The Ford Mustang is a legendary American muscle car that symbolizes the culture of open-road freedom. The Ford Motor Company designed the vehicle to embody the European sports car, but with a price point that’s more attainable for middle-class Americans. The idea was a massive success. The first Mustang debuted in 1964, and the Mustang enjoys a legacy and loyal fans to this day. The team at Speedway Motors celebrates the Mustang with an illustrated graphic depicting each Mustang iteration, along with the price at release and the price adjusted for inflation.

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Through this detailed and illustrated chart, we can see the evolution of this vehicle. The first Mustang Hardtop was priced at $2,368, which is $24,3444 in today’s market, emphasizing its affordability in the world of muscle cars. While the Mustang was a gamble, it proved to be a phenomenon and sold over 100,000 cars in its first four months. The Mustangs’ popularity persisted throughout the ‘60s, and Ford focused on improved performance and power, which meant prices rose. This trend continued until the early ‘70s gas crisis when Ford had to adjust to new consumer demands for better fuel mileage. They designed the Mustang II with a smaller chassis and less muscle to adjust to the changes in the economy.

The Mustang’s popularity hit a dip in the early ‘80s, and the Camaro almost outsold it. Ford innovated and adjusted again with the release of the Fox Mustang, designed to be versatile as a day-to-day muscle car. As technology advanced into the ‘90s, Ford introduced popular new features like a V8 engine and SN-95 chassis, which we can see featured in the Mustang GT.

Today’s Mustang is loaded with the most innovative features, designed for performance and comfort. The current model is the Dark Horse Premium, which sells for $69,375. While it’s a flashy and popular car, it lacks some of the performance boosts of past models, yet the price is high.

The Mustangs’ prices have risen a lot over the decades, for several key reasons besides inflation. First, safety standards have increased with innovative technology making drivers safer. Some safety features are required, while others are sought-after bonuses that drivers are looking for. A key aspect of a muscle car is the power and performance. Modern technology advances the performance of the vehicle, but that engineering comes at a higher price point. Material costs have advanced as well, from labor to raw materials. Cars, in general, are now more expensive to build.

The team’s chart is a true testament to the power of visual data. Through the images and price points, we can see changes in the Mustang reflecting cultural and economic shifts, creating a fascinating timeline of an icon among automobiles. Do you have a favorite Mustang model? What do you think about the price changes over time?

Americans are known for being industrious and hard-working, but are all states created equal in the hours they devote to work? A new map from Qualtrics can give us the answer. The team calculated the percentage of time Americans spent working last year, then color-coded each state based on where it fell on the spectrum. The colorful map shows us that all states fell somewhere within the range of 16% and 27% of last year spent on labor. States on the high end of the spectrum have a green hue, and states on the low end have a pink hue, with average time in the center of the scale represented in shades of blue. The result is an easy-to-read chart showing which state residents worked the most and the least.

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While the range the map represents isn’t huge, workers certainly notice a difference between 16% and 27% of the year spent on the job. What can cause such a big discrepancy? The map helps us get some insights into work culture throughout the nation. For example, residents of Utah spent the most time at work out of all 50 states, and they also have some of the lowest unemployment levels in America. This suggests that plentiful work means lots of time spent laboring, or maybe it implies that Utah residents genuinely enjoy working.

We can also see the effects of low wages on hours spent at work. In states where wages are lowest, like Mississippi, Alabama, South Dakota, and West Virginia, residents worked longer hours, most likely to earn what they need to get by. We can also see this in states with high living costs, like Colorado. It’s an expensive state to live in, and workers there spent more time on the job. We can speculate that the need for more wages pushes employees to work more.

Industry can also play a part in work hours. We already know that Alabama and Mississippi workers are spending a lot of time in the workplace, but we also have to consider that there are a lot of manufacturing jobs in these states. These jobs often come with a high demand for long shifts that exceed 40 hours a week. On the other end of the spectrum, we can see that high availability of part-time work can lead to lower work hours. Connecticut residents worked the least amount of time last year, which is clearly because 29% of the workforce has a part-time job. Other states with the lowest work hours include Michigan, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, Washington, and Texas.

This map is a fascinating insight into American work culture and how it varies across the nation. The best maps and studies give us statistics that can provide us with a bigger picture of an issue like labor, and this map certainly delivers.

The world of entrepreneurship loves the tale of a small business startup that grew into a billion-dollar business. The team at Ooma illustrated the biggest names in this world of billionaires with a timeline showing how long it took them to reach their status from a small business start-up to a billion-dollar milestone.

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The graphic features 28 billionaires who built up from a small business. All names were pulled from the Forbes 400 list. While the graphic is stuffed full of details, the most fascinating is the measure of how many years they needed to become billionaires.

The first person to achieve the “self-made” billionaire status was John D. Rockefeller in 1916. The oil tycoon rode the wave of the industrial era to billionaire status. Today, there are almost 3,000 billionaires worldwide. The U.S. is home to the highest number, at 813 billionaires. We can see an industry trend in this graphic, which is that tech dominates. This is no surprise. As Rockefeller benefited from the need for oil, how we worked and what we produced changed completely, and tech has changed every aspect of our lives, so it’s no surprise that these entrepreneurs have reaped the rewards.

Notable examples are Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, who led the way in introducing the personal computer to the general public. Warren Buffett took a different approach. He grew wealth by investing wisely in assets. Elon Musk started his first business with Zip2 in the early days of the Internet.

The Billionaire Journeys

The chart shows us that it took different people vastly different amounts of time to reach their status. Bezos and Zuckerberg were the fastest, becoming billionaires in just four years. Others like Donald Bern and John Menard Jr. had a slow build that took 43 years. Many people land somewhere in between these extremes, emphasizing that successful entrepreneurship takes dedication and persistence. We also see on that chart that there is only one woman, Diane Hendricks. This suggests that entrepreneurship and business are still rife with bias.

The Journeys of the Top 10 Billionaires

This is how long the wealthiest billionaires took to hit their status:

• Jeff Bezos: 4 years
• Mark Zuckerberg: 4 years
• Jan Koum: 5 years
• Larry Page: 6 years
• Sergey Brin: 6 years
• Henry Samueli: 9 years
• Bill Gates: 12 years
• Michael Dell: 12 years
• Steve Cohen: 12 years
• David Tepper: 13 years

Many people on this list transformed their industries, showing that successful entrepreneurs are creative and innovative. They show us that entrepreneurs should look for emerging trends in their industry, leverage new technology, and make strong investments. While a lot depends on love, it’s clear that persistence is key. The list gives us an idea of what kind of industries people can generate billion-dollar businesses in and how long it might take to get there. This chart is a great introduction to these business pioneers, and many of these billionaires have published books and given out advice on how they made their businesses a success.