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 has the US teen birth rate changed since 1940?
  2. How is U.S. household wealth divided?

Chart 1 of 2 · Health

How has the US teen birth rate changed since 1940?

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There were 12.6 births per 1,000 females aged 15 to 19 in 2024. The rate has fallen about 80% since 1991 (61.8) and about 87% since its 1957 peak (96.3).

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: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Birth rates for females by age group and Health, United States (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2024

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Chart 2 of 2 · Wealth

How is U.S. household wealth divided?

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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

  1. Which group holds the largest share of wealth? Is it the group with the most households?
  2. If wealth were split evenly, what share would the bottom 50% hold? How far is the chart from that?
  3. 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

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