4 Ways

Plotting the data by country rather than by point is informative but is bunched in the bottom left.

One potential way to solve the problem of overcrowding is to facet the data by region.

The use of points here solves the problem of overcrowding but it makes it far too hard to compare the slope of the regression line.

 

I think this is the most effective implementation as having the regression lines for each region shows effectively the rise of Asia, the unchanging poverty of Africa and the malaise in the Middle East.

Here's the code

# 1st plot
 
E <- ggplot(wecon30, aes (A1980, B2010))
+ geom_smooth(method=lm, se=FALSE)
+ xlab("1980 GDP per person US dollars purchasing power parity")
+ ylab("2010 GDP per person US dollars ppp")
+ opts(title = "GDP per person 1980 & 2010")
+ geom_text(aes(label=Economy, x = A1980, y = B2010),colour="black", size=3)
 
 
# 2nd plot
 
E + facet_grid(continent ~ .)
 
 
# 4th plot
 
F <- ggplot(wecon30, aes (A1980, B2010, color=Continent))
+ geom_smooth(method=lm, se=FALSE)
+ xlab("1980 GDP per person US dollars purchasing power parity")
+ ylab("2010 GDP per person US dollars ppp")
+ opts(title = "GDP per person 1980 & 2010")
+ geom_point(pch=19)
 
 
# 3rd plot
 
F + facet_grid(Continent ~ .)

Created by Pretty R at inside-R.org


More on this tomorrow...