These charts allow you a large amount of freedom in choosing axis and grid lines  It took some time but I found the best way to view the data included the following:

• Remove China and India. (I do this because the population sizes of these countries make it had to get a clear view on the rest of the countries. I have created two models, one that has China and India included and a then a model that excludes them. I will add links both models at the end)
• Use GDP per Capita for the Y-axis and Visas on the X-axis
• Make the dot size and color the population of the country
• Make the axis use the Log  scale instead of the the lin

Because of limitations on available data (GDP per Capita), the model only includes the years 2000-2008. Additionally, there some countries that no data or incomplete data was available, therefore the model only contains 190 countries. I had to post a link to the Google docs because they would not embed.

Model Without China and India: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AivzFtg4WNapdHRvcUlFeUpPTzVQM2VNVnJIVVVoQVE&single=true&gid=0&output=html

Model with China and India: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AivzFtg4WNapdGZpTndqeWg4NGkwRmxBOUptWmRlSnc&single=true&gid=0&output=html

What is telling in the data is two different trends:

• Visas given out to students drop dramatically starting in 2001. The levels don't seem to return to 2000 levels till 2006-2007. I presume that this drop corresponding to backlash after 9/11 and the start of the Afghanistan war. 
• There seems to be a large correlation between the GDP and the number of students that a country sends to the United States on visas. This assumption precludes the countries that do not have students in the U.S.