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 everyday prices rose the most over the past year?
  2. Which big U.S. cities have the most violent crime?

Chart 1 of 2 · Inflation

Which everyday prices rose the most over the past year?

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

In the 12 months to September 2026, the biggest price changes were for gasoline (34.2%) and airline fares (22.4%), while overall inflation was 3.7%. At the other end were eggs (-20.6%) and car insurance (-5%). Each bar compares the Consumer Price Index for the item in one month with the same month a year earlier.

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: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026

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Chart 2 of 2 · Crime

Which big U.S. cities have the most violent crime?

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

In 2025, Memphis, TN had the highest violent crime rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 1,853 per 100,000 people, followed by Detroit, MI (1,654) and Oakland, CA (1,475). Irvine, CA (79) and Virginia Beach, VA (101) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 330. Violent crime is murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In 2025 the police in New Orleans, Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida, didn't report a full year of crimes, so they are left out. Each rate is per person the department serves, and a few, such as Las Vegas, Honolulu, Jacksonville and Louisville, serve their whole county. A city's rate also depends on where its borders fall, so compare cities with care.

How to read this chart

Each bar is one big city's violent crimes reported to the FBI in a year (murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault) for every 100,000 people its police department serves. The dashed line is the rate for the whole U.S. Dividing by population makes big and small cities fair to compare, but a city's rate also depends on where its borders fall.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the city with the highest rate and the one with the lowest. About how many times higher is the top rate?
  2. Some departments police a whole county, suburbs included. How could that change a city's rate compared with one that covers only its downtown?
  3. These are crimes reported to police. What kinds of crime might never show up in these numbers, and why?

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

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