Our World in Data has an interactive chart that compares income inequality with gini coefficients. For example the chart here has the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Japan (you can select other countries too). Of these six countries the U.S. has greater income inequality than the other …
Read More »What is the state and future of snowpack out west?
Climate.gov has your answer with the article Winter so far has people out west asking, Where’s the snow? (Feb 15, 2018) by Tom DiLiberto. Farther south in Arizona, snows across the Rockies and in the Upper Colorado River Basin have been extremely low so far this year. Snow water equivalents—the …
Read More »What is the history of manufacturing employment in the U.S.?
We can answer this question by using FRED. The accompanying graph was created with FRED’s graphing tool (see below for a quick tutorial on creating this graph), which creates an interactive graph that can be downloaded along with the data. The blue line represents total manufacturing jobs, which consistently decreases …
Read More »Do you know what is going on in Cape Town?
You can read about the drought on the Climate.gov post Day Zero approaches in Cape Town (Feb 7, 2018) by Michon Scott: The exact date it will arrive depends on the latest calculations; as of February 6, 2018, Day Zero was projected to occur on May 11, 2018. That’s the day the …
Read More »Is America’s nutritional divide due to food deserts?
In a recent article by Richard Florida, It’s Not the Food Deserts: It’s the Inequality, the case is made that food deserts aren’t the real problem. Instead of within cities, the biggest geographic differences in the way Americans eat occur across regions. The map above plots the geography of healthy versus …
Read More »What do you know about historical unemployment by race?
The data, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and a graph by FRED can enlighten you. FRED has Black, Hispanic, and White unemployment data since 1973. Here we downloaded the graph since the end of the 2008 recession. At its peak (about March 2010) Black unemployment (16.8%) was about …
Read More »What is the lead-crime hypothesis?
Kevin Drum provides an overview and update of the hypothesis in his detailed post An Updated Lead-Crime Roundup for 2018. In short, The lead-crime hypothesis is pretty simple: lead poisoning degrades the development of childhood brains in ways that increase aggression, reduce impulse control, and impair the executive functions that allow …
Read More »How has adult death rates changed by U.S. state?
The PRB (Population Reference Bureau) post, Declines in Adult Death Rates Lag in the U.S. South, answers the question with interactive graphs. Adult death rates in many southern states are 30 percent or 40 percent higher than in states with the lowest death rates. The growing geographic disparity means that …
Read More »How does a small increase in average temperature increase the chance of extremes?
The Climate Central post, Small Change in Average -Big Change in Extremes, summarizes the idea well with the graph. As the mean shifts to the right, there is a significant increase in the chance of extreme temperature. The animated gif on the site is perfect in expressing the idea. That’s …
Read More »How has the black/white earnings gap changed over time?
Kevin Drum has the answer with his post Black Incomes Have Fallen Further Behind Whites for the Entire 21st Century. Black men have made essentially no progress in the past four decades, while black women have fallen considerably further behind. Since 2000, both both men and women have fallen further …
Read More »