The world has lost a fervent believer and highly-respected educator of a facts-based world in Hans Rosling.

Rosling, a Swedish academic renowned for explaining global development using data and animation, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 68 on Tuesday (Feb. 7).

It is unfortunate that the untimely loss of Rosling comes as the world goes through a period of great uncertainty, where many of us have to grapple with the "post-truth" era and "alternative facts".

Rosling's first TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) talk -- "The best statistics you've never seen" thrusted him into the international spotlight in 2006. Millions viewed the video online.

Calling himself an “edutainer”, Rosling had also been described as everything from a data guru to a Jedi master of data visualisation.

Gapminder, an organisation which Rosling co-founded with his son and daughter-in-law in 2007, had announced his passing on Tuesday.

The foundation was named after London Underground’s “mind the gap” notices, with the hope of bridging the divide between data and their interpretation. One of Gapminder's objectives is to promote "factfulness" as a new way of thinking. According to its website, "factfulness" is the relaxing habit of carrying opinions that are based on solid facts.

Rosling's Gapminder co-founders said that they would continue to fight for "his dream of a fact-based worldview".

Here are some of Hans Rosling's interesting talks available online. Watch them, and you will never see data and statistics the same way again:

TED Talks: The best stats you've ever seen | Hans Rosling

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four

'How To End Poverty in 15 years' Hans Rosling - BBC News

Religions and babies | Hans Rosling

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Top photo from Getty

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