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.
Chart 1 of 3 · 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
- Find the sharpest drop on the chart. What happened in the world that year?
- Life expectancy in 1900 was under 50. Does that mean most adults died in their 40s? What else could lower the average?
- 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 numbersChart 2 of 3 · Wealth
What is the median household net worth by age?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In the Federal Reserve's 2025 survey, the typical (median) household headed by someone under 35 had a net worth of $32,820, and one headed by someone 35 to 44 had $156,000. The median was $254,670 for ages 45 to 54, $411,340 for 55 to 64, $431,900 for 65 to 74 and $504,600 for 75 and over, about 15 times the under-35s'. The median is the household in the middle: half have more and half less. Averages are much higher, because a few households are very rich. Net worth is what a household owns (homes, retirement accounts, stocks, businesses, cars, bank accounts) minus what it owes (mortgages, student and car loans, credit cards). The survey is taken every three years, and figures are in dollars of the survey year. People of different ages also lived through different times, so this compares age groups, not one household's path through life.
How to read this chart
Each bar is the median net worth of households, grouped by the age of the person who heads them. Net worth is what a household owns, such as a home, savings and retirement accounts, minus what it owes, such as a mortgage or student loans. The median is the household in the middle: half have more and half have less.
Questions to discuss
- Which age group has the highest median net worth, and about how many times the under-35 group's is it?
- Why might net worth keep rising through most of a working life, and why might it fall for the oldest group?
- A few very rich households pull the average far above the median. Why is the median a better picture of a typical household?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Survey of Consumer Finances (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersChart 3 of 3 · Baby names
How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Type any name to see how many U.S. babies were given it each year since 1880, for girls or boys. Emma, shown first, went from 2,003 girls in 1880 down to 414 in 1976, then back up to a peak of 22,719 in 2003; in 2025 it was 12,754. The counts come from Social Security card applications, so the early years undercount everyone. A year with fewer than 5 babies of a name shows as 0, because Social Security leaves those names out for privacy.
How to read this chart
Each point is the number of U.S. babies given a name in one year, from Social Security card applications. Type any name to see its line, for girls or boys. These are counts, not shares, and far more babies are born today than in 1880, so a count can grow just because the country did.
Questions to discuss
- Look up your own name or a friend's. When was it most popular, and what might explain that?
- Why are counts from the 1880s lower than counts today, even for names that were very popular then?
- How could you change these counts to fairly compare a name's popularity in 1900 with today?
Source: U.S. Social Security Administration, Baby Names from Social Security Card Applications (national data) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.