Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 2 · Income tax
What is the average income on tax returns in your ZIP code?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Type any ZIP code to see the average income on the tax returns filed from it in tax year 2023, next to its state's and the U.S. average of $96,717. ZIP code 20001 in Washington, D.C., shown first, averaged $126,264. In tax year 2022, across the 27,588 ZIP codes in the data, half averaged less than about $68,300, and the highest was Fisher Island, Florida (33109), at $4.4 million on 400 returns. Income here is adjusted gross income, the income on a tax return after a few adjustments; an average can be pulled far up by a few very large incomes, and one return can cover a married couple. The IRS leaves out ZIP codes with fewer than 100 returns, single buildings and nonresidential ZIP codes, and returns with negative income. Tax year 2023 is the newest year the IRS has published by ZIP code.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: IRS Statistics of Income, individual income tax ZIP code data (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2023
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · World
How much does each country spend on health care per person?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2023, the United States spent $13,473 per person on health care, about 10 times the world figure of $1,317. Germany spent $6,395, Japan $3,638, China $763 and India $85; Madagascar spent the least, $17. Search 191 countries and territories. Spending counts what governments, insurers and households paid for health care, but not new hospitals or equipment, in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices.
How to read this chart
Each bar is what a country spent on health care in a year, by governments, insurers and households together, divided by its population and turned into U.S. dollars. The dashed line is the world. The figures aren't adjusted for prices, so a dollar buys more care in some countries than others.
Questions to discuss
- About how many times the world figure does the United States spend per person?
- Does spending more on health care per person always mean people live longer? What other chart on Chartly could help you check?
- Doctors and nurses are paid less in some countries. How would that change what these dollar figures can tell you?
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Current health expenditure per capita (current US$) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2023
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