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Ranked: Global Helium Production by Country

2026-04-28 02:47:09

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Bubble chart about global helium production by country

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Global Helium Production by Country

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.

Key Takeaways

  • The U.S. and Qatar produce over 75% of the world’s helium, making supply highly concentrated.
  • Helium is essential for semiconductors, MRI machines, and aerospace systems.
  • Supply disruptions—like tensions in the Middle East—can quickly ripple across global tech industries.

Helium is often associated with party balloons, but its importance extends far beyond celebrations.

This rare gas is one of the most strategic gases in the world, and it’s essential for advanced technologies, including semiconductor manufacturing, aerospace systems, and medical imaging.

This visual highlights how global helium production is concentrated among a few key countries. The data for this visualization comes from USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026.

A Duopoly Controls Global Helium Supply

The global helium market is unusually concentrated, with just two countries dominating supply. This creates a structural vulnerability: any disruption in either country can have outsized effects on global industries that rely on helium.

The United States leads global helium production, accounting for 42.6% of output in 2025. This figure includes helium imported from Canada and refined domestically, boosting its share.

Qatar ranks second with 33.2%, meaning the two countries together dominate global supply.

Country Production (Cubic Feet) World Production (%)
🇺🇸 United States 2,860 42.6%
🇶🇦 Qatar 2,225 33.2%
🇷🇺 Russia 636 9.5%
🇩🇿 Algeria 388 5.8%
🇨🇦 Canada 212 3.2%
🇨🇳 China 106 1.6%
🇵🇱 Poland 106 1.6%
🇿🇦 South Africa 18 0.3%
🌍 Other 159 2.4%
🌐 World Total 6,710 100.0%

Recent tensions around the Strait of Hormuz—a critical shipping route for Qatar—highlight how fragile helium supply chains can be. Any disruption to exports from the region can quickly impact countries like South Korea, where semiconductor manufacturing depends on steady helium imports.

Russia’s Output Faces Market Constraints

Russia produces about 9.5% of the world’s helium, placing it third globally. However, its ability to supply Western markets is limited by EU sanctions on Russian helium imports.

Meanwhile, China accounts for a relatively small share of global helium production, contributing about 1.6% in 2025. Despite its limited domestic supply, the country is a major consumer due to its large semiconductor and electronics industries. This imbalance makes China heavily reliant on imports to meet its growing demand.

Helium’s Expanding Industrial Role

Helium demand is tightly linked to high-tech and medical industries, where reliability is critical and substitutes are limited.

Scientific research accounts for 22% of global consumption, followed by semiconductor production and lifting gas applications at 17% each. Medical use, particularly in MRI machines, represents another 15% of demand.

As demand grows across semiconductors, healthcare, and scientific research, helium is becoming less of a niche resource and more of a strategic one. With supply concentrated in just a handful of countries, securing reliable access is emerging as a priority for governments and industries alike.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Ranked: The Most Consistent U.S. Power Sources on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Which U.S. States Have the Highest GDP per Capita?

2026-04-27 23:49:00

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The following content is sponsored by Terzo

Which U.S. States Have the Highest GDP per Capita?

Where you live in the U.S. can make a huge difference in economic output per person. GDP per capita varies widely across states, from under $60,000 in Mississippi to nearly $280,000 in Washington, D.C.

This chart, produced in partnership with Terzo, breaks down GDP per capita in 2025. It’s part of our Markets in a Minute series, which delivers quick economic insights.

GDP per Capita by State

Washington, D.C. has the highest GDP per capita. The capital’s economy is concentrated in high-value professional services like consulting, IT, and legal, as well as government spending. 

Its large commuter workforce from outside states also boosts the figure, as many workers contribute to economic output without being counted in the local population.

