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 · Crime
Is violent crime in the U.S. going up or down?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Down, over the long run. Police reported about 329 violent crimes per 100,000 people in 2025, about 59% below the 1991 peak of about 798, and the lowest since at least 1985. The rate rose in 2020 and 2022, then fell in 2023, 2024 and 2025. In 2021 the FBI stopped taking its old summary reports and accepted only its newer, more detailed system (NIBRS); many police departments hadn't switched yet, so agencies covering only about 77% of Americans reported, against 88 to 98% in other years, and 2021's number is less certain. Rates count only the agencies that reported, so they differ a little from the FBI's national estimates, and the FBI widened its definition of rape in 2013.
How to read this chart
Each point is the number of violent crimes police reported for every 100,000 Americans that year. The line starts at zero, so its height shows the true size. In 2021 the FBI changed how it collects reports and fewer police departments sent numbers, so that year is less certain than the others.
Questions to discuss
- Find the year with the highest rate. About how much lower is the rate in the latest year?
- Many people say they think crime is rising. How could that belief and this chart both seem true to different people?
- Why might a change in how crimes are counted, like the one in 2021, make one year hard to compare with the rest?
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.