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From Olympic opening ceremonies to public safety, drone applications have come a long way. In fact, their modern applications are set to almost double the total value of the commercial drone market from $22.5 billion to $42.8 billion between 2020-2025, at a 13.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Naturally, such diverse and complex uses can go quickly awry if not monitored and regulated correctly by governments—yet in some cases, it’s because of governments that drones’ uses border on sinister....

This sea change can be attributed to multiple factors, ranging from medical advances to greater gender equity. But generally speaking, as more women gain an education and enter the workforce, they’re delaying motherhood and often having fewer children in the process. Today’s interactive data visualization was put together by Bo McCready, the Director of Analytics at KIPP Texas. Using numbers from Our World in Data, it depicts the changes in the world’s fertility rate—the average number of children per woman—spanning from the beginning of the 20th century to present day....

In this graphic sponsored by Global X ETFs, we’ve visualized survey results showing the 10 most successful types of cyberattacks in 2021. The Results These results are from a 2021 whitepaper by Osterman Research, a market research firm focused on cybersecurity. They surveyed 130 cybersecurity professionals from mid and large-sized organizations to see which types of attacks were the most prominent. Source: Osterman Research (2021) The report notes that these figures may be understated because organizations are likely to downplay their security incidents....

Companies are competing on multiple fronts, from price and features to advertising and exclusive content, making it a challenging market for companies to succeed in. YouTube (the standard offering and YouTube Music) has the highest amount of users, attracting around two-thirds of music listeners in the U.S. during a given month. This is largely due to the YouTube’s massive reach and extensive catalog of music. Here’s a full rundown of the top music streaming services in the U....

Simply put, some nations are “haves”, while many others are “have-nots”. – Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations Ranking Riches We previously showed you how the ranking of the richest countries in the world has changed over the course of the last 10 years (2008-2018). Today’s chart keys on a slightly different question. What are the wealthiest nations today, both in absolute and per capita terms, and how is this list projected to change over the next decade?...

Today’s chart from HowMuch.net uses this data to show all major economies in a visualization called a Voronoi diagram – let’s dive into the stats to learn more. The World’s Top 10 Economies Here are the world’s top 10 economies, which together combine for a whopping two-thirds of global GDP. In nominal terms, the U.S. still has the largest GDP at $19.4 trillion, making up 24.4% of the world economy....

With many countries and companies pledged to reduce emissions, the clean energy transition seems to be an inevitability. And that transition will undoubtedly have an impact on employment. New sources of power don’t just require new and updated equipment, they also require people to operate them. And as demand for cleaner fuels shifts attention away from fossil fuels, it’s likely that not every sector will see a net gain of employment....

Using survey data from the World Economic Forum’s 20th Global Competitiveness Report, this graphic showcases the economic impact of COVID-19 worldwide. This year’s survey was conducted between February and July 2020 and includes responses from 11,866 business executives across 126 economies. As you’ll see, the data was collected with the specific focus of contrasting the pandemic’s effects on developing economies compared to advanced economies. Top Negative Impacts of COVID-19 By comparing business leaders’ responses in 2020 to their answers over the last three years, some clear trends have emerged....

Chart: The Fake News Problem Peer opinion fills a void left by falling trust in mass media The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. There’s been no shortage of blame passed around for the so-called “fake news” epidemic that has been front and center since the U.S. election. Social media has been singled out as one key factor leading to the spread of misleading or false news....

In this infographic, we’ve visualized data from the Fed’s most recent consumer debt update. Aggressive Borrowing The first chart in this graphic shows the growth in outstanding car loans between Q2 2020 (start of the pandemic) to Q4 2022 (latest available). We can see that Americans under the age of 40 have grown their vehicle-related debt the most. It’s natural for Gen Z (ages 11-26) to have higher growth figures because many of them are buying their first car, but 31% is quite high relatively speaking....

