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 2 · 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 2 · World
How much does each country spend on health care per person?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
In 2023, the United States spent $13,473 per person on health care, about 10 times the world figure of $1,317. Germany spent $6,395, Japan $3,638, China $763 and India $85; Madagascar spent the least, $17. Search 191 countries and territories. Spending counts what governments, insurers and households paid for health care, but not new hospitals or equipment, in US dollars at each year's exchange rates, not adjusted for differences in prices.
How to read this chart
Each bar is what a country spent on health care in a year, by governments, insurers and households together, divided by its population and turned into U.S. dollars. The dashed line is the world. The figures aren't adjusted for prices, so a dollar buys more care in some countries than others.
Questions to discuss
- About how many times the world figure does the United States spend per person?
- Does spending more on health care per person always mean people live longer? What other chart on Chartly could help you check?
- Doctors and nurses are paid less in some countries. How would that change what these dollar figures can tell you?
Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators: Current health expenditure per capita (current US$) (CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2023
Open the chart and its numbersTeachers: make your own chart assignment, or change this one. Free, no account needed.