The Western Economic Forum in Davos

Despite the economic rise of many countries in the world’s East and South, the most and biggest companies are still based in the West. That is why it comes to no surprise that most guests at the World Economic Forum in Davos are based in western countries. The graphic below shows how big the western dominance and overrepresentation in Davos really is.

The graph shows by how many attendees each country is over- or underrepresented in Davos compared to the situation where every seat at the Davos’ tables would be awarded to each country proportionally to its share in world population or world economy (gdp).

The numbers on the graph indicate the number of attendees a country has in surplus (positive values) or in deficit (negative values) if the number of guests for each county would be calculated proportional to its share in world population or world economy. Countries in the upper-right quadrant are overrepresented for both population and economy, countries in the lower left quadrant are underrepresented given their population and gdp.

Move over the graphic to view exact numbers. Country populations are represented by circle sizes, continents and regions are coded by color.

In the graphic below, the most extreme under or overrepresented countries (US, UK, host country Switzerland, China, India and Japan) are left out in order to study the other countries in more detail.

Sources: The Guardian, Gapminder, Worldbank

See the original graphics in Dutch or read Het Westers Economisch Forum in Davos, the original article containing these graphics (also in Dutch).