In 1993, when the Internet became publicly available, the average speed was 14.4 Kb/s, and today, the average speed is 214 Mb/s. These are huge leaps in speed that can be difficult to understand. The team at Ooma shows the progression of this leap with a timeline of Internet speeds year by year. Tracking these Internet speeds can help us understand the technological developments that made this possible and show how the Internet has proliferated in daily life.

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At the top of the timeline, we see Internet speeds throughout the ‘90s at their slowest. Internet users had dial-up modems using phone lines to connect to the web. This was the slowest version of Internet technology we have seen on the timeline. The team provides context for the speed, explaining it would take almost four seconds to download an image of a meme, 11 minutes and 41 seconds to download an MP3 file of a song, and almost 34 hours to download the film, “The Dark Knight.” The peak speed reached in the dial-up era was 44.3 Kb/s. The graph shows significant jumps in speed in 1999, 2005, 2014, and 2022. These jumps occurred mainly due to technological advances, such as the creation of broadband and satellite Internet, as well as the expansion of access to higher speeds.

Context for today’s speeds compared to the past shows that it takes less than a second to download a meme, half a second to download an MP3, and only 8 seconds to download a long movie like “The Dark Knight.” Even though there have been vast improvements, the United States doesn’t have the fastest Internet speeds in the world. Singapore and the United Arab Emirates have higher speeds. The team tells us this is because of America’s vast landmass. It has been a challenge to provide high-speed Internet to rural areas, but there have been big improvements. Thanks to satellite Internet connections, people in more remote areas can have access to higher speeds.

Current projections show that by 2025, most of the world will have Internet access, even in remote areas with less infrastructure. The best equipment will be able to download a terabyte of data in just seconds through the use of fiber-optic cables, which are much faster than coaxial cables.

While there’s been great progress in providing high-speed Internet to rural areas, millions of Americans still don’t have access to high-speed Internet. The challenge is how to connect these locations to broadband. There are countless ways we have seen the Internet improve quality of life for people, from bringing them the ability to use telehealth, to social connections, to remote work opportunities. Timelines like this one from Ooma highlight progress but also remind us of the work that still needs to be done to improve American infrastructure. When we’ve seen such huge leaps in speeds, it’s not fair for some people to lack access to reliable Internet because of where they live.

As of April 2025, there have been 16 measles outbreaks in the United States, a number that has jumped significantly over the past few years. A new study from PA Requirements shows this has a connection to vaccination gaps. Kindergarten vaccinations help protect citizens against diseases like measles and contribute to our population achieving herd immunity, which eradicates the threat of the disease. However, the team’s study reveals that a combination of policy, vaccine access, and community factors is hindering our progress toward this goal.

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The team found that these states had the highest percentage of children not vaccinated for measles:

• Idaho: 20.4%
• Alaska: 15.7%
• Wisconsin: 15.2%
• Minnesota: 13.0%
• Florida: 11.9%
• Oklahoma: 11.7%
• Colorado: 11.7%
• Utah: 11.2%
• Iowa: 10.9%
• Ohio: 10.8%

It can be useful to compare these numbers to the states with the lowest rates of unvaccinated children:

• West Virginia: 1.7%
• New York: 2.3%
• Connecticut: 2.3%
• Mississippi: 2.5%
• Maine: 2.5%
• Rhode Island: 2.9%
• Maryland: 3.4%
• Massachusetts: 3.7%
• California: 3.8%

We can observe some interesting regional patterns by examining the map, such as lower vaccination rates in the Midwest and Southwest.

Among the states with high rates of vaccination, we find that these five states don’t allow non-medical vaccination exemptions: Maine, New York, West Virginia, Connecticut, and California. It’s no surprise that stricter policies lead to a greater number of vaccinations. Among states with lower rates, we find more relaxed laws that allow for greater exemptions on the basis of religion, philosophy, and other personal reasons. Comparing each state to its neighbors reveals patterns and trends that might imply cultural differences affecting vaccination rates in different regions. We can look for locations with a high prevalence of religions that outlaw vaccines to identify reasons for the numbers on the map. Check the numbers on the states with the largest cities, and you might find stricter vaccination laws there to help prevent disease spread in population-dense areas.

