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

See who Americans spend time with over their lives

Time with friends peaks in the teens and falls sharply by the 30s, while time with coworkers dominates middle age. After retirement, both nearly vanish, and time spent alone climbs steadily to nearly 8 hours a day by age 80.

Visualizing how Americans spend their money

Almost half of all American consumer spending goes toward transportation and housing, at least according to 2023 data from the Consumer Expenditures Survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The survey found that the average American spends roughly $25K per year on housing. This colorful pie chart helps visualize shows how the average American spends their annual earnings—click here to see it.

Tracking annual working hours per worker in major countries

In 2023, China's workers averaged 2,328 hours per year, far ahead of the second country on the list, the United States, at 1,789. This chart shows the relative decrease of total work time across the world since the late 1800s.

Explore internet usage data, including how humans consume 1.2 billion years of content yearly

About half this time consists of content from social media platforms, where the average user spends about 18.5 hours weekly. An estimated $3.66T was spent on consumer goods by online shoppers in 2025, though nonconsumer goods, such as flights and hotel stays, greatly increase this estimate.

Visualizing cause of death over time in America

As people age, their life expectancy decreases, but the timing and speed of this decline have evolved over the years. Check out this chart which shows the shift in various causes of death of Americans over the last few decades. Data from the...

Most common jobs in the US

Most US government organizations list roughly 500 primary occupations that most Americans fall into, such as teachers and cashiers. Using data from the 2018 through 2022 American Community Survey, these graphics break down the most common jobs in the US by age, gender, and more. See the graphics here.

An interactive look at your own life through demographics

This interactive site allows you to understand the journey of your life in numbers and dates. World Data Lab asks users to enter their date of birth, country of birth, and sex at birth. The site then provides an interactive page tailored to your...

Women more likely than men to report strain of being a caregiver

A Pew Research Center caregiver analysis from 2026 indicates that, though men and women both say caring for aging parents improved their relationships with their parents, women are more likely than men to report that it had a negative impact on their emotional well-being and physical health.

Explore this animated story about loneliness that situates modern statistics about isolation

This beautiful "scrollytelling" story—weaving together animations and text as a user scrolls down a page—takes a reader through a typical weekend day in 2021, drawing data from the American Time Use Survey. It underscores the loneliness that many people may experience, highlighting potential unaddressed mental health needs.

It takes an average of 14 days of work to afford a monthly mortgage in the US

This map of the US shows the number of eight-hour workdays it would take to afford a monthly mortgage payment in each state. Specifically, the calculations are based on median hourly wages in each state, as well as a 30-year mortgage, 5.8% mortgage rate, and a 6% down payment.

Calculate the salary of a mother's work

While traditional parenting roles are changing, mothers do a ton of work at home, from cleaning and cooking to managing household finances. This quick calculator estimates the salary a mother (or caregiver) should receive based on number of...

Explore an interactive tool that reveals why Americans are unemployed

Among unemployed Americans ages 25 to 54, almost 30% cited being laid off as the reason for their unemployment.

A dashboard showing real-time electricity usage in the US

The United States demands for electricity are enormous, with hundreds of thousands of megawatt hours required to run households and businesses every hour. You can track the fluctuations of US electric use with this dashboard.

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.

Who has retirement accounts?

Though every worker wants to retire, only some have retirement accounts. Data from the Census Bureau shows those who currently own such accounts are disproportionately white and Asian men in the Baby Boomer generation, suggesting access to these crucial retirement plans is not equal. Dive into the numbers and get a sense of who has retirement accounts here.

See what it was like to live in the United States during World War II

In America, life was transformed by total war: sixteen million service members left civilian life, while massive industrial production demanded labor. Women, minorities, and teens filled factories, fueling boomtown growth and breaking social barriers. Simultaneously, rationing, recycling drives, Victory Gardens, ration stamps, blackout drills, and war bond campaigns permeated daily routines.

The IRS already has much of the data it asks Americans to report when filing their taxes

Americans spend more than 7.9 billion hours per year doing their taxes: It's notoriously time-consuming, requiring forms, deductions, and often third-party help. But here's the twist: The IRS already has much of the data it asks you to report. Americans still have to do the work themselves partly due to big tax prep companies that lobby to keep the status quo.

Nineteenth-century, hand-drawn infographics on US slavery and race

In the second half of the 19th century, researchers studying the behavior of the millions of emancipated Americans after the Civil War used "information graphics" to cut through the noise of racially charged debate. In this collection from Stanford, you can see century-old, stunningly hand-drawn data visualizations showing racial demographics, the effects of emancipation on cotton prices, and more.

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

See the average daily volume of data processed by the internet, from emails to Zoom meetings

During February 2025, over 333 billion messages were sent via email every day, or approximately 231,400,000 per minute. Over 150 million hours were spent daily on Zoom meetings worldwide, but almost 10 times that amount of video content was streamed in the same timeframe.

Women tend to tip more often than men

For instance, among people who visit hair salons or barber shops, 62% of female respondents said they always tipped. Only 45% of men said the same. This article includes more takeaways and stats about how Americans tip, and who receives them.

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 concept of 'screen time' was invented in 1991

Mother Jones magazine coined the term in an essay called "Primal Screen" about children's television habits. Writer David Engelhardt wrote that they were watching “screens within screens within screens,” and that even babies were averaging an “hour and a half of screen time a day...the typical older child, about four hours."

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Visualize a model of all of time, where our lives span less than the width of a human hair

The massive model was built across a Mojave Desert lake bed using 800 lights spaced just 10 meters apart. Within the model, the entirety of human civilization appears only in the final centimeter.

A data visualization exploring six decades of spacewalks

Astronauts' initial small step for mankind may standout, but how many steps have we taken so far? Space and moonwalks further our understanding of spaceflight, celestial bodies, and space itself. Created to resemble a constellation map, this chart...

Artificial lighting and modern practices like working late are linked with sleep shifts

An analysis of five adults participating in a German reality program that tasked them with living in a Stone-Age-like settlement for 2.5 months, provided some insights into how modern conditions may have shifted our circadian rhythms. The participants slept about 90 minutes more under these conditions, and went to bed earlier and rose earlier, raising questions about how circadian rhythms, sleep, and sleep quality are affected by modern lifestyles.

Tennis' global evolution

In the 1970s and 1980s, American men and women dominated the top 100 rankings on both tours. But as each tour expanded its global reach, the American dominance declined. This Bleacher Report analysis breaks down the national make-up of the top 100 players for each decade. View maps that show which country gained and lost rankings through each decade and see who is the top country now.

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

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.

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

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.

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

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

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

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

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

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 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.

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.