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 · Banks
How many U.S. banks have failed each year?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Bank failures peaked at 530 in 1989, during the savings-and-loan crisis, when about 2,400 banks and thrifts failed from 1980 to 1995. The financial crisis brought 140 failures in 2009 and 157 in 2010, and only five banks failed in 2023, though three of them were among the biggest ever; 2 failed in 2025. Nine banks failed in 1934, the FDIC's first year, and none failed in 2005, 2006, 2018, 2021 or 2022. The count includes savings and loans closed by the FSLIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation, but not banks kept open with government help.
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: FDIC BankFind Suite, bank failures and assistance data (Public domain (U.S. government work; FDIC)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · World
How fast has the world come online?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
73.6% of the world's people used the internet in 2025, up from 15.6% in 2005, the first year the World Bank gives a world figure. It counts people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months. The world figures are estimates by the International Telecommunication Union.
How to read this chart
Each point is the share of the world's people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months, as estimated by the International Telecommunication Union. The axis starts at zero, so the height shows the true share. The steeper the line, the faster people were coming online.
Questions to discuss
- About what share of the world was online in the first year on the chart, and in the latest year?
- Did the share grow faster in some years than others? What could have sped it up?
- Using the internet once in three months counts here. What does this number leave out about how people get online?
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · 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.