The world needs infrastructure, and the world needs it soon. It’s not just about replacing aging pieces of infrastructure like bridges and roads – it’s also about developing modern infrastructure that enables new technology, faster communications, and our ability to use, move, and transmit energy from renewables and natural gas. Today’s infographic comes to us from Miller Howard Investments and it details five specific ways that investors could play the coming infrastructure boom....

The global electric vehicle (EV) battery market is expected to grow from $17 billion to more than $95 billion between 2019 and 2028. With increasing demand to decarbonize the transportation sector, companies producing the batteries that power EVs have seen substantial momentum. Here we update our previous graphic of the top 10 EV battery manufacturers, bringing you the world’s biggest battery manufacturers in 2022. Chinese Dominance Despite efforts from the United States and Europe to increase the domestic production of batteries, the market is still dominated by Asian suppliers....

In the COVID-19 era, this difference has become more prominent as countries print vast amounts of currency to support their suffering economies. This graphic from Texas Precious Metals highlights how the value of U.S. precious metal coin production compares to U.S. money creation. Year to Date Production In this infographic, we have calculated the value of money supply added as well as bullion minted, and divided it by the U....

Put down your turkey leftovers and the rum-infused eggnog – it’s time to recap our favorite posts on Visual Capitalist from 2015. The following list includes a mix of infographics, data visualizations, and charts. Some of the posts listed here were among the most popular graphics on the entire site. Others that made the list are graphics that are diamonds in the rough. If you are new to the site, it also may be worth checking out last year’s edition of this post that covered the best content from 2014....

Every year, the Patent 300 List identifies America’s most innovative companies within the intellectual property space by analyzing the patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In 2021, the USPTO granted a total of 327,798 utility patents, down 7% from the previous year. Let’s take a look at which companies generated the most patents in 2021. For 29 consecutive years, IBM has led U.S. companies in the number of patents received annually....

The co-founder of Microsoft and heavyweight philanthropist says he reads around 50 books each year, or the equivalent of one per week for those keeping score at home. The Stamp of Approval On occasion, a book is so good that Mr. Gates will recommend it on his popular blog, Gates Notes. Over the years, there have been nearly 190 such recommendations on his blog, with underlying themes such as how things work and the quirks of human nature....

There is little doubt that human activity has impacted the Earth, but to what extent? As it turns out, nearly 95% of the Earth’s surface shows some form of human modification, with 85% bearing evidence of multiple forms of human impact. This map by data scientist Hannah Ker outlines the extent of humanity’s modification on terrestrial land ecosystems. Measuring the Human Impact This map relies on the Global Human Modification of Terrestrial Systems data set, which tracks the physical extent of 13 anthropogenic stressors across five categories....

Still, many laws continue to inhibit women’s ability to enter the workforce or start a business—and even to travel outside their homes in the same way as men. In fact, on average globally, women have just three-quarters of the economic rights of men. This map uses data from the Women, Business and Law 2021 report by the World Bank, to visualize women’s economic rights around the world. Legal Protections According to the World Bank, only 10 countries offer full legal protections to women, and all of them are in the Northern Hemisphere....

But did you know there’s a way to get even more out of Visual Capitalist? The Trends Shaping the World. Right in Your Inbox In today’s fast-paced world, keeping up is a challenge. But if you sign up for VC+, our members program, we do all the hard work for you. Through featured dispatches and a specially curated newsletter, we find the most important visualizations, reports, and data, and deliver them straight to your inbox....

This extensive network of cables – which could stretch around the Equator 30 times – is the connective tissue that binds the internet, and thanks to our insatiable appetite for video streaming, it’s growing larger with every passing year. Today’s video, by TED-Ed, explains how fiber optic cables work and introduces the next generation of cables that could drastically increase the speed of data transmission. A Series of Tubes The late Senator Ted Stevens drew laughter for describing the internet as a “series of tubes” in 2006, but as it turns out, most of the information moving around the world does, in fact, travel through a series of tubes....