Professor Hans Rosling, who garnered a reputation as the “Jedi master of data visualisation”, has died at the age of 68, his Gapminder foundation has announced.

Professor Rosling, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a year ago, passed away in Uppsala in Sweden.

"Across the world, millions of people use our tools and share our vision of a fact-based worldview that everyone can understand," his Gapminder co-founders said.

"We know that many will be saddened by this message. Hans is no longer alive, but he will always be with us and his dream of a fact-based worldview, we will never let die!"

A professor of global health at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, Professor Rosling decided to "drop out" in 2007 to devote his time to Gapminder, which allows users to create their own data visualisations.

He co-founded the foundation with his son Ola Rosling and daughter-in-law Anna Ronlund in 2005.