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 much does NIH spend on medical research each year?
  2. Where does US electricity come from?

Chart 1 of 2 · Medical research

How much does NIH spend on medical research each year?

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

NIH funded $42.2 billion of research projects in fiscal 2025, up from $27.8 billion in 2012, before adjusting for inflation. The most in a year was $43.6 billion, in fiscal 2023; the dip in 2013 was the federal budget cut known as sequestration. These are the projects NIH lists in RePORTER, grants and its own labs; NIH's full budget, which also pays for buildings and running the agency, is larger.

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: NIH RePORTER (National Institutes of Health) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · Energy

Where does US electricity come from?

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

In 2025 natural gas made 40.8% of US electricity, followed by nuclear (17.7%) and coal (16.6%). Wind made 10.5% and solar 6.7%. Solar counts only utility-scale plants, not rooftop panels, and the 2025 figures are preliminary.

How to read this chart

Each bar is one energy source's share of all the electricity made in the U.S. in a year, so the bars add up to about 100%. The bars start at zero, so a bar twice as long means twice the share. Solar counts only large power plants, not panels on rooftops.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which source makes the most electricity? About how many times more than the smallest bar?
  2. Which of these sources burn fuel and which don't? What share of electricity comes from each group?
  3. Why might a chart of this kind look different in your state than for the whole country?

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy Review (Table 7.2a) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

Open the chart and its numbers

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