Tracking annual working hours per worker in major countries

Visualizing how American men and women spend every hour of the day, by decade of life

Drawing on three years of Census time-use data, the tool tracks 12 activities—sleep, work, housework, caregiving, TV, and more—across age groups from the 20s through 70s. One persistent gap: women spend 45 more minutes per day on housework than men on average.

Explore an interactive chart that shows peoples' annual salaries by occupation

The median salary for full-time workers in the United States was roughly $49.5K in 2024. An interactive chart details how salaries differ by occupation.

Europeans, on average, have double the amount of vacation time Americans have

Europeans average nearly double the amount of time off as their American counterparts. Why is that? It's due to a long history of European labor’s push for time off, including both left- and right-wing political groups that argued vacation could benefit their causes.

The average retirement age by country, visualized

In the US, the average retirement age was 64 as of 2020. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development projects a two-year increase in the average retirement age by the mid-2060s.

Only 3% of workers 18 and older had a 25+ year tenure at their current job as of 2024

Surprisingly, this statistic hasn't changed significantly between 1996 and 2024, despite news about job hopping becoming more common in recent years.

As of 2024, China is the largest overall contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions

Due to its large population, the nation's per capita emissions continue to lag behind those of the US, Canada, Russia, Australia, and Saudi Arabia. The Arab country has experienced the most significant increase in per capita greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, now leading the world at 22.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita.

The US had roughly 1.6 million minimum wage workers as of 2021

Typically, minimum wage workers are young. They’re not only more likely to be a woman than a man, but also more likely to be single than married.

Overwork contributes to thousands of worker deaths

Can work really kill you? The World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization have estimated that long work hours contribute to thousands of death from strokes and heart attacks each year. This BBC article argues that the culture of overwork and burnout is leading to a public health crisis in desperate need of solutions.

The countries with the highest wealth per person, ranked

When looking at countries with the highest average wealth per person, the United States comes in at number three (with $564,862 per person). But the US doesn't even make the top 10 when looking at the median wealth per person rather than the average, which is perhaps a more accurate version of the data. Explore the numbers here.

In 2024, 15% of US laborers worked remotely

At the time, Frisco, Texas, had the highest share of remote workers among large US cities, at 34% (or 42,000 people). Frisco was closely followed by Berkeley, California, at 32% (18,000 people).

The US federal government employs roughly 3 million people

Tracking began in 1939, when the federal workforce consisted of about 1 million people. The total peaked in 1990 at 3.4 million, and hit a recent low in 2014 at 2.7 million.

Why you should work 4 hours a day, according to science

Some of history's luminaries worked just four hours a day, including literary great Charles Dickens and biologist Charles Darwin. Observers suggest such a short period forces intense focus sustained by extended rest. In contemporary work, the high premium placed on the number of hours worked can overlook the importance of rest.

The best countries for work-life balance, ranked

New Zealand is number one, with universal healthcare and 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Mapping Claude's relative usage worldwide, led by Israel, Singapore, and the US

According to Anthropic's AI Usage Index, the US leads in total users, but Israel and Singapore have higher adoption rates among their working populations. Excluding nations with insufficient numbers of conversations for analysis, Tanzania and Angola rank last in the index.

The US loses roughly $400B a year in productivity due to sleep deprivation

For an article about a woman who built a business empire telling bedtime stories, the Hustle created this graphic showing the estimated GDP loss associated with chronic insomnia. The United States had a much more significant loss than other countries.

The monthly minimum wage a full-time worker receives varies around the world

In Luxembourg, for instance, the monthly minimum was roughly $2,140 as of January 2023. But in Nigeria, it was just $68 a month. Of course, the cost of living varies by country too.

See the world’s largest stock markets in 1900 versus 2023

The US is now home to the world's largest stock market, but that wasn't always the case. This data visualization shows where the largest stock markets in the world were in 1900, then compares that map to the current geographical distribution of stock markets today, based on each country’s percentage share of global market capitalization. See what it looks like by clicking here.

When your 9-to-5 becomes optional

You've seen the headlines. But what would actually happen if everyone's 9-to-5 became optional? We dug into the data. Traced automation philosophy back thousands of years. Examined what happened when elevator operators disappeared. Looked at Alaska's 40-year experiment paying every citizen. And investigated the Philippines, where 89% of call center jobs are now at risk. What we found was more positive than bleak. This video explores three questions: What does the data actually show? What does history tell us about this kind of disruption? And what happens when work becomes optional?

China has used several different calendars because of changes in government structure

For many centuries, during which China was an imperial nation, the lunar/lunisolar calendar (aka the “rural calendar”) was the basis for organizing the year. Several attempts were made over the decades to switch to the Gregorian calendar—which begins Jan. 1—but it wasn’t until the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 that it stuck.

Photography helped eradicate US child labor

For employers in the early 20th century, child laborers had one major perk: They weren't unionizing. They were cheaper than their adult counterparts. But with the help of a photographer named Lewis Hine, who took photos of children at work, child labor in the US was eventually restricted by law.

See worldwide hearing loss by age group and country

This 2023 data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation shows the estimated number of people with complete hearing loss in different age groups per 100,000 people in the population. Individuals aged 70 or older make up the largest group with this type of hearing deficit.

Congestion from Lunar New Year holiday travels can last around 40 days

American Thanksgiving or winter holiday travels aren't nearly as busy as Chunyun, the annual travel rush kicked off by the Lunar New Year. It's widely considered to be the largest mass migration of humans in the world. Millions of people travel within China to be home for the traditional family reunion meal.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Interactive charts on human rights around the world

This website provides comprehensive data visualizations tracking human rights around the globe. While human rights have become much more protected, this varies between countries. Users can find information on how the protection of human rights has...

Taiwan's economic history, analyzed

See how the global economic power evolved from the colonial period to today, including charts and graphs highlighting China's progress, especially in recent decades.

Global life expectancy has more than doubled since the 1850s

The human species experienced a dramatic increase in expected lifespan over the past 150 years. Antibiotics, improved sanitation, and better worldwide food distribution are a few factors contributing to this rapid transformation. Use this interactive resource to explore longevity gains over time and compare these improvements across the globe.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Use this calculator to find the dollar value of your mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care for your children.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

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

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

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

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

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

Most of the observable universe's volume consists of voids and supervoids—enormous regions of space with little to no galaxies, stars, or light.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

Brandi Chastain, the star of the 1999 US victory over China in the 1999 Women's World Cup, was a last-second choice to take the penalty kick that sealed the victory.