Ready-made assignment · Health careers

Health careers chart assignment

Six charts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the CDC, NIH, ClinicalTrials.gov and the World Bank on health care pay, who needs care, medical research and what care costs.

  1. Which kinds of jobs pay the most in the US?
  2. What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?
  3. What do young Americans aged 15 to 24 die of most often?
  4. How many clinical trials are in each phase?
  5. How much does NIH spend researching major diseases?
  6. How much does each country spend on health care per person?

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Chart 1 of 6 · Jobs and wages

Which kinds of jobs pay the most in the US?

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In May 2025 the typical (median) management job paid $126,520 a year, 3.6 times the $35,050 of the typical food preparation and serving job. Across all occupations the median was $50,980. Each bar is one of the 22 major groups BLS uses to classify jobs; half the workers in a group earn more than its median and half earn less.

Questions to discuss

  1. What is the median pay for doctors, nurses and other health practitioners, and for health care support jobs?
  2. How could the training and licenses each job needs help explain why practitioners earn more than support workers?
  3. Pick a health career you're interested in. How many years of school does it take, and which of these groups is it in?

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of May 31, 2025

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Chart 2 of 6 · Health

What do Americans aged 85 and over die of most often?

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In the 12 months through June 2025, heart disease was the leading cause of death for Americans aged 85 and over, at 3,759 deaths per 100,000 people that age, 2.3 times the rate for cancer (1,631). Stroke (1,064) and Alzheimer disease (1,039) came next. The numbers are provisional.

Questions to discuss

  1. What are the leading causes of death for Americans aged 85 and over?
  2. Americans are living longer. Which health careers will be needed more as the number of people over 85 grows?
  3. Alzheimer disease is near the top. What kinds of care do people with dementia need, and who gives it?

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Quarterly provisional estimates of mortality (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2025

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Chart 3 of 6 · Health

What do young Americans aged 15 to 24 die of most often?

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In the 12 months through June 2025, the leading cause of death for Americans aged 15 to 24 was unintentional injuries, at 24.0 deaths per 100,000 people that age. Suicide (13.4) and homicide (10.0) came next. Unintentional injuries include accidental overdoses and traffic crashes. Deaths from disease are rare at this age. The numbers are provisional.

Questions to discuss

  1. What are the leading causes of death for Americans aged 15 to 24?
  2. How are these causes different from those for people 85 and over?
  3. Which health workers (paramedics, emergency doctors, counselors) deal most with the top causes for young people?

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Quarterly provisional estimates of mortality (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Jun 30, 2025

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Chart 4 of 6 · Clinical trials

How many clinical trials are in each phase?

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52% of the 466,000 clinical trials registered on ClinicalTrials.gov as of November 2026, some 241,000, have no phase: phases describe drug trials, and these test devices, surgery, behavior or diet. Among drug trials, Phase 2 is the most common with about 66,000. Phase 1 tests safety in a few people, Phase 2 asks whether a treatment works and at what dose, Phase 3 compares a treatment with the usual care in many, and Phase 4 follows a drug after approval.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which drug trial phase is the most common, and why might there be fewer Phase 3 trials than Phase 2?
  2. What happens in each phase, from Phase 1 to Phase 4?
  3. Clinical research coordinators run these trials. What would they need to explain to someone before they join a trial?

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov (U.S. National Library of Medicine), counted with its API v2 (Public domain (U.S. government work); source National Library of Medicine) · Data as of Nov 9, 2026

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Chart 5 of 6 · Medical research

How much does NIH spend researching major diseases?

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Cancer research got the most NIH money of these major diseases in fiscal 2025, $6.97 billion, followed by HIV/AIDS ($3.95 billion) and Alzheimer's and related dementias ($2.99 billion); opioid research got $825 million. The categories are NIH's own (RCDC), and a project that studies two diseases counts in both. These are totals of the projects listed in RePORTER, so they differ somewhat from NIH's published category estimates.

Questions to discuss

  1. Which disease gets the most NIH research money, and which gets the least on this chart?
  2. Compare this chart with the leading causes of death. Does the research money follow what kills the most Americans?
  3. A project that studies two diseases counts in both. How could that make the totals misleading?

Source: NIH RePORTER (National Institutes of Health), Research, Condition, and Disease Categorization (RCDC) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2025

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Chart 6 of 6 · World

How much does each country spend on health care per person?

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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

  1. How much does the United States spend on health care per person, compared with the world figure?
  2. Look up U.S. life expectancy on Chartly. Does spending the most mean living the longest?
  3. Spending is in U.S. dollars at exchange rates, not adjusted for prices. Why might care cost more in the U.S. than elsewhere?

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

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