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 Americans die of drug overdoses each year?
  2. How fast has the world come online?

Chart 1 of 2 · Health

How many Americans die of drug overdoses each year?

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

65,351 people died of drug overdoses in the US in the 12 months ending May 2026, about 41% fewer than at the peak of about 111,500 in the 12 months ending June 2023. The counts are provisional: the latest months are slightly undercounted while some causes of death are still being investigated. CDC's provisional counts start with the 12 months ending January 2015.

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, Provisional drug overdose death counts (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of May 31, 2026

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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