Alright, so today I’m gonna walk you through my little experiment: Ghana vs. Mali. Sounds like a soccer match, right? Well, kinda.
First off, I wanted to see how two different data sets, representing, let’s say, economic indicators of Ghana and Mali, would behave under certain conditions. I’m not an economist or anything, just a guy who likes messing with numbers.
I started by grabbing some data. You know, GDP, population, maybe some literacy rates, stuff like that. Found some decent datasets online – nothing too fancy. Then, I chucked everything into a spreadsheet. Yep, good old Excel. Don’t judge.
Step one: Data Cleaning! This part sucks. Missing values everywhere! Had to do some interpolating, which is basically making educated guesses based on nearby data points. Not perfect, but better than leaving blanks.
Next, I decided to focus on a few key indicators. Like, I wanted to see how GDP growth correlated with population growth in each country. Made some scatter plots. Ghana looked kinda…normal. Mali? A bit more all over the place.
- Ghana: GDP Growth vs. Population Growth (scatter plot)
- Mali: GDP Growth vs. Population Growth (scatter plot)
The tricky part came next. I wanted to simulate some scenarios. What if Ghana had Mali’s population growth rate for a few years? Or vice versa? So, I built a little model in Python (yes, I finally upgraded from Excel for this part!). Just some basic loops and calculations.
The results? Interesting. If Ghana experienced Mali’s slower population growth, their per capita GDP would’ve been slightly higher, according to my rudimentary model. If Mali had Ghana’s growth, things might’ve looked better for them overall, but it’s just a simulation, not a prediction!
I visualized the simulated data using some line graphs. Pretty colors and all that. Makes it look more professional, even if it’s not.
In the end, it was just a fun little project. No groundbreaking discoveries here. But it did give me a better appreciation for how different factors can influence economic outcomes, even in neighboring countries. Plus, I got to practice my Python skills. Winning!
