2025-03-07 20:22:15
For Our World in Data, Saloni Dattani and Lucas Rodés-Guirao analyzed the various factors that led to the baby boom, typically marked by the period following World War II. As usual, it’s not that simple.
The baby boom is typically defined as the time period between 1946 and 1964. As an example, Brittanica’s entry on the baby boom states that it describes “the increase in the birth rate between 1946 and 1964”. Similarly, the US Census Bureau defines baby boomers as “those born between 1946 and 1964”, with the common belief that the baby boom started immediately after World War II.
But as the chart below shows, the rise began earlier.
Birth rates in the United States had been falling in the early twentieth century, and the decline began to slow down at the end of the 1920s. Then, in the late 1930s, they turned around and began to rise, and this continued during parts of World War II. At the end of the war, they surged, but this was part of a multi-decadal increase.
Tags: baby boomer, birth rate, Our World in Data
2025-03-07 03:30:38
This is the Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members on the finer details of visualization that is not terrible. Part of that is making sure the data you’re working with is not terrible.
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
2025-03-06 20:40:20
Elon Musk has been critical of government spending, as he and DOGE fire federal employees and post questionable savings numbers. However, Musk’s own companies have benefited greatly from government funds over the past two decades, especially during the last few years. The Washington Post has the charts showing the $38 billion.
The total amount is probably larger: This analysis includes only publicly available contracts, omitting classified defense and intelligence work for the federal government. SpaceX has been developing spy satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office, the Pentagon’s spy satellite division, according to the Reuters news agency. The Wall Street Journal reported that contract was worth $1.8 billion, citing company documents.
The Post found nearly a dozen other local grants, reimbursements and tax credits where the specific amount of money is not public.
Tags: Elon Musk, government, spending, Washington Post
2025-03-06 18:48:11
Planet Money explains the Daily Treasury Statement from the U.S. Treasury. The data source itemizes deposits and withdrawals from and to government agencies.
The Daily Treasury Statement (DTS) dataset contains a series of tables showing the daily cash and debt operations of the U.S. Treasury. The data includes operating cash balance, deposits and withdrawals of cash, public debt transactions, federal tax deposits, income tax refunds issued (by check and electronic funds transfer (EFT)), short-term cash investments, and issues and redemptions of securities. All figures are rounded to the nearest million.
Access the data here, for now.
Tags: government, Planet Money, spending, transparency, treasury
2025-03-06 11:40:20
Nate Silver writes a few thoughts on the closing of FiveThirtyEight:
For more extended thoughts on the environment at Disney — plus plenty of self-reflection/self-criticism — you can see the item at the bottom of SBSQ #12. But the basic issue is that Disney was never particularly interested in running FiveThirtyEight as a business, even though I think it could have been a good business. Although they were generous in maintaining the site for so long and almost never interfered in our editorial process, the sort of muscle memory a media property builds early in its tenure tends to stick. We had an incredibly talented editorial staff, but we never had enough “product” people or strategy people to help the business grow and sustain itself. It’s always an uphill battle under those conditions, particularly when it comes to recruiting and retaining staff, who were constantly being poached by outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post.
Silver also includes future plans for his Silver Bulletin paid newsletter, such as Trump approval ratings, college basketball ratings, and updated statistical models for the NBA and NFL. It kind of sounds like building up another version of FiveThirtyEight, with a more stable revenue stream.
Tags: data journalism, Disney, FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver
2025-03-06 01:39:31
Disney is cutting news jobs, and FiveThirtyEight, which was absorbed by ABC News and owned by Disney, is going with them. FiveThirtyEight employees were laid off this morning. It’s unclear what will happen to past projects and the brand itself, but I imagine those won’t stick around either.
From G. Elliott Morris, who took over after Nate Silver left:
As reported, the entire staff of 538 was laid off this morning. This is a severe blow to political data journalism, and I feel for my colleagues. Readers note: As we were instructed not to publish any new content, all planned updates to polls data and averages are canceled indefinitely. Huge loss :(
After the layoffs a couple years ago and the shift from the dot com address to an abcnews address, it seemed like this was where FiveThirtyEight was headed, but still. It’s sad for those who make data things.
At its peak, FiveThirtyEight got normal people interested in data and statistics, which is not an easy thing to do. Beyond politics, they provided a lens, a sometimes quirky one I especially enjoyed, that made it easier to understand how data played a role in the everyday.
So tonight, we pour one out for Fivey Fox.
Tags: data journalism, FiveThirtyEight
