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2025-11-30 23:22:42

Mapped: The Four Major Types of Forests Around the World

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Forests cover nearly one-third of the world’s land area, playing a vital role in storing carbon, supporting biodiversity, and regulating the planet’s climate.

In this graphic, we visualize data from the UN FAO’s 2025 Forest Resources Assessment to map out the four major types of forests: tropical, subtropical, temperate, and boreal.

Tropical Forests Lead All Other Types

Tropical forests represent the largest share of global forest cover, at about 45%. These ecosystems thrive near the equator, in regions like the Amazon Basin, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia.

These are biodiversity hotspots, supporting millions of plant and animal species while also storing massive amounts of carbon.

Despite their ecological importance, tropical forests are under heavy pressure from deforestation, agriculture, and mining. For example, Brazil has lost 2.9 million acres of its tropical forests since 2015, an area equal to the size of Rwanda.

How the World’s Forests Are Used

UN FAO data shows that 29% of forests are primarily used for production, referring to logging and other commercial activities. However, around 36% of global forests are designated for environmental or multiple-use purposes, including biodiversity conservation and water protection.

Objective	Share of total
Production	29
Protection of soil & water	9
Conservation of biodiversity	12
Social services	5
Multiple use	15
Other	7
No designation	4
Unknown	18

Interestingly, nearly one in five forests fall into the “unknown” category, underscoring gaps in global forest monitoring and classification.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Top 35 Countries With the Largest Forests on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2025-11-30 21:02:32

Charted: The Declining Purchasing Power of the U.S. Dollar

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The U.S. dollar has steadily lost value over the past century. According to Federal Reserve data, the purchasing power of one dollar today is equal to just a few cents in 1913 (the year the Fed was created).

In this graphic, we track the decline in the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar since the early 1900s, illustrating how inflation has eroded its value.

Data & Discussion

The data for this visualization comes from Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). It measures the “Purchasing Power of the Consumer Dollar” across all U.S. city averages, indexed to consumer prices.

The higher the index, the more purchasing power the dollar has. As the index declines, goods and services become relatively more expensive.

Inflationary Eras and Economic Shocks

Major inflationary periods can be identified by looking at the steepest drops in the chart. For example, World War I and World War II strained government finances, leading to massive increases in public spending and money creation, which pushed prices sharply higher.

Similarly, the oil shocks of the 1970s caused energy costs to spike throughout the world, feeding into broad-based inflation. In each case, rising prices significantly eroded the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar.

From Gold Standard to Fiat Currency

Until 1971, the U.S. dollar was backed by gold.

This system was ended by President Nixon because the U.S. was creating more dollars than it had gold to support. Furthermore, foreign countries were increasingly demanding gold in exchange for their dollar reserves.

While ending this system gave policymakers more flexibility to manage the economy, money creation became easier, as shown by this chart of the M2 money supply. M2 comprises the most liquid forms of U.S. money, including physical currency, checking deposits, plus near-liquid assets like small-value time (CD) deposits, retail money-market funds, and other readily convertible savings vehicles.

An expanding money supply can be healthy when it grows in line with factors like population, economic output, and demand for credit, but becomes inflationary when it outpaces real economic growth.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Gold Production by Region in 2024 on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2025-11-30 02:39:43

Visualized: Alcohol Consumption in the U.S. by the Numbers

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In the U.S., alcohol consumption remains widespread, with nearly half the population aged 12 or older reporting that they consumed alcohol within the past month.

This visualization explores the scale of drinking behavior across America, including how many people drink, binge drink, or engage in heavier levels of alcohol use, using data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as of 2024.

How Many Americans Drink Alcohol Regularly?

Out of the 288.8 million Americans aged 12 or older, 134 million (46.5%) reported drinking alcohol at least once in the past 30 days.

The data table below shows the number of regular alcohol drinkers in the U.S., along with binge drinkers and heavy drinkers.

Binge drinkers are defined as those who consumed five or more drinks (four for women) on one occasion, and heavy drinkers are those who engaged in binge drinking at least five times in the past 30 days.

Despite alcohol drinkers making up nearly half of the U.S. population of those aged 12 or older, the share in 2024 (46.5%) has declined slightly since 2022 when it was 48.7%.

The Number of Binge and Heavy Drinkers in the U.S.

