---
title: "Mountain to Climb"
description: "A tool for visualising how long economic catch-up growth actually takes between any two countries or regions"
type: note
pubDate: 2026-02-20T00:00:00.000Z
topics: ["economics", "visualisation", "data", "development"]
canonicalUrl: "https://actuallymaybe.com/blog/mountain-to-climb/"
---
> A tool for visualising how long economic catch-up growth actually takes between any two countries or regions

Credit to [Oliver Kim](https://oliverwkim.com/The-Mountain-To-Climb/) for the original idea that got this moving.

[Mountain to Climb](https://mountaintoclimb.com) is a tool for exploring economic convergence: the question of how long it takes for a poorer economy to catch up with a richer one. Pick any two countries from 217 in the dataset, choose an indicator (GDP per capita, life expectancy, electricity access), and adjust the growth rate assumptions in real time. The chart shows historical data back to 1990, projects forward, and marks when the gap closes at 25%, 50%, and 75%. An implications panel translates the abstract numbers into something more concrete: what does electricity demand look like at that income level, how does urbanisation shift, what are the infrastructure requirements. There's also a regional mode for comparing OECD sub-national regions, where the same catch-up dynamics play out at a smaller scale and often over even longer timelines.

## Further reading
- [Mountain to Climb Updates - Convergence Explorer](https://actuallymaybe.com/blog/mountain-to-climb-updates-convergence-explorer/) — New updates to the Convergence Explorer: a tidier sidebar and footer, fresh World Bank data, and energy transition data from Ember.
- [Building Explainers Random Thoughts - Drone 101](https://actuallymaybe.com/blog/building-explainers-random-thoughts-drone-101/) — An experiment in interactive explainers: drone control, Fourier, Bret Victor, philosophical prompts, accessibility, and learning with LLMs.
- [Freeport: A Lightweight Port Management Tool for Development](https://actuallymaybe.com/blog/freeport-lightweight-port-management/) — A thin wrapper around native commands to simplify port checking and process management during local development.