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 · Wealth
How is U.S. household wealth divided?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
At the end of June 2026, the wealthiest 1% of U.S. households held 32.5% of all household wealth, the next 9% held 36.4%, the next 40% held 28.8% and the bottom 50% held 2.3%. In 1989 the shares were 22.8%, 38.0%, 35.7% and 3.5%. Wealth here is net worth: what households own (homes, stocks and mutual funds, pensions and retirement accounts, private businesses, cars and other belongings, bank deposits) minus what they owe (mortgages, credit cards, student and car loans). The Fed estimates each quarter by combining its Financial Accounts with its Survey of Consumer Finances, taken every three years, so the newest quarters are estimates that get revised.
How to read this chart
Each bar is one group of U.S. households' share of all household wealth, so the four bars add up to 100%. The groups are different sizes: the top 1% is one household in every hundred, while the bottom 50% is half of all households. Compare each group's share of wealth with its share of households.
Questions to discuss
- Which group holds the largest share of wealth? Is it the group with the most households?
- If wealth were split evenly, what share would the bottom 50% hold? How far is the chart from that?
- The takeaway gives the 1989 shares too. Which groups gained a share since then, and which lost one?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 3 · Climate
How much has the US warmed since 1895?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
The contiguous US averaged 54.6°F in 2025. The warmest year since records began in 1895 was 2024, at 55.5°F. Through 2025, the dashed trend line, the straight line that best fits every year, rose about 0.18°F a decade, or 2.3°F since 1895, and warming had sped up to about 0.5°F a decade since 1970. Alaska and Hawaii aren't included.
How to read this chart
Each point is one year's average temperature across the lower 48 states, in degrees Fahrenheit. The axis doesn't start at zero, so a small rise looks steep: read the numbers on the axis, not the height of the line. The dashed line is the trend, the straight line that best fits every year; single years bounce above and below it.
Questions to discuss
- Find the warmest and coolest years on the chart. How many degrees apart are they?
- Why might one year be much cooler than the year before, even while the trend line keeps rising?
- The axis doesn't start at zero here, but bar charts always do. Why is that fair for temperatures but not for bars?
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersChart 3 of 3 · 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
- Roughly how many times more common is each band than the one above it?
- The biggest bars are hard to compare with the smallest ones on this scale. What other way could you show these numbers?
- 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 numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.