Of the 134.3 million alcohol drinkers in the U.S., 57.9 million people engaged in binge drinking, which represents 20.1% of the total population and 43.1% of all alcohol users.

This reveals a significant overlap between casual use and occasional high-risk consumption, highlighting how binge drinking behavior is deeply embedded within the broader drinking population.

Heavy alcohol users—those who binge drink on at least five days in the past month—number 14.5 million in America. This represents 5% of the total population above 12 years old and 10.8% of alcohol users.

While this group is much smaller than the broader categories of alcohol and binge drinkers, heavy drinkers make up one quarter of all binge drinkers, and account for one in every 10 regular alcohol drinkers in the country.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about alcohol consumption in the U.S., check out this graphic which breaks down which U.S. states drink the most beer.

2025-11-29 23:48:04

Countries With the Most (and Least) Incarcerated People

See visuals like this from many other data creators on our Voronoi app. Download it for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The world’s criminal justice and prison systems vary significantly from country to country.

Regionally, Latin America and the Caribbean has the highest concentration of incarcerated people, accounting for six of the top 10 highest prison rates in the world. On the other hand, a number of West African countries sit on the opposite end of the spectrum.

This graphic shows the countries with the highest and lowest incarceration rates worldwide, based on data from the Prison Policy Initiative.

Behind Bars: Comparing Incarcerated People by Country

Below, we show the countries that sit at the extremes of global incarceration rates:

Top 10 Highest Countries	Incarceration Rate (per 100,000 people)	Top 10 Lowest Countries	Incarceration Rate (per 100,000 people)
El Salvador	1,086	Gambia	22
Cuba	794	Guinea-Bissau	31
Rwanda	637	Republic of Congo	33
U.S.	614	Guinea	34
Turkmenistan	576	Nigeria	35
Panama	499	Yemen	35
Uruguay	424	Japan	36
Brazil	390	Pakistan	38
Thailand	377	Burkina Faso	39
Cabo Verde	366	Central African Republic	40

Today, at least 52,000 people are in prison in El Salvador, driven by its “state of exception” policy, which drastically reduces the constitutional rights of suspected criminals.

While this has led the homicide rate to fall 80% since 2022, thousands have been arbitrarily detained without access to a timely trial and other legal defenses in efforts to combat gang violence.

Like El Salvador, Cuba has faced mass arrests, typically for political dissidents. The country ranks second globally, with an incarceration rate of 795 per 100,000 people.

On the other hand, Gambia has an incarceration rate of just 22 per 100,000 inhabitants. Overall, Africa is home to seven of the 10 lowest incarceration rates, although prisons remain deeply underfunded.

As we can see, Japan stands as the only developed economy in the bottom 10. In addition, it has one of the lowest homicide rates globally, at 0.23 per 100,000 people—roughly 25 times lower than America.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the average cost per prisoner by U.S. state.

2025-11-29 21:06:37

Mapped: Countries With the Most Forest Area per Capita

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

The world’s forests are unevenly distributed, with countries like Canada and Russia containing hundreds of millions of hectares of forest area. But how that forest is shared among people varies dramatically around the globe.

In this graphic, we visualize each country’s forest area per capita, offering a unique perspective on the world’s tree coverage. While the average country has just 0.5 hectares of forest area per person, a select few boast significantly more.

Data & Discussion

The data for this visualization comes from the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It measures each country’s total forest area in hectares, which we combined with 2025 population estimates to determine forest area per capita.

A hectare is equal to 10,000 square meters, which is about the size of an international rugby field. In city terms, it’s roughly two and a half acres, or enough space for 16 single-family homes.

