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. When has the Treasury yield curve been inverted?
  2. How many babies were given your name each year since 1880?
  3. How much has the US warmed since 1895?

Chart 1 of 3 · Interest rates

When has the Treasury yield curve been inverted?

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

The yield curve is inverted when short-term Treasury rates are higher than long-term ones: lending to the government for 2 years pays more a year than lending for 10. On this chart that is anything below zero. In October 2026 the 10-year rate minus the 2-year rate was 0.39 percentage points. Through mid-2026, the longest inversion in these monthly averages lasted 26 months, from July 2022 to August 2024, and the deepest was in March 1980, when the 2-year rate was 2.13 points higher. Inversions have tended to come after the Federal Reserve raised short-term rates quickly, while investors expected rates to fall later. The chart starts in June 1976, when the 2-year rate begins.

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 Reserve Board, H.15 Selected Interest Rates (monthly averages) (Public domain (Federal Reserve Board; cite the Board as the source)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026

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Chart 2 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

  1. Look up your own name or a friend's. When was it most popular, and what might explain that?
  2. Why are counts from the 1880s lower than counts today, even for names that were very popular then?
  3. 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

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Chart 3 of 3 · Climate

How much has the US warmed since 1895?

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

The contiguous US averaged 54.6°F in 2025. The warmest year since records began in 1895 was 2024, at 55.5°F. Through 2025, the dashed trend line, the straight line that best fits every year, rose about 0.18°F a decade, or 2.3°F since 1895, and warming had sped up to about 0.5°F a decade since 1970. Alaska and Hawaii aren't included.

How to read this chart

Each point is one year's average temperature across the lower 48 states, in degrees Fahrenheit. The axis doesn't start at zero, so a small rise looks steep: read the numbers on the axis, not the height of the line. The dashed line is the trend, the straight line that best fits every year; single years bounce above and below it.

Questions to discuss

  1. Find the warmest and coolest years on the chart. How many degrees apart are they?
  2. Why might one year be much cooler than the year before, even while the trend line keeps rising?
  3. The axis doesn't start at zero here, but bar charts always do. Why is that fair for temperatures but not for bars?

Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025

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