There’s no doubt that state policies correlate directly with vaccination rates when we look at the numbers presented on the team’s graphic. Many states require certain vaccinations, like measles, in order to enroll in public school. These laws and requirements also directly impact vaccination rates. Looking at insurance costs and access to vaccine clinics in rural areas may also reveal why some areas have more unvaccinated children than others. Some states have created initiatives to encourage vaccination and provide education, leading to higher vaccination rates.

Overall, studies like these greatly benefit public health by increasing awareness and education about diseases like measles. People who shy away from vaccines often find them untrustworthy. The only way to convince them otherwise is to answer their questions and present them with transparent data that’s easy to understand, just like the information shown in this graphic, regarding the risks associated with declining vaccines. These studies provide policymakers, parents, and public health officials with more information to make informed decisions for the health of their children and communities.

There are more than 30 million businesses in the U.S. — but some of those companies employ far more workers than others. Giants like Walmart and Amazon have more than a million employees working on developing, marketing, transporting and selling their products everyday. Meanwhile, lesser-known companies in industries you may not be as familiar with also employ a significant amount of our workforce.

Using Fortune 500 data, our team at The Chartistry identified the largest employers in every industry, including retail, food, health care, real estate and many more (we included a whopping 75 industries total).

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Who is the largest employer in America?

Technically, the largest employer in the U.S. is the federal government. But if we’re talking about the company that employs the most people, Walmart takes the cake.

Since Walmart’s first store opened in 1962, the company has grown to establish more than 11,500 stores globally to serve more than 260 million weekly shoppers in 28 countries, according to the company’s site. It’s no surprise that the retailer requires a lot of manpower. Walmart has 2,100,000 employees, and is the only one on our list that employs more than 2 million people.

Who else are America’s biggest employers?

Walmart may offer up the most jobs in the U.S.,but there are plenty of other companies with thousands of employees headed to work everyday. Some of the giants on the list of companies with the most employees in every industry are also among the largest U.S. employers in general.

Amazon, which started in Jeff Bezos’ garage in 1994 as an online bookseller, has grown up to make its mark around the world. There’s a good chance you’ve shopped online via the company, watched its streamer or walked past an Amazon retail store or fulfillment center. Amazon may have started with a solo founder, but it now employs 1,525,000 people.

Home Depot is another retail heavyweight. Founded in 1978 as a hardware store, the company now boasts more than 2,300 stores across North America. But offering up all that home improvement requires a lot of hands on deck: The company has 463,100 employees. That makes it the highest employer in one category of specialty retailers, but TJX, with 349,000 employees, is the largest employer in the apparel-specific specialty retailer category.

In the mail, package and freight delivery industry, you can probably guess who employs the most people. It’s FedEx, which was just an idea in 1965 when its eventual founder Frederick W. Smith wrote a paper at Yale University on the potential of a new way to get time-sensitive shipments to recipients (he received an average grade, according to the company’s website). Since then, the company makes around 14.5 million deliveries each day thanks to its 446,400 employees.

UnitedHealth Group also made our list, which makes sense, seeing as its the largest health insurance company in the U.S. Parent company of United Healthcare, the company was founded in 1977. Nowadays, it employs 440,000 people.

Curious which food and drug store is the largest employer? That would be Kroger, which had its start in 1883 when Barney Kroger invested his life savings of $372 to open a single grocery store. More than 140 years later, Kroger is the nation’s largest grocer with nearly 2,800 stores in 35 states and 414,000 employees. But if we’re talking specifically about food services, latte lovers’ favorite place, Starbucks, is the largest employer, with 381,000 employees. Looking specifically at the food consumer products industry, PepsiCo — which owns brands like Lay’s, Doritos, Gatorade, Quaker and, of course, Pepsi — is the largest employer with 318,000 employees.

The travel industry also requires tons of workers. American Airlines Group, which offers thousands of flights daily in more than 60 countries, is the largest employer in the airline industry with 132,100 people. Hilton Worldwide Holdings, meanwhile, has 178,000 employees to help run its hotels, casinos and resorts.

In the entertainment industry, a very familiar name earns the title for largest employer with its 199,125 workers: Walt Disney.

The largest U.S. employers in each industry

Here are the largest companies by employees in every industry — from hotels and airlines to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

Don’t miss our other visuals (Chartistry Originals) that give insight into some of the biggest employers in the U.S, including our map of the biggest Fortune 500 companies in every state, breakdown of America’s most valuable companies ranked by profit per employee and original chart of everything owned by Apple.

Source:

Fortune 500