Finance Visualizations
150 Years of U.S. National Debt in One Chart
Today, the national debt of the United States of America stands at an eye-watering 28 trillion dollars and rising. The CARES Act of 2020 and other stimulus bills due to COVID have added massive increases in a short period of time. To see how we got to this place to being with Visual Capitalist has this great interactive timeline of US debt over the past 150 years.
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Starting in the year 1900 only 4.8% of the total national debt was held by the public. After World War I in 1910 that percentage jumped to 10. In 1920 following the Great Depression that number doubled to 22.9%. Ten years later that number would be in the billions, 16 billion to be exact with President Roosevelt’s New Deal in 1930. World War II would see this number jump to 40 billion or 75.1% of the GDP. The Korean War of 1950 would add hundreds of billions to the debt clock in only ten years bringing the total in 1950 to $257 billion but bringing the GDP down to 56.8%. The next big increase would come in 1980 when president Reagan introduced his tax cuts causing the gross debt to jump to over 900 billion. Ten years later it would see another massive jump to over $3,233 billion dollars with the Gulf War. Thirty years later the COVID-19 pandemic caused the average debt held by the public to sky rocket to 105.6 percent in 2020 , over $27,748 billion dollars. By 2050 it is estimated that the percentage of debt held by the public will be almost 200 percent.
Business Visualizations
America’s Most Valuable Companies Ranked by Profit per Employee
Ever wonder how much money major corporations make per employee? Profit Per Employee (PPE) is determined by dividing the company’s profit by the company’s quantity of full-time employees. The most profitable companies may not necessarily be the most profitable by number of employees—and vice versa. Whenever the economy is uncertain, this formula is usually one of the metrics companies will monitor to determine the efficiency and productivity of their staff. Using data over profit and company size from 2023, our team at The Chartistry has ranked the top 50 companies with the highest profit per worker.
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With a profit of nearly $2 million for each of their 9,500 employees, ConocoPhillips ranks first for highest profit per employee by quite the large margin. ConocoPhillips, an American oil and gas producer, saw a total profit almost $18.7 billion in 2023. Since oil and gas are two of the most valuable energy commodities in the world, it is not uncommon for an energy company to rank high in terms of PPE since their net profit is typically quite expansive. Of the top 50 companies with the highest profit for every employee, six of them can be categorized under the energy sector.
Coming in second place, Prologis is an investment trust company that saw a total profit of $3.4 billion in 2023. This profit was divided by their 2,466 employees to end with a profit of $1.36 million per employee.
In third, there is the tobacco company Altria Group. Altria Group’s 2023 profit of $5.8 billion was divided by 6,300 employees to result in a profit per employee of $915 thousand. Tobacco is yet another commodity product, with only one other tobacco company making the top 50 ranking.
Exxon Mobil is another oil and gas company with high profit per employee, coming in fourth place. Out of their profit of $55.7 million in 2023, their 62,000 employees averaged a profit of $899 thousand each.
Rounding out the top 5 companies is Chevron, the third oil and gas energy company in the top companies by profit per employee. With a total profit of $35.3 million, their PPE comes out to $809 thousand for each of their 43,846 employees.
Some companies land rank in both the most profitable in the world overall as well as in profit per worker. Apple, for example, brought in a 2023 profit of nearly a $100 billion. The company itself is valued at a total of $2.1 trillion. They managed a PPE of $609 thousand for their 164,000 employees, making them seventh among all companies.
Why is Profit per Employee Important?
For every company with an impressive profit per employee, there are tens, hundreds, even thousands of people working at the front line and behind the scenes to keep operations running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. PPE, not to be confused with Revenue per Employee, is a way for the company to measure the performance and productivity of the average employee in any given workforce to judge their added value. In other words, a way to know if their investment in hiring, retaining, and training their employees returned desirable results. Of course, it isn’t and shouldn’t be the only method to judge the value of an employee. When used in combination with other metrics, however, it can be a helpful tool to see the what employees have brought to the company.
