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 · Wealth
How much wealth does each generation hold?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In the quarter ending June 2026, households headed by baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964) held $97.4 trillion, 52.5% of all U.S. household wealth. Gen X (born 1965 to 1980) held $47.7 trillion, 25.7%; millennials and younger (born 1981 or later) held $20.8 trillion, 11.2%; and the Silent Generation and earlier (born before 1946) held $19.8 trillion, 10.7%. Generations are compared at different ages, so older ones have had longer to build wealth. 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.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: Federal Reserve Board, Distributional Financial Accounts (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 2 of 3 · Earthquakes
How much rarer is each step up in earthquake magnitude?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2025 the world recorded 6,428 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 to 4.9, 1,983 of magnitude 5, 129 of magnitude 6, 15 of magnitude 7 and 1 of magnitude 8 or more. Each step up in magnitude is roughly ten times rarer, and releases about 32 times more energy. Countless smaller quakes go unrecorded worldwide, so the chart starts at 4.5.
How to read this chart
Each bar counts the earthquakes recorded worldwide in one year within a range of magnitudes. The bars start at zero. Each whole step up in magnitude releases about 32 times more energy, so a magnitude 7 quake is far more than one step stronger than a 6.
Questions to discuss
- Roughly how many times more common is each band than the one above it?
- The biggest bars are hard to compare with the smallest ones on this scale. What other way could you show these numbers?
- The chart starts at magnitude 4.5. Why might smaller earthquakes around the world go uncounted?
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalog (ComCat) (Public domain (U.S. government work); source U.S. Geological Survey) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersChart 3 of 3 · Crime
Which big U.S. cities have the highest murder rates?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2025 St. Louis, MO had the highest murder rate of the 89 biggest U.S. cities whose police reported a full year to the FBI, about 51.3 per 100,000 people, followed by Memphis, TN (31.0) and Cleveland, OH (28.0). Irvine, CA (0.0) and Plano, TX (0.7) had the lowest; the U.S. rate was about 4.4. Departments that didn't report a full year are left out (for 2025, New Orleans, Orlando and St. Petersburg, Florida). Each rate is per person the department serves, and a few, such as Las Vegas, Honolulu, Jacksonville and Louisville, serve their whole county. A city's rate also depends on where its borders fall, so compare cities with care.
How to read this chart
Each bar is the number of murders in a city in one year for every 100,000 people its police department serves. The dashed line is the U.S. rate. Murders are rare, so in a smaller city a handful more or fewer in one year can move its rate and its rank a lot.
Questions to discuss
- How many cities on the chart have a murder rate above the U.S. rate, and how many are below it?
- Why does a chart like this use murders per 100,000 people instead of the total number of murders in each city?
- A city's rank can jump from one year to the next. Why might small numbers make rates bounce around?
Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Uniform Crime Reporting Program (Public domain (U.S. government work); source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program) · 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.