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. Which age groups have the highest drug overdose death rates?
  2. How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?

Chart 1 of 2 · Health

Which age groups have the highest drug overdose death rates?

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

In the 12 months through June 2025, people aged 35–44 had the highest drug overdose death rate, 39.4 deaths per 100,000 people that age, followed by ages 45–54 (37.6) and 55–64 (36.2). The rate was 7.1 for ages 15 to 24. The rates 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 · 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. Roughly how many times more common is each band than the one above it?
  2. The biggest bars are hard to compare with the smallest ones on this scale. What other way could you show these numbers?
  3. The chart starts at magnitude 4.5. Why might smaller earthquakes around the world go uncounted?

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

Teachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.