For the majority of situations, a healthy profit per employee will be a good indicator of the health of the company at large. It shows that the business is properly maximizing the streamlining of their operations and utilizing the talent of each employee. This performance can mean that an underwhelming PPE may lead to cost-cutting measures for the company. Oftentimes, this is in the form of employee layoffs in areas that may not be contributing to the overall profit.
Did You Enjoy this Original Visualization by The Chartistry?
If you enjoyed this visualization and analysis by The Chartistry, check out the other original visualizations we’ve created. For even more great content, check out our collection of curated business and finance visualizations. If you love this visual content so much that you want your own, let us know; We design custom visual content for customers too!
The Profit per Employee of the Largest Companies in the U.S. By Market Cap (The Full List)
Rank | Name | Type of Company | 2023 Profits (in Millions) | Number of Employees in 2023 | Profit per Employee in 2023 |
1 | ConocoPhillips | Energy | $18,680 | 9,500 | $1,966,316 |
2 | Prologis | Real Estate Investment Trust | $3,364.9 | 2,466 | $1,364,517 |
3 | Altria Group | Tobacco | $5,764 | 6,300 | $914,921 |
4 | Exxon Mobil | Energy | $55,740 | 62,000 | $899,032 |
5 | Chevron | Energy | $35,465 | 43,846 | $808,854 |
6 | Vertex Pharmaceuticals | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $3,322 | 4,800 | $692,083 |
7 | Apple | Technology, Consumer Goods | $99,803 | 164,000 | $608,555 |
8 | Broadcom | Semiconductor | $11,495 | 20,000 | $574,750 |
9 | Visa | Financial | $14,957 | 26,500 | $564,415 |
10 | Pfizer | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $31,372 | 83,000 | $377,976 |
11 | Regeneron | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $4,338.4 | 11,851 | $366,079 |
12 | Netflix | Video Streaming Services | $4,491.9 | 12,800 | $350,930 |
13 | Mastercard | Financial | $9,930 | 29,900 | $332,107 |
14 | Microsoft | Technology | $72,738 | 221,000 | $329,131 |
15 | Alphabet | Technology | $59,972 | 190,234 | $315,254 |
16 | Airbnb | Travel | $1,893 | 6,811 | $277,933 |
17 | American Tower | Real Estate Investment Trust | $1,765.8 | 6,391 | $276,295 |
18 | NextEra Energy | Energy | $4,147 | 15,300 | $271,046 |
19 | Gilead Sciences | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $4,592 | 17,000 | $270,118 |
20 | Meta Platforms | Technology | $23,200 | 86,482 | $268,264 |
21 | Texas Instruments | Semiconductor | $8,749 | 33,000 | $265,121 |
22 | BlackRock | Financial | $5,178 | 19,800 | $261,515 |
23 | Amgen | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $6,552 | 25,200 | $260,000 |
24 | Qualcomm | Semiconductor | $12,936 | 51,000 | $253,647 |
25 | AbbVie | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $11,836 | 50,000 | $236,720 |
26 | Goldman Sachs Group | Financial | $11,261 | 48,500 | $232,186 |
27 | Merck | Health (Including Animals) | $14,519 | 68,000 | $213,515 |
28 | Union Pacific | Railroad | $6,998 | 33,179 | $210,917 |
29 | Charles Schwab | Financial | $7,183 | 35,300 | $203,484 |
30 | Applied Materials | Semiconductor | $6,525 | 33,000 | $197,727 |
31 | Bristol-Myers Squibb | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $6,327 | 34,300 | $184,461 |
32 | Verizon Communications | Telecommunications | $21,256 | 117,100 | $181,520 |
33 | Nvidia | Technology | $4,368 | 26,196 | $166,743 |
34 | Adobe | Technology | $4,756 | 29,239 | $162,659 |
35 | Eli Lilly | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $6,244.8 | 39,000 | $160,123 |
36 | Zoetis | Health (Including Animals) | $2,114 | 13,800 | $153,188 |
37 | Booking Holdings | Travel | $3,058 | 21,492 | $142,286 |
38 | Cisco Systems | Technology | $11,812 | 83,300 | $141,801 |
39 | Procter & Gamble | Consumer goods | $14,742 | 106,000 | $139,075 |
40 | Morgan Stanley | Financial | $11,029 | 82,427 | $133,803 |