State 2025 GDP per Capita
Washington, D.C. $278k
New York $123k
Massachusetts $115k
Washington $112k
Delaware $111k
California $108k
North Dakota $102k
Connecticut $102k
Alaska $102k
Nebraska $98k
Colorado $97k
Illinois $95k
New Jersey $93k
Texas $92k
Minnesota $91k
Maryland $91k
Virginia $90k
Wyoming $89k
Utah $89k
New Hampshire $89k
Hawaii $87k
South Dakota $86k
Nevada $86k
Iowa $86k
Georgia $82k
Ohio $81k
Kansas $81k
Pennsylvania $81k
Tennessee $81k
Oregon $80k
North Carolina $80k
Wisconsin $79k
Arizona $78k
Florida $78k
Indiana $78k
Rhode Island $75k
Vermont $75k
Missouri $75k
Louisiana $74k
Maine $73k
Michigan $72k
Montana $72k
New Mexico $72k
South Carolina $68k
Idaho $67k
Kentucky $67k
Oklahoma $67k
Alabama $66k
Arkansas $64k
West Virginia $62k
Mississippi $56k

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau. Figures rounded.

New York takes the second spot as a global financial hub with strong output in other high-value industries, including real estate and professional services. 

Massachusetts and Washington also top the ranks. While Massachusetts drives value through professional services like biotechnology, Washington is home to big tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft.

Resource Economies

Outside of more service-based economies, both North Dakota and Alaska pump out over $100,000 in GDP per capita. 

Both states are driven by natural resources and mining, ranking as the third (North Dakota) and fifth-highest (Alaska) producers of crude oil in America. These states also have some of the lowest populations in the country, driving up output per person.

More recently in 2026, both states have seen monetary benefits from oil transport disruptions and rising prices. North Dakota typically sells crude oil at a discount to benchmark pricing, but has been earning $7 more per barrel above the benchmark. In Alaska, the state recently increased its projected revenue by $0.5 billion as a result of higher oil prices.

Maximizing Value

As economies push to create more value per person, businesses are also focused on getting more from what they have.

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How Much Clean Energy Have Countries Added Since 2015?

2026-04-27 22:06:25

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This graphic tracks the share of clean electricity—defined as nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and other renewables—across the world’s largest economies by GDP.

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How Much Clean Energy Have Countries Added Since 2015?

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

Key Takeaways

  • The UK, Japan, and Germany have added the most clean electricity since 2015.
  • France remains the cleanest electricity system, already above 90%.
  • India and Russia have seen the slowest progress in shifting their energy mix.

The shift to clean electricity is accelerating—but not evenly across the world’s largest economies.

This chart ranks how much each country has increased its share of clean power since 2015, revealing clear leaders and laggards in the global energy transition.

Using data from Ember and IMF DataMapper, the visualization tracks electricity generated from nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, and other renewables across the top 10 economies by GDP as of January 2026.

Europe Pulls Ahead in Clean Power Growth

European economies dominate the rankings for clean energy gains. The UK leads all major economies, increasing its clean electricity share by 19.5 percentage points since 2015, followed closely by Germany.

Italy has followed a similar path, replacing coal with a mix of renewables and natural gas. Meanwhile, France maintained its position as a global leader, with over 90% of its electricity coming from clean sources, largely due to its long-standing reliance on nuclear power.

Country Clean Energy (2015) Clean Energy (2024) Change (p.p.)
🇺🇸 United States 33.2% 41.9% +8.7
🇨🇳 China 26.9% 38.2% +11.3
🇩🇪 Germany 43.9% 58.5% +14.6
🇯🇵 Japan 15.4% 31.3% +15.9
🇬🇧 United Kingdom 45.4% 64.9% +19.5
🇮🇳 India 17.5% 22.5% +5.0
🇫🇷 France 92.1% 94.9% +2.8
🇮🇹 Italy 38.9% 50.2% +11.3
🇷🇺 Russia 34.0% 35.9% +1.9
🇧🇷 Brazil 76.7% 89.4% +12.7

The gap between leaders and laggards is now stark. The UK and Japan have added over 15 percentage points of clean electricity since 2015, while Russia and India have added less than 5—underscoring how uneven the transition remains.

Mixed Progress in Asia’s Largest Economies

Asia shows a mixed pace of change. China has made double-digit gains in clean electricity share, but surging demand means coal use has still grown in absolute terms.

