Chart: The Rate of Change in U.S. Energy Consumption This chart shows the winners and losers in energy sources used The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. Weeks ago, we published a flow chart that showed all U.S. energy consumption from 2015 in one giant diagram. This is a great tool for understanding a static picture of U.S. energy consumption – it breaks down the energy sources, as well as the details about where the energy ultimately flows....

America’s wealthiest have made their fortunes in a wide variety of ways, but there is one thing many of these tycoons have in common: 80% of billionaires picked up a Bachelor’s degree at some point in their lives. Today’s chart visualizes data from Adview to show the educational paths and early working years of billionaires on the elite Forbes 400 list, a ranking of the 400 wealthiest people in the United States....

Today’s data visualization comes to us from Reddit user /r/mythicquale and it shows the population growth of every country using data and projections from the United Nations population division. The graph is on a logarithmic scale, which ultimately groups together most growth rates even though they would be much further apart on a linear scale. This means the places outside of the middle range are the true outliers, gaining or losing many multiples of their original populations....

Only 24 supertall skyscrapers existed at that time, with half of them located in U.S. cities. That list included iconic structures such as the Empire State Building and Willis Tower, as well as newer landmarks like Atlanta’s Bank of America Plaza. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) database, the following buildings comprised the world’s full roster of supertall skyscrapers in 1999: With the exception of the original World Trade Center towers in New York, all these iconic structures are still standing....

For gamers in the latter category, there comes a monumental time when the cycle flips the page to the next generation of consoles. We are now at that pivotal moment, with the Xbox Series X and Sony PlayStation 5 set to launch on November 10 and 12, 2020, respectively. How will this generation of console games fare relative to past iterations, and which target demographics will be driving future sales?...

From there, participants in the market have had their will tested, as the market suddenly corrected by dropping 30% in the course of one month. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index tracks the world’s 400 richest people in the world, including 26 from mainland China. Taking a look at the value of their portfolios can provide some insight as to the ride they are on. Here’s the change in wealth of billionaires in China versus those in Germany for this year:...

As a result, the stakes have never been higher in the ultra-competitive smartphone market. Every day, companies are duking it out for any sliver they can get of global smartphone sales, which now exceed $420 billion per year. In rapidly growing markets like China and India, the competitive environments are even more interesting. Due to rising socioeconomic circumstances and falling price points on certain models, large segments of these populations are able to purchase these devices for the first time....

With a colossal base of 500 million potential cannabis consumers, and laws that are loosening at a steady pace, Europe could soon emerge as the global cannabis leader. Cannabidiol, better known as CBD, has become one of the most popular forms of cannabis in the European market, but little is known about the consumers who are reaching for it. New Frontier Data identified a spectrum of archetypes in an effort to better understand their consumption patterns....

Since the start of the 21st century, U.S. consumers have seen a divergence of price movements across various categories. Nowhere is this better illustrated than on this chart concept thought up by AEI’s Mark J. Perry. It’s sometimes referred to as the “chart of the century” because it provides such a clear and impactful jump-off point to discuss a number of economic forces. The punchline is that many consumer goods—particularly those that were easily outsourced—saw price drops, while key “non-tradable” categories saw massive increases....

Earnings Scoreboard: A Turbulent Week in Tech [Chart] The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays. For many blue chip companies, earnings season can end up being relatively dry. For example, yesterday MasterCard reported an earnings “beat” of $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) compared to the $0.85 consensus. The stock inched up 0.7% in afternoon trading and now it’s back down today. In other words, it’s business as usual again....

U.S. scientists at the National Ignition Facility, part of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), announced a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion this week. For the first time ever, scientists successfully produced more energy from a nuclear fusion experiment than the laser energy used to power it. In the above infographic, we describe nuclear fusion and illustrate how this discovery may pave the future for a new form of clean and sustainable energy....

Generation Z: Marketing’s Next Big Audience Move over Millennials, there’s already a newer generation businesses are interested in, and it’s called “Gen Z”. If you were not familiar with this new generation label, no one would blame you. Generation Z is currently under construction, with a vague birth range that starts in the mid-90’s to present day. This generation is the most tech savvy ever, period. They were born with cell phones, video games, non-dialup internet, and all the other tech perks you weren’t lucky enough to have when you were young....

This infographic from PixlParade examines how much 46 different countries put towards healthcare and military spending in 2018, per capita. Head to Head: Healthcare versus Military Data for government and compulsory healthcare spending comes from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Note that these figures do not include spending through private insurance or out-of-pocket expenses. Meanwhile, the data for military spending comes from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)....

As investors re-evaluate their portfolios and exposure, it’s worth exploring some of the major themes and trends that are expected to drive markets in 2018. Predictions for 2018 Today’s infographic was done in collaboration with Swissquote, a Swiss banking group, and it highlights their five most important predictions for the rest of the year ahead. Taken from their 2018 Market Outlook Report, which can be downloaded for free, the following graphic discusses key themes of the year such as central bank policy, European unity, China, cryptocurrencies, and emerging markets....

On one hand, all this data can be harnessed to make intelligent and timely investment decisions. However, with data growing at exponential rates, this also means that there is a lot of noise – and finding the right signal can be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Today’s infographic from Mergalim shows how the power of predictive data analytics is growing, and using tools like AI and Bayesian inference to anticipate the outcome of events before they happen is more feasible and applicable than ever....

This is a reality in almost every sector, but it’s especially relevant to companies in the healthcare industry. That’s because the amount of health data being created is growing at a 48% rate annually, and by 2020, a Stanford University study estimates that 2,314 exabytes of healthcare data will be produced per year. Simply put, the companies that can extract meaningful insights from these mountains of data will have a serious and durable competitive advantage – and those that don’t have a proper strategy for this boom in data will get lost in the weeds....

Blockchain technology is already turning the financial industry upside down through its disruptive applications, but finance is only the tip of the iceberg. The blockchain’s true scope is in its ability to change the way you do things every day – like voting, travelling, or going to the doctor. The Future of Blockchain Today’s infographic comes to us from HIVE Blockchain Technologies, and it gives us a glimpse into the potential of blockchain technology beyond the world of finance....

Companies like Apple or Mercedes-Benz work endlessly to forge identities that allow them to be instantly recognizable to consumers. They want a logo that communicates their mission, value proposition, history, and legacy – and to do this, many of these companies continue to use icons, symbols, or colors that are decades old. But this doesn’t mean that their identities and logos are static. In fact, many of these world-class brands have actually changed dramatically, while still incorporating important elements from their company histories....

Project Generators: Exploration Risk for a Lower Cost Sponsored by: Altus Strategies In a bear market for junior miners, exploration capital can be hard to come by. However, one type of company strategy does its best to bypass this risk and fund multiple projects without having to constantly raise capital through equity. Enter the Project Generator model. How does it work? Basically, a company gets more established companies with substantial capital to joint venture on its wide portfolio of properties....

This week’s chart comes from First Round’s State of Startups 2018 survey, in which 529 founders shared their predictions on the tech startups best poised for growth and spin-off success. Tech Startup Valuations Stripe, the payments startup darling, has already grown from $1.8 billion in valuation in 2013 to over $22 billion today. According to the tech founders surveyed, 19% see Stripe continuing on this path in the years to come....