Visualize the global Venezuelan diaspora

Since the revolution, approximately 1.4 million Cubans have fled to the US

Although Castro initially enjoyed broad support after toppling Batista in 1959, nearly 2 million Cubans chose exile in the years that followed. Most settled in the US, while others dispersed across Latin America and Europe, shaping migration patterns that persist to this day

Visualizing the trans-Atlantic slave trade in two minutes

This animation shows all recorded slave shipments from the 16th to 19th centuries, conceptualizing not only the slave trade with America but South America as well.

Visualizing the world's population centers

What does population density look like on a global scale? These detailed 3D renders illustrate our biggest urban areas and highlight population trends.

The rise and fall of a petrostate

Venezuela’s descent into economic and political chaos in recent years is a cautionary tale of the dangerous influence that resource wealth can have on developing countries.

Interactive human migration map

Using archeological, genetic, and climate data, scientists have pieced together an outline of the human odyssey—the journey that took our species from Africa to all corners of the globe. Experience this 200,000-year migration using an interactive human migration map.

An interactive investigation into drugs and migration in San Francisco

This interactive article investigates the connection between the boom in US migration from Honduras and drug dealing in San Francisco. A high concentration of Hondurans are fleeing Siria Valley, where poverty and national murder rates run high...

US immigrants shifted from primarily originating in Ireland and Germany to Mexico and India

This visualization tracks the top country of birth among US immigrants by state from 1850 to the present, revealing a dramatic shift from European-dominated immigration to today's prominence of Mexican and Indian immigrants.

Visualizing the world's wealth in 2019

The world has a net worth of $360T. The U.S. economy continues to dominate given its sheer size, Asia and Europe are not that far behind.

As of 2024, the nation with the largest proven oil reserves is Venezuela

According to estimates derived from available geological and engineering data, the South American country possesses about 303 billion barrels of underground crude oil, followed by Saudi Arabia (267.2 billion) and Iran (208.6 billion). Many of the largest reserves are held by members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

Where did all the refugees from the Mount Vesuvius eruption end up?

Archaeologists have found evidence of about 2,000 of Pompeii and Herculaneum's estimated combined population of 15,000. This article explores what happened to the remaining 13,000 people. Archaeologist Steven Tuck has proposed that the refugees fled the cities as volcanic activity increased, likely resettling elsewhere with family and friends. There's also evidence that the Roman Empire cared for many refugees fleeing Mount Vesuvius.

Venezuela's Lake Maracaibo is considered the lightning capital of the world

Spread across 140 to 160 nights, and as many as 10 hours per night, the region where the Catatumbo River flows into the semi-enclosed bay experiences approximately 1.6 million lightning strikes annually. The frequency of strikes may originate from warm Caribbean air interacting with cooler air from the Andes.

See Christmas traditions from around the world

From Venezuelans roller-skating to church to the decoration of boats in Greece, Christmas traditions vary widely all around the world. See examples from 30 different countries, which highlight how a country’s history shapes its holiday traditions.

Explore a world map of Mars

The yellows spots scattered across the map indicate meteor impacts while the red regions represent volcanoes and their associated lava flows. The varying shades of brown indicate cratered highlands and midlands, which make up most of the southern hemisphere.

Visualizing Ben & Jerry's legendary flavors

This delightful data visualization breaks down all the flavors of Ben & Jerry’s across the globe, exploring every possible combination of base flavors and mix-ins.

See America's loneliness and disconnection—charted

This series of graphs visually depicts various aspects of American society's connection to others, including the percentage of Americans who feel they have friends or family they can count on (90%), share of people who feel close to at least one other person (86%), and more.

See the global blindness burden by cause and continent

These charts show the estimated number of people worldwide with blindness due to cataract, glaucoma, refractive disorders, age-related macular degeneration, malaria, river blindness, trachoma, and other causes.

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

Visualizing the growth of botnets

Botnets are a network of computers that have been infected with a variant of malware that coordinates and leverages them for automated mass attacks such as data theft and crashing servers. This interactive map highlights where botnets have been located between 2014-2020.

View live conflict data, military flights, ship tracking, and market feeds in one dashboard

The free tool pulls from conflict databases, military flight transponders, and maritime vessel trackers, layered over 45 map overlays and 435 news feeds in 21 languages. It is reportedly used by over two million people across 190 countries.

Mapping the Middle East showing Sunni and Shia populations by country

France24's interactive visualization shows where each branch of Islam predominates across the region, from Iran's Shia majority to Saudi Arabia's Sunni dominance. The map helps make Middle Eastern politics (and conflicts) more legible.

Explore a multimedia timeline of Communism’s global rise and collapse

This timeline from The Washington Post traces the spread of Communism—from revolutions and Cold War flashpoints to movements in China, Cuba, Korea, and Vietnam—using archival photos and key moments to chart the ideology’s dramatic ascent and worldwide decline.

Colombia exported 35,000 tons of greens for Valentine's Day bouquets in 2025

The country is home to the green foliage that pads out Valentine's Day bouquets. Over 70% of the country's Valentine's Day exports (an operation that includes 500 flights) went to the United States. Environmental activists warn that the large-scale cultivation is harming a fragile ecosystem.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

2025 venture capital funding by destination, visualized

This chart's source, Dealroom, uses "breakout capital" to refer to funding rounds or companies in the $15M to $100M total funding range. It labels the startup stage as under $15M, and the scaleup stage as $100M+.

Visualizing the genetics of SARS-CoV-2

The COVID-19 pandemic, caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, began with an outbreak in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and rapidly spread worldwide in early 2020. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, leading to widespread lockdowns, travel restrictions, and economic disruptions.

Establishing an independent Haiti: a timeline

This map and timeline shows the history of the Caribbean Island nation of Haiti and its fight for independence. In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and crashed one of his ships, the Santa Maria, along reefs near the island nation...

Explore this interactive visualization of the IVF journey as a parent or child

This step-by-step graphic takes the viewer through different challenges and stages of the IVF journey, from a parent's and a child's perspective, including a parent's struggle when other families become pregnant around them, even as IVF is not working for their family.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict is the largest ground war in Europe since World War II in terms of casualties, forces mobilized, and displacement of civilians.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

Visualize the path of every solar eclipse from 1900 to 2099 and see what each looks like when observed from different locations on Earth.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

The tragic Pulitzer Prize-winning image 'The Vulture and the Little Girl' (1993) generated controversy, raised concerns about ethics in photography, and eventually led to the photographer's death.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls