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 have U.S. home prices risen since 1975?
  2. How fast has the world come online?

Chart 1 of 2 · Housing

How much have U.S. home prices risen since 1975?

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

In the second quarter of 2026, FHFA's index of U.S. home prices reached 720, about 12 times its level in early 1975 (the index is 100 in the first quarter of 1980). Prices fell about 19% from their early-2007 peak to mid-2012 in the housing bust, then rose about 37% in just over two years from early 2020. The index follows repeat sales and refinance appraisals of the same single-family houses with mortgages backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and it is not adjusted for inflation.

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: Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), House Price Index, all-transactions index for the U.S. (Public domain (U.S. government work; FHFA)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2026

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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

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