Chart assignment

AP Statistics chart assignment

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.

  1. How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?
  2. How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?

Printable worksheet each chart with its source, date and space to write answers

Chart 1 of 2 · Baby names

How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

Type any name to see how many U.S. babies were given it each year since 1880, for girls or boys. Emma, shown first, went from 2,003 girls in 1880 down to 414 in 1976, then back up to a peak of 22,719 in 2003; in 2025 it was 12,754. The counts come from Social Security card applications, so the early years undercount everyone. A year with fewer than 5 babies of a name shows as 0, because Social Security leaves those names out for privacy.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of U.S. babies given a name in one year, from Social Security card applications. Type any name to see its line, for girls or boys. These are counts, not shares, and far more babies are born today than in 1880, so a count can grow just because the country did.

Questions to discuss

  1. Look up your own name or a friend's. When was it most popular, and what might explain that?
  2. Why are counts from the 1880s lower than counts today, even for names that were very popular then?
  3. How could you change these counts to fairly compare a name's popularity in 1900 with today?

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers
Cite this chart (MLA, APA, Chicago)

  • MLA

    “How Many Babies Were Given Your Name Each Year Since 1880?” Chartly, 31 Dec. 2025, chart.ly/charts/baby-name-popularity. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

  • APA

    Chartly. (2025, December 31). How many babies were given your name each year since 1880? [Chart]. Retrieved November 11, 2026, from https://chart.ly/charts/baby-name-popularity

  • Chicago

    Chartly. “How Many Babies Were Given Your Name Each Year Since 1880?” Chart. Data from U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data). Updated December 31, 2025. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://chart.ly/charts/baby-name-popularity.

Chart 2 of 2 · Earthquakes

How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?

The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.

In 2025 the world recorded 6,428 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 to 4.9, 1,983 of magnitude 5, 129 of magnitude 6, 15 of magnitude 7 and 1 of magnitude 8 or more. Each step up in magnitude is roughly ten times rarer, and releases about 32 times more energy. Countless smaller quakes go unrecorded worldwide, so the chart starts at 4.5.

How to read this chart

Each bar counts the earthquakes recorded worldwide in one year within a range of magnitudes. The bars start at zero. Each whole step up in magnitude releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7 quake is far more than one step stronger than a 6.

Questions to discuss

  1. About how many times more earthquakes are there in each magnitude band than in the band above it?
  2. The counts fall by roughly the same factor each step. What kind of model fits that pattern, linear or exponential?
  3. If you took the logarithm of each count, what shape would you expect the graph to have, and why does that help?

Source: U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat) (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers
Cite this chart (MLA, APA, Chicago)

  • MLA

    “How Much Rarer Is Each Step up in Earthquake Magnitude?” Chartly, 31 Dec. 2025, chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude. Accessed 11 Nov. 2026.

  • APA

    Chartly. (2025, December 31). How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude? [Chart]. Retrieved November 11, 2026, from https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude

  • Chicago

    Chartly. “How Much Rarer Is Each Step up in Earthquake Magnitude?” Chart. Data from U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat). Updated December 31, 2025. Accessed November 11, 2026. https://chart.ly/charts/earthquakes-by-magnitude.

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