41 | JPMorgan Chase | Financial | $37,676 | 293,723 | $128,271 |
42 | Southern Company | Energy | $3,524 | 27,562 | $127,857 |
43 | Bank of America | Financial | $27,528 | 216,823 | $126,961 |
44 | Johnson & Johnson | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $17,941 | 152,700 | $117,492 |
45 | Coca-Cola | Consumer Goods | $9,542 | 82,500 | $115,661 |
46 | Philip Morris International | Tobacco | $9,048 | 79,800 | $113,383 |
47 | Analog Devices | Semiconductor | $2,748.6 | 24,450 | $112,417 |
48 | Intuitive Surgical | Biopharmaceutical, Pharmaceutical, and/or Biotechnology | $1,322.3 | 12,120 | $109,101 |
49 | Tesla | Automotive, Energy | $12,556 | 127,855 | $98,205 |
50 | American Express | Financial | $7,514 | 77,300 | $97,206 |
Finance Visualizations
Tracking the Highest Grossing Actors in Hollywood
Actors are prized for their performances, charisma, looks, and star power that draws audiences to their films. A key component Hollywood looks for is the success of an actor’s film roster. The team at Ever Present took that metric and created a chart of the highest grossing actors in Hollywood.
This detailed list ranks the actors by their earnings and adds detail like precisely how much their films have earned, and which film brought in the most money. You can also see how many films the actor has had a lead role in. In the case of the number one highest grossing actor, Samuel L. Jackson, more lead roles mean higher grossing films. The renowned Jackson has led in 69 films, including franchise juggernauts like Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His highest grossing film was Avengers: Endgame, something he has in common with many of the other performers on this list, including the number #2 highest grossing actor, Scarlett Johansson.
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Overall, these were the top ten highest grossing actors:
- Samuel L. Jackson
- Scarlett Johansson
- Robert Downey Jr.
- Zoe Saldana
- Chris Pratt
- Vin Diesel
- Tom Cruise
- Chris Hemsworth
- Bradley Cooper
- Chris Evans
It’s clear from this list that Avengers: Endgame made a record-shattering amount of money. It appears as an actor’s highest grossing film no less than 25 times. That’s half the list! The data on this chart is a fascinating look into the film industry that can show us which films and actors are filling the most cinema seats.
Charts
Visualizing the Cost Per Ounce of the World’s Most Valuable Metals
The team at Kylar Mack shows us just how valuable the world’s most precious metals are with this illustrated chart visualizing the cost per ounce of the most expensive metals and alloys. A metal is naturally occurring, and many appear on the periodic table of elements whereas an alloy combines two elements.
On this illustrated chart, we can truly visualize the comparative value of these metals because the team stacked money representative of the value beside an image of each metal. The chart is a great example of the power of visual data. Our eye is immediately drawn to the vast stacks of cash beside the most valuable metal, Californium. These stacks tower above ever other metal on the chart making it clear that not all metals are created equal.
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Californium’s value is a shocking $765,436,299 per ounce! That’s significantly higher than the second-most popular metal, a non-synthetic called Iridium, which is valued at $4,700. The key to the value difference lies in the fact that Californium is a synthetic substance. It’s created in a nuclear reactor and only two plants in the world have the capability of engineering it. As for Iridium, it’s naturally occurring but hard to mine and access. It’s found deep under the Earth’s crust, often attached to asteroids. Through this chart, we can learn more about different metals as well as why they’re so highly valued. Many are needed for key electronics and aerospace parts.
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