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 each state spend per public school student?
  2. How long do Americans live, and how has that changed since 1900?

Chart 1 of 2 · Schools

How much does each state spend per public school student?

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

In the school year that ended in 2024, New York spent the most per public school student, $31,918, followed by District of Columbia ($31,529) and Vermont ($28,818). Idaho spent the least, $11,060, and the figure for the whole U.S. was $17,619. This is day-to-day spending on teachers, staff, supplies and buses, not on buildings or debt, and it isn't adjusted for each state's prices.

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. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of School System Finances (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2024

Open the chart and its numbers

Chart 2 of 2 · Health

How long do Americans live, and how has that changed since 1900?

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

A baby born in the US in 2018 could expect to live 78.7 years, up from 47.3 in 1900. The sharpest drop was in 1918, to 39.1 years, during the influenza pandemic. This CDC dataset stops at 2018; later NCHS reports put life expectancy at 78.4 years in 2023 and 79.0 in 2024, after a fall during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How to read this chart

Each point is how long a baby born in that year could expect to live, if death rates stayed as they were that year. It is an average, so it is pulled down a lot when many babies and young people die. Hover or tap a point to read its year and value.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the sharpest drop on the chart. What happened in the world that year?
  2. Life expectancy in 1900 was under 50. Does that mean most adults died in their 40s? What else could lower the average?
  3. What changes in medicine, food or public health could explain the long rise?

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Death rates and life expectancy at birth (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2018

Open the chart and its numbers

Teachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.