ggplot2: using directed segments to visualise change between two time periods

Question

In his article about visualizing the same dataset in multiple ways, Nathan Yau uses directed segments to show where change is more pronounced between periods.

Is there a straightforward way to generate a similar plot using ggplot2?

Here's the original data in CVS format, and the original plot:

Answer 1

What about this?

#load packages
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)

#read data
df <- read.csv(url("https://www.dropbox.com/s/7mmpor5m8dek51a/df.csv?raw=1"))

df_1 <- df %>% 
  filter(Year%in%c("2000", "2015")) %>% 
  mutate(year = "year") %>% 
  tidyr::unite(year_fin, year, Year, sep = ".") %>% 
  select(Country, year_fin, life_expectancy_birth_both) %>% 
  tidyr::spread(year_fin, life_expectancy_birth_both) 

#reorder data 
df_2 <- transform(df_1, Country = reorder(Country, year.2015))

#plot
ggplot(df_2, aes(x=life_expectancy_birth_both, y=Country)) + 
  geom_segment(aes(x= year.2000 , xend= year.2015, y=Country, yend=Country), color = "red", size = 0.2,
               arrow = arrow(length = unit(0.1, "cm")))+
  scale_x_continuous(breaks=c(40,45,50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85))+
  geom_vline(xintercept = c(40,45,50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85), linetype = 3, size =0.20)+
  labs(title = "LIFE EXPECTANCY AT BIRTH" , 
       subtitle = "2000 vs. 2015",
       x= " ",
       y=  " ")+
  theme(plot.title=element_text(size=10, 
                                hjust= -1, 
                                face="bold", 
                                colour="black"),
        plot.subtitle=element_text(size=8, 
                                   hjust=-0.52, 
                                   face="bold", 
                                   color="black"),
        axis.text.y=element_text(size = 4),
        axis.text.x=element_text(size = 4),
        axis.ticks=element_blank(), 
        panel.background=element_blank())

ggsave("life_expectancy.png", height = 10, width = 5 , dpi = 600)