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 2 · Food and drug safety
Which side effects are reported most for metformin?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Nausea (30,587 reports) and diarrhea (28,674) are the reactions named most often in reports to the FDA, as of September 2026, that list a medicine containing metformin, including combination pills. Nausea and diarrhea are known stomach side effects of metformin; high blood sugar may describe the diabetes being treated, and lactic acidosis is a rare but serious known risk. A report is not proof the medicine caused the problem: anyone can send one, it lists every medicine the person was taking, and the same case can be reported twice. Reports that the medicine didn't work or was used differently than labeled are left out. Don't stop a medicine without talking to a doctor.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Food and Drug Administration, openFDA) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 2 · 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 numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.