I want to create animation template for graph/data grow over years

It's a fairly easy task to control the size and the position of a shape layer rectangle by driving each value with a simple expression tied to a slider. Sliders can be easily driven by a data file (JSON). If you add another slider at the bottom you can create a total of all the values of all the sliders. Divide that number by the number of layers to get a percentage value for each slider. Do some math on the percentage value and add that to a linear expression and you can control the position of a bunch of layers or the size of a bunch of rectangles with some pretty simple expressions. No recursive data required, just a little rounding and an accumulator and you should be able to have layers swap positions as their ranking changes and hold them there until the rank starts to change again. I'm guessing it would take me about a half-hour to put that together with a control null, 4 sliders, and 4 rectangles in a single shape layer. Then all that would be necessary would be to duplicate the sliders and the rectangles and tie a JSON file to the sliders. The sliders could also drive a text layer to display the values.

Maybe I'll give it a shot a little later this evening. It's not as easy as a pre-made script, but it should be fairly easy to do.

Slider 1

Slider 2

Slider 3

Slider 4

Total Slider = 1 + 2 + 3 + 4

Rectangle 1 Rank = Total Slider / Slider 1 value

Rectangle 1 Y position = Total Slider * Rectangle 1 Rank

Throw in some rounding and a linear method and that should do it. Repeat for each rectangle and you're done.

Hey, to make this clear from the start - none of these examples were created in After Effects.

However, it is possible to achieve this with a combination of expressions and scripting. The reason being why I always suggest to avoid expressions-only approach - you need to efectively compare data. The bigger data set is going to be - the slower computation becomes, up to the point where its non-bearable. 

You can find initial approach of achieving these in After Effects in my Youtube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoAT2yyWEOrbAxaq8V8n-NxHfuXrEC3LF

Tutorial series will continue on breaking down the whole execution. Can't promise you that without any scripting knowledge you will be able to pull this through, but at least basic understanding will get you into successful thinking how bar chart race animation can be potentially achieved in After Effects. 

By the way, in case if someone is interested - in the past I made comparison of huge data set processing: made with expressions only by parsing .json as a footage, and achieving the same result though scripting. It resulted in SEVEN TIMES faster rendering speeds. For one time project - its definitely might be not worth learning scripting. But for anything dynamic, and re-usable long term - using expressions-only is a massive waste of resources. If the speed is essential - then consider scripting as your main path.

I explain such a workflow in much detail in the section Data-driven Animation of my free eBook Motion Graphics in After Effects that Speaks to Your Brain