Times are hard in the U.S. But how do they compare to the downturn worldwide?

A World of Trouble is an interactive map showing unemployment and other hardship indexes by country and connecting them with real-life examples.

For instance, the entry for China talks about how many fewer migrant workers are seen in Beijing now that construction has slowed. The map is from Global Post, an online-only publication that distributes through partnerships with traditional media, including PRI’s The World and PBS’ WorldFocus.

Another way of visualizing economic change is through trade routes. PRI’s The World reported on the benefits and downsides of a new trade route that would drastically change how goods travel from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side of South America. Instead of using the Panama Canal, the port city of Manta in Ecuador would be an alternative.

Mint.com puts wealth distribution in perspective with a map showing the richest and poorest areas of the world. It’s interesting to look at where the differences are vast – between different countries in Africa, for example; and where they are relatively even, like between the U.S. and Russia.

In developing nations, gender also can influence political and economic instability, as
WNYC’s The Takeaway reported this week on New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn’s new book on women in the global economy.

“In our travels, it seemed to us that those countries that were more effective in fighting poverty and creating stability were those that actually educated and empowered women; and that those that didn’t, were those that were most prone to instability,” said Kristof.