Rank	Country	Forest Area Per Capita (hectares)
1	Guyana	23.0
2	Suriname	22.3
3	Gabon	10.2
4	Canada	8.9
5	Central African Republic	8.2
6	Russian Federation	5.7
7	Botswana	5.7
8	Australia	4.8
9	Bolivia	4.4
10	Finland	4.0
11	Mongolia	4.0
12	Bhutan	3.4
13	Belize	3.2
14	Solomon Islands	3.2
15	Papua New Guinea	2.7
16	Namibia	2.6
17	Sweden	2.6
18	Vanuatu	2.5
19	Palau	2.3
20	Brazil	2.3
21	Norway	2.2
22	Zambia	2.1
23	Paraguay	2.1
24	Peru	2.0
25	New Zealand	1.9
26	Latvia	1.9
27	Estonia	1.8
28	Venezuela	1.8
29	Lao P.D.R.	1.7
30	Angola	1.6
31	Equatorial Guinea	1.5
32	Montenegro	1.3
33	DRC	1.3
34	Bahamas	1.2
35	Fiji	1.2
36	Colombia	1.1
37	Liberia	1.1
38	Guinea-Bissau	1.0
39	Panama	1.0
40	Belarus	1.0
41	Argentina	1.0
42	U.S.	0.9
43	Mozambique	0.9
44	Chile	0.9
45	Georgia	0.8
46	Brunei Darussalam	0.8
47	Zimbabwe	0.8
48	Lithuania	0.8
49	Dominica	0.8
50	Samoa	0.8
51	Timor-Leste	0.7
52	Nicaragua	0.7
53	Ecuador	0.7
54	Micronesia	0.7
55	Tanzania	0.6
56	Cameroon	0.6
57	Bulgaria	0.6
58	Bosnia & Herzegovina	0.6
59	Slovenia	0.6
60	Uruguay	0.6
61	North Macedonia	0.6
62	Malaysia	0.6
63	Costa Rica	0.6
64	Honduras	0.5
65	Serbia	0.5
66	World Average	0.5
67	Croatia	0.5
68	Mexico	0.5
69	Myanmar	0.5
70	Greece	0.5
71	Senegal	0.5
72	South Sudan	0.5
73	Sudan	0.4
74	Austria	0.4
75	Mali	0.4
76	Spain	0.4
77	Romania	0.4
78	Eswatini	0.4
79	Cambodia	0.4
80	Slovak Republic	0.4
81	South Africa	0.4
82	Albania	0.3
83	Turkmenistan	0.3
84	Indonesia	0.3
85	Madagascar	0.3
86	Portugal	0.3
87	Congo	0.3
88	Guinea	0.3
89	Ukraine	0.3
90	Somalia	0.3
91	Thailand	0.3
92	Sierra Leone	0.3
93	Czech Republic	0.3
94	Marshall Islands	0.3
95	Türkiye	0.3
96	Poland	0.3
97	Seychelles	0.3
98	France	0.3
99	Saint Vincent & the Grenadines	0.3
100	Ethiopia	0.2
101	Sao Tome and Principe	0.2
102	Jamaica	0.2
103	Mauritania	0.2
104	Hungary	0.2
105	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0.2
106	Nepal	0.2
107	Benin	0.2
108	Dominican Republic	0.2
109	Andorra	0.2
110	Japan	0.2
111	Ghana	0.2
112	Chad	0.2
113	Guatemala	0.2
114	Cyprus	0.2
115	Saint Lucia	0.2
116	Kyrgyz Republic	0.2
117	Kazakhstan	0.2
118	China	0.2
119	Italy	0.2
120	Trinidad and Tobago	0.2
121	Iceland	0.2
122	Republic of Moldova	0.2
123	Grenada	0.2
124	Ireland	0.2
125	Morocco	0.2
126	Liechtenstein	0.1
127	Vietnam	0.1
128	Switzerland	0.1
129	Puerto Rico	0.1
130	Germany	0.1
131	Burkina Faso	0.1
132	Luxembourg	0.1
133	Togo	0.1
134	Iran	0.1
135	South Korea	0.1
136	Azerbaijan	0.1
137	Côte d'Ivoire	0.1
138	Armenia	0.1
139	El Salvador	0.1
140	Denmark	0.1
141	Uzbekistan	0.1
142	Tuvalu	0.1
143	Cabo Verde	0.1
144	Tonga	0.1
145	Malawi	0.1
146	Saudi Arabia	0.1
147	Gambia	0.1
148	Antigua and Barbuda	0.1
149	Kenya	0.1
150	Nigeria	0.1
151	Philippines	0.1
152	Belgium	0.1
153	Tunisia	0.1
154	India	0.050
155	Uganda	0.049
156	UK	0.047
157	Rwanda	0.045
158	Tajikistan	0.041
159	Comoros	0.037
160	Niger	0.036
161	Algeria	0.036
162	Mauritius	0.030
163	Haiti	0.030
164	San Marino	0.029
165	Libya	0.029
166	UAE	0.029
167	Barbados	0.022
168	Netherlands	0.020
169	Burundi	0.019
170	Iraq	0.015
171	Israel	0.015
172	Lesotho	0.014
173	Pakistan	0.013
174	Yemen	0.013
175	Bangladesh	0.011
176	Maldives	0.009
177	Kiribati	0.008
178	Jordan	0.006
179	Djibouti	0.006
180	Aruba	0.004
181	Bahrain	0.003
182	Singapore	0.003
183	Kuwait	0.001
184	Malta	0.001
185	Qatar	0.000
186	Oman	0.000
187	Egypt	0.000
188	Nauru	0.000

