CHOROPLETH
map

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations are a call to countries to protect the plane, end poverty and ensure peace and prosperity. Each of the 17 SDGs englobe numerous indicators to more specifically target the goal within the SDG. I chose SDG 3, 'Good Health and Welbeing'. In particular, indicator 3.5.2: Harmful use of alcohol, defined as alcohol per capita consumption (aged 15 years and older) within a calendar year in litres of pure alcohol.

The map shows a clear pattern of consumption in the northern hemisphere, especially in Europe where most countries can be seen in the darker shades of blue. It is also interesting to see that, on the other side of the ocean, the United States and Canada are also shaded the second darkest blue (even though they have a higher minimum legal age of consumption than European countries). Other remarkable visualizations are countries from northern Africa which have an outstanding low consumption of alcohol. It would be interesting to analyze which cultural factors affect such drastic differences in alcohol drinking between countries that are so close geographically like Spain and Morocco. Notably, since drinking alcohol is considered haram, or forbidden, in Islam these Muslim countries show much lower use of this substance. The hardest part of this assignment was probably getting accustomed to the platform we were using (QGIS), finding the different tabs and so forth. However, once the map was produced, it was all worth it. What an exciting process!