Ready-made assignment · U.S. history
U.S. history chart assignment
Six charts of official U.S. data reaching back to 1880, 1900 and 1913, for a lesson on how the 1918 flu, the Depression, the savings-and-loan crisis, the 2008 crash and the pandemic show up in the numbers.
- How long do Americans live, and how has that changed since 1900?
- How has the US death rate from flu and pneumonia changed since 1900?
- How much have US consumer prices risen since 1913?
- How many U.S. banks have failed each year?
- What is the US unemployment rate?
- What was the most popular girls' name in each decade?
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Post this link in Google Classroom, Canvas or Moodle. Students see every chart below with its questions, source and date; they don't need an account.
Chart 1 of 6 · 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
- How long could a baby born in 1900 expect to live, and how long one born in the newest year on the chart?
- Find the sharpest drop on the chart. What happened in the United States and the world that year?
- Which changes in the 1900s (clean water, vaccines, antibiotics) do you think added the most years, and why?
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 6 · Health
How has the US death rate from flu and pneumonia changed since 1900?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Influenza and pneumonia killed 297.5 people per 100,000 in 1900 and 612.4 in 1918, the year of the influenza pandemic. By 2018 the rate was 14.9, about 95% lower than in 1900. Rates are age-adjusted, and cause-of-death coding has been revised several times since 1900, so small jumps can reflect those changes. This CDC dataset stops at 2018.
Questions to discuss
- How did the death rate in 1918 compare with the years just before and after it?
- The rate fell steeply after the 1940s. Which medical discovery from World War II could explain that?
- Soldiers moved between camps and countries in 1918. How might the war have helped the flu spread?
Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Age-adjusted death rates for selected major causes of death (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2018
Open the chart and its numbersChart 3 of 6 · Inflation
How much have US consumer prices risen since 1913?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Consumer prices in September 2026 were 34 times their level in January 1913, when the Consumer Price Index begins: what cost $1 then cost about $34 in 2026. They were 2 times their level of January 2000. The index tracks what a typical basket of goods and services costs city households, with 100 as its 1982–84 average. Prices fell after 1920 and again in the early 1930s. October 2025 is missing because BLS collected no prices that month, during a lapse in federal funding.
Questions to discuss
- Prices fell in two stretches before 1940. Which events in U.S. history do those stretches match?
- Find the 1970s on the chart. How did the line change, and what was happening with oil then?
- Why do historians adjust old prices for inflation before comparing wages or costs across decades?
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, all items) (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Sep 30, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 4 of 6 · Banks
How many U.S. banks have failed each year?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Bank failures peaked at 530 in 1989, during the savings-and-loan crisis, when about 2,400 banks and thrifts failed from 1980 to 1995. The financial crisis brought 140 failures in 2009 and 157 in 2010, and only five banks failed in 2023, though three of them were among the biggest ever; 2 failed in 2025. Nine banks failed in 1934, the FDIC's first year, and none failed in 2005, 2006, 2018, 2021 or 2022. The count includes savings and loans closed by the FSLIC and the Resolution Trust Corporation, but not banks kept open with government help.
Questions to discuss
- The chart starts in 1934, the FDIC's first year. Why was the FDIC created then, and what had happened to banks just before?
- When did the most banks fail, and what was the crisis called?
- Compare the failures around 2009 and 2010 with the late 1980s. Which crisis closed more banks?
Source: FDIC BankFind Suite, bank failures and assistance data (Public domain (U.S. government work; FDIC)) · Data as of Dec 31, 2025
Open the chart and its numbersChart 5 of 6 · Jobs and wages
What is the US unemployment rate?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
4.1% of the US labor force was unemployed in October 2026, against 4.4% in September 2025. Since the monthly rate began in 1948 it peaked at 14.8% in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic, and was lowest at 2.5% in May 1953. October 2025 is missing because a lapse in federal funding stopped the survey.
Questions to discuss
- Find the three highest points on the chart. Which event in U.S. history matches each one?
- How long did it take unemployment to come back down after the 2008 financial crisis, compared with after 2020?
- The monthly rate starts in 1948. What do you know about unemployment during the Great Depression, before it?
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Oct 31, 2026
Open the chart and its numbersChart 6 of 6 · Baby names
What was the most popular girls' name in each decade?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Mary was the top girls' name for eight straight decades, given to about 7% of girls in the 1880s. Since then the top name has had a shrinking share: Lisa in the 1960s, then Jennifer, Jessica, Emily and Emma. So far in the 2020s the top name (2020–25: Olivia) has 1.0% of girls. The bars show each top name's share of girls born in the decade, so decades compare fairly; the 2020s cover 2020 to 2025. Social Security leaves out any name given to fewer than 5 babies in a year.
Questions to discuss
- Which name was the most popular for girls for the longest stretch, and when did that end?
- The top name's share of girls has shrunk. What does that tell you about how American families changed?
- Pick a decade and its top name. What else was going on in the country in that decade?
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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