The World’s Most Forested Countries

Guyana and Suriname are the two biggest outliers, each offering more than 22 hectares of forest area per person.

This is due to these countries’ vast rainforests combined with their relatively small populations (both under 1 million people). The forests in this region make up the Guiana Shield, one of the largest remaining blocks of primary tropical forest on earth.

Other countries that rank highly include Canada and Russia, two of the world’s largest countries by total area. While these countries have much bigger populations than #1 ranked Guyana, their sheer amount of forest land results in an above-average per capita figure.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Countries With the Most Freshwater Resources on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2025-11-29 09:04:12

About 18 months ago, we launched Voronoi, our free new data discovery app.

Believe it or not, there are already more data-driven visuals on Voronoi than on Visual Capitalist (which has been around for 13 years!).

Every day there’s something new on Voronoi to see. And in aggregate, there are roughly 6,500 data stories to explore on the platform from nearly 200 world-class creators.

Let’s see what captivated users in November.

We’ll take a look at some of the best Voronoi visuals over the last month, including one standout Editor’s Pick, as well as the most viewed, most discussed, and most liked posts.

MOST VIEWED

Highest Paying Jobs with No College Degree Required

This month’s most viewed visual came from Julie Peasley, exploring the top-paying U.S. jobs that don’t require a college degree.

Based on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (May 2024), this visualization highlights 20 careers where experience, certification, or specialized training outweigh formal higher education. The top spot goes to air traffic controllers, earning a median wage of $144,580—without requiring an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

Users were fascinated by how many six-figure opportunities exist for those with hands-on skills, trade experience, or niche expertise in logistics and public safety.

MOST DISCUSSED

How Quality of Life Has Changed in 30 Countries, According to Citizens

This snapshot from Visual Capitalist sparked wide discussion this month by visualizing how citizens perceive changes in their country’s quality of life.

Using Numbeo’s Quality of Life Index, the chart combines data on costs, safety, healthcare, pollution, and more. While countries like Switzerland continue to rank among the world’s highest, others such as the Netherlands and Norway have climbed steadily.

The conversation heated up around the biggest declines: Canada (from 9th to 27th), Saudi Arabia (12th to 25th), the U.S. (4th to 14th), and Sweden (3rd to 13th)—prompting debate on affordability, policy, and post-pandemic priorities.

MOST LIKED

Who Still Uses Cash?

This data-rich visualization from Visual Capitalist captured user attention worldwide, showing the global divide between cash-based and digital economies.

Cash use remains near-universal in lower-income nations such as Myanmar (98%), Ethiopia (95%), and Gambia (95%), where digital infrastructure is limited. In contrast, wealthy nations like Sweden (14%), Norway (10%), and South Korea (10%) have nearly eliminated physical cash.

Cultural outliers drew the most interest: Japan (60%) and Germany (51%) retain high cash use despite advanced economies—while China (10%) exemplifies a rapid leap to mobile payments, skipping the credit card era entirely.

EDITOR’S PICK

The Largest Bodies of Water in the Solar System: Visualized

Our Editor’s Pick for November comes from MadeVisual, who turned the spotlight to outer space—mapping where water exists beyond Earth.

The visual reveals that oceans and ice reserves on moons like Titan and Ganymede vastly exceed Earth’s total water volume, hidden beneath thick crusts of ice. Even airless worlds like the Moon and Mercury harbor small pockets of frozen material in permanent shadow.

Together, these discoveries challenge assumptions about habitability—and hint that water, the foundation of life, may be far more common across the Solar System than once believed.