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 federal debt is there per American?
  2. Where does US electricity come from?

Chart 1 of 2 · Federal budget

How much federal debt is there per American?

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

In fiscal 2025 the federal debt came to about $110,100 for every person in the US, up from $33,000 in 2008 and $1,585 in 1960. It is the debt at the end of each fiscal year divided by the World Bank's mid-year population estimate, not adjusted for inflation. It starts in 1960, the first year of the World Bank's population figures.

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. Treasury Fiscal Data, Historical Debt Outstanding; population from the World Bank (SP.POP.TOTL) (Debt data public domain (U.S. government work); World Bank population data CC BY 4.0) · 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

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