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.

  1. What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?
  2. How has the world's population grown since 1960?

Chart 1 of 2 · Health

What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?

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

In the 12 months through June 2025, heart disease was the leading cause of death for Americans aged 85 and over, at 3,759 deaths per 100,000 people that age, 2.3 times the rate for cancer (1,631). Stroke (1,064) and Alzheimer disease (1,039) came next. The numbers are provisional.

Questions to discuss

  1. In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
  2. Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
  3. Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Quarterly provisional estimates of mortality (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · World

How has the world's population grown since 1960?

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

The world had 8.22 billion people in 2025, about 2.7 times the 3.02 billion of 1960. It passed 8 billion in 2023. Figures are mid-year estimates from the United Nations, which revises them as new censuses come in.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of people alive in the world in the middle of that year, estimated by the United Nations. The axis starts at zero, so the height of the line shows the true size. Look at how steep the line is to see how fast the population grew.

Questions to discuss

  1. Judging from the chart, about how many years did it take the world to add its most recent billion people?
  2. Is the line getting steeper or flatter in recent years? What does that tell you about the growth rate?
  3. These numbers are estimates that the UN revises. Why is it hard to count every person on Earth?

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Population, total (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

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