Misleading Charts

Curious how per capita healthcare spending in Ontario compared to the other provinces and territories, I stumbled upon this report published in 2024 by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).

At the bottom of the page, you will find a chart that looks like this, except with dollar figures atop the circles.

Figure: Healthcare spending per capita in 2024 by province/territory, without dollar figures.

What should immediately jump out to you is that Ontario appears to be spending significantly less than everyone else.

If we zoom in on Ontario and Quebec, it looks like Ontario spends 4-6x less than Quebec.

Ontario

Quebec

You may wonder, is that actually true?

Before giving you the answer, I want you to scroll to the first photo, and using the size of the Canada circle, try to figure out the answer to the following question.

How much money did Ontario spend per capita on healthcare in 2024?

It turns out that Ontario spent $8,405 per capita on healthcare in 2024.

If you had to guess how much Quebec spent, you’d likely answer in the ballpark of $10,000-$15,000. But, no, Quebec spent $8,984 per capita on healthcare in 2024.

That is 6.9% higher than Ontario, significant, but a farcry from what the chart would have us believe.

Since you’ve made it this far, here is the original chart.

Figure: Healthcare spending per capita in 2024 by province/territory.

Although the circles look cool, I think the chart could be improved by removing them and keeping the text only. This ensures the reader engages with the numbers themselves, instead of tabulating differences in circle radii.