Charts
Where in the U.S. Have the Highest (and Lowest) High School Graduation Rates?
The United States is a colossal country with an incredible range of beliefs, livelihoods, and experiences. One thing that unifies the vast majority of America is school. Federal laws require that children receive some form of education (public, private, homeschooling, etc.) for a period of time. In 2021, the average high school graduation rate in the United States was 85.3%. This incredibly detailed chart by the U.S. Career Institute explores how this rate varies across U.S. counties.
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Visually, I really appreciate the use of formal, “prestigious” colors for the heat map and throughout the chart. The header font is excellent; I am planning to use it in some of my own projects! The diploma-like border is a nice touch. Let’s take a closer look at the extra-large and small counties so we can get a more complete picture of how graduation rates vary across America.
Here are the top five extra-large counties with the high school highest graduation rates:
- Alleghany, Pennsylvania – 95%
- Oakland, Michigan – 94%
- Collin, Texas – 94%
- Montgomery, Pennsylvania – 94%
- King, Washington – 93%
And here are the five extra-large counties with the lowest high school graduation rates:
- Bronx, NY – 73%
- Kern, California – 74%
- Fresno, California – 76%
- El Paso, Texas – 78%
- Los Angeles, California – 79%
Here are the top 5 small counties with the highest high school graduation rates:
- Falls Church City, Virginia – 99%
- Clear Creek, Colorado – 99%
- Petroleum, Montana – 99%
- Morgan, Utah – 98%
- Gilpin, Colorado – 98%
And lastly, here are the top 5 small counties with the lowest high school graduation rates:
- Kenedy, Texas – 26%
- Presidio, Texas – 53%
- Hudspeth, Texas – 56%
- Clark, Idaho – 60%
- Issaquena, Mississippi – 61%
I suppose not everything is bigger in Texas after all. All kidding aside, I looked into why the education system in Texas is failing so many children. Some issues I encountered are low teacher salary, dropouts from traditional schooling in favor of trade school or other alternatives, gun violence, mental health struggles, and conflict surrounding how to assess children’s performance. It is such a massive state, so it is no wonder that reform comes slowly and with a lot of resistance.
Houses aren’t cheap these days. In fact, they are so not cheap that millions of young Americans are holding off on buying a home and are instead opting to rent for the foreseeable future. “Just how bad is it?”, you might be wondering. Well, this new visualization from construction app maker Builder Pad forces you to look at the problems the United States is facing in the real estate market in an entirely new way. From this perspective, you are able to see how much smaller a house you’ll be able to afford today vs. 2018 for the same amount of money. So, how much smaller has a $500,000 home become in your state?
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In order to reveal which states have the fastest-rising real estate prices, Builder Pad analyzed median listing prices by state in two distinct ways. First, is by percentage of square feet lost over the five year period between 2018 and 2023. The state that was hit the hardest in this metric is Montana where a $500K house is now 50.15% smaller. Just typing that out blows my mind.
The second metric used in this study is square feet lost over the same 5-year period. The state that lost the most square feet in a $500,000 house is Kansas with a drop of 2,280.26 square feet. That’s the equivalent of losing five (5!) two-car garages in living space. With virtually no end in sight for this real estate conundrum, what will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back?
Positions in the health care industry have always been in demand, especially since the start of the pandemic. Hospitals and doctor’s offices all over the country are in need of trained medical professionals to help patients. Staffing workers in the industry was a struggle even before COVID-19 hit, and once it did, demand for health care workers was strongly in demand.
Which specific health care professions are expected to grow the most in the next few years? U.S. Career Institute looked at data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Indeed.com to display which medical professions are expected to grow the most from 2021-2031.
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The graphic utilizes a scatter diagram to visualize the health care professions expected to grow the compared to their average salary.
The medical profession that is expected to grow the most by 2031 is nurse practitioners. The average salary for a nurse practitioner in the U.S. is $120,680, and the profession is expected to grow 46% by 2031. Nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives are next on the list, with an expected growth of 40% by 2031. The average annual salary is $123,780.
These are the top 10 health-related professions that are expected to grow through 2031:
- Nurse practitioner — 46%
- Nurse anesthetist — 40%
- Physician assistant — 28%
- Medical and health services manager — 28%
- Epidemiologist — 26%
- Occupational therapy assistant — 25%
- Home health and personal care aide — 25%
- Physical therapy assistant — 24%
- Substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselor — 22%
- Speech-language pathologist — 21%
What can go nearly six times the speed of sound and cost $2.5 trillion dollars to build and operate (adjusted for inflation)? The answer is the North American X-15, hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft that achieved the fastest aircraft flying speed of all time on October 3rd, 1967 when it reached 4,520 miles per hour! That is an awe-inspiring 75 miles per minute and 1.25 miles per second. GlobalAir.com has launched a compelling (or propelling?) chart visualizing aircraft ranked by max flying speed. More than half of the aircraft shown are capable of flying faster than the sound of speed!
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How fast is the sound of speed anyway? Mach 1, or the speed of sound, varies depending on the temperature of the air (or other medium) that it is passing through. So at sea level on planet Earth at around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the speed of sound is approximately 767 miles per hour. That means that the North American X-15, an aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, flew at a rate nearly six times as fast as the speed of sound. The record was achieved by William J. Knight, a Vietnam combat pilot and test pilot for the U.S. Air Force. During his 16 flights in the aircraft, Knight became one of the few non-NASA pilots to earn their Astronaut Wings by flying an airplane in space – this was achieved by reaching an altitude of 280,500 feet (53.125 miles). It truly is extraordinary how far aviation technology has come in a century!
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