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 3 · Inflation
How fast is car insurance getting more expensive?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Car insurance prices changed by -5% in the 12 months to September 2026 (a minus sign means they fell). Their fastest rise since 1976 came in April 2024, when prices were 22.6% higher than in April 2023. Each point compares a month with the same month a year earlier. BLS priced car insurance only every few months before 1970, so the chart starts in 1971. BLS collected no prices in October 2025 and published none for car insurance in November 2025, so those months and the same months of 2026 are missing.
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: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (motor vehicle insurance) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 3 · 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 numbersChart 3 of 3 · World
What is the unemployment rate in each country?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2025, 4.2% of workers in the United States were unemployed, against 4.8% worldwide; the highest rate was 34.2% in Eswatini, and the lowest 0.1%, in Qatar. Search 182 countries and territories. These are the International Labour Organization's estimates, which count people without work who are looking for it and fill gaps where a country runs no regular survey, so they can differ from a country's own figures.
How to read this chart
Each bar is the share of a country's workers who have no job and are looking for one, estimated by the International Labour Organization. The dashed line is the world. People who aren't looking for work, such as students and retirees, aren't counted as unemployed at all.
Questions to discuss
- Is the United States above or below the world rate, and by about how many percentage points?
- A country can have low unemployment while many people earn very little. How is that possible?
- Why would someone who has given up looking for work not count as unemployed? Does that make the number more or less useful?
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Unemployment, total (% of total labor force) (modeled ILO estimate) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
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