I just meant to post the second article together with the first, but couldn't track it down at that time. The second article contains extra data on trends in health and education during the same periods. And lots of charts, something always appreciated around here, ... ;-)

(Mind you I can think of a number of issues with their health comparisons i.e. the fact that an increase in life expectancy is not linear with respect to effort. I.e. bringing average life expectancy up from 40 to 60 in a given country might be a lot "easier" than raising the life expectancy from 60 to 80 in the same country, and thus "year of l.e. added per years elapsed" seems to me a bit questionable as a measure)

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom - William Blake