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. How many major earthquakes happen each year?
  2. How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?

Chart 1 of 2 · Earthquakes

How many major earthquakes happen each year?

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

The world had 16 earthquakes of magnitude 7 or more in 2025. Since 1900 the yearly count has ranged from 4 in 1930 to 24 in 2010, with no lasting rise. Quakes this strong are recorded wherever they strike, so even early counts are fairly complete; magnitudes before the 1960s are scientists' later estimates from old seismograms.

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. 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

Chart 2 of 2 · Baby names

How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?

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

Type any name to see how many U.S. babies were given it each year since 1880, for girls or boys. Emma, shown first, went from 2,003 girls in 1880 down to 414 in 1976, then back up to a peak of 22,719 in 2003; in 2025 it was 12,754. The counts come from Social Security card applications, so the early years undercount everyone. A year with fewer than 5 babies of a name shows as 0, because Social Security leaves those names out for privacy.

How to read this chart

Each point is the number of U.S. babies given a name in one year, from Social Security card applications. Type any name to see its line, for girls or boys. These are counts, not shares, and far more babies are born today than in 1880, so a count can grow just because the country did.

Questions to discuss

  1. Look up your own name or a friend's. When was it most popular, and what might explain that?
  2. Why are counts from the 1880s lower than counts today, even for names that were very popular then?
  3. How could you change these counts to fairly compare a name's popularity in 1900 with today?

Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

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