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 visits does the whole National Park System get each year?
  2. How fast has the world come online?

Chart 1 of 2 · National parks

How many visits does the whole National Park System get each year?

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

All the sites the National Park Service runs, from national parks to monuments, parkways, seashores and memorials, had 323 million recreation visits in 2025, against the record 332 million of 2024 and 205 million in 1979. Part of the rise comes from new sites: about 270 reported visits in 1979 and 400 in 2025. The 2020 dip to 237 million came from pandemic closures.

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: National Park Service, Visitor Use Statistics (Public domain (U.S. government work); source National Park Service) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · World

How fast has the world come online?

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

73.6% of the world's people used the internet in 2025, up from 15.6% in 2005, the first year the World Bank gives a world figure. It counts people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months. The world figures are estimates by the International Telecommunication Union.

How to read this chart

Each point is the share of the world's people who used the internet at least once in the previous three months, as estimated by the International Telecommunication Union. The axis starts at zero, so the height shows the true share. The steeper the line, the faster people were coming online.

Questions to discuss

  1. About what share of the world was online in the first year on the chart, and in the latest year?
  2. Did the share grow faster in some years than others? What could have sped it up?
  3. Using the internet once in three months counts here. What does this number leave out about how people get online?

Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Individuals using the Internet (% of population) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

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