India’s transition has been slower, with clean energy rising modestly to just over 22%. Japan, on the other hand, saw one of the largest increases in clean share, reflecting a gradual restart of nuclear power alongside renewable expansion after the Fukushima disaster.

The U.S. and Others Show Diverging Trends

The United States sits in the middle of the pack, with steady but less dramatic gains. Growth in wind and solar has lifted its clean share, but continued reliance on natural gas has slowed the overall pace of transition compared to European peers.

Russia, meanwhile, showed minimal change, with its electricity mix remaining relatively stable over the decade.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Ranked: The Countries Building the Most Nuclear Power on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Mapped: Where Americans Keep the Most of Their Paycheck

2026-04-27 19:45:50

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Map showing how much income Americans keep after tax and major expense categories by state.

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Mapped: Where Americans Keep the Most of Their Paycheck

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.

Key Takeaways

  • Midwestern states lead, with households keeping about one-third of their income after essentials.
  • In the least affordable states, families keep as little as 9–11%.
  • The gap between top and bottom states exceeds $2,000 per month in disposable income.

How much of your paycheck do you actually keep?

In some states, families keep about a third of their income after covering essentials and taxes. In others, almost all of it goes toward bills.

Using data from the Common Sense Institute, this map shows the share of income a median U.S. family of four has left after paying for housing, food, childcare, insurance, and taxes.

In top-ranked states like Iowa, households keep nearly 35% of their income, about $2,900 per month. In Hawaii, that figure drops to just 9%. That’s a difference of more than $2,000 per month in disposable income.

Ranked: The States Where Your Paycheck Goes the Furthest

Midwestern states dominate the rankings, largely due to lower housing and childcare costs.

Iowa ranks first, with households keeping 34.7% of their income, followed by South Dakota (34.6%) and North Dakota (33.5%).

This table shows the share of income left for a median-income family of four in 2025, after accounting for shelter, utilities, groceries, health and car insurance, childcare, and gas. Taxes reflect combined state and federal income taxes.

Rank State Share of Income Left After Expenses and Taxes
1 Iowa 34.7%
2 South Dakota 34.6%
3 North Dakota 33.5%
4 Kansas 33.4%
5 Alaska 33.3%
6 Ohio 31.7%
7 Missouri 31.5%
8 Wyoming 31.3%
9 Mississippi 30.9%
10 Kentucky 29.5%
11 Indiana 29.1%
12 Arkansas 29.0%
13 West Virginia 28.7%
14 Tennessee 28.3%
15 New Mexico 27.7%
16 Vermont 27.4%
17 Alabama 27.2%
18 Washington 26.7%
19 Idaho 26.5%
20 Minnesota 26.2%
21 Montana 26.1%
22 Michigan 25.7%
23 North Carolina 25.4%
24 Georgia 25.3%
25 Connecticut 25.2%
26 Virginia 25.0%
27 New Hampshire 24.7%
28 Illinois 24.3%
29 Oklahoma 24.2%
30 Wisconsin 24.0%
31 Pennsylvania 23.8%
32 Louisiana 23.8%
33 South Carolina 23.8%
34 Utah 23.6%
35 Texas 23.6%
36 Nebraska 23.5%
37 Delaware 22.4%
38 Maine 21.5%
39 Nevada 21.2%
40 Maryland 20.5%
41 New Jersey 20.4%
42 Colorado 20.2%
43 Rhode Island 20.0%
44 Arizona 19.6%
45 Florida 18.1%
46 Oregon 16.8%
47 New York 16.2%
48 Massachusetts 16.0%
49 California 10.9%
50 Hawaii 9.0%
-- 🇺🇸 U.S. Average 24.7%

Several other states, including Ohio, Missouri, and Wyoming, also rank near the top, with residents keeping around 30% or more of their income.

Texas stands out as the most affordable large state, yet still ranks just 39th overall. Despite having no state income tax, lower median incomes and rising living costs limit how much households actually keep. Taxes alone don’t define affordability.

Where Americans Keep the Least Income After Bills

In the least affordable states, families spend up to 91% of their income on essentials and taxes, leaving little room for savings or unexpected expenses.

Hawaii families are most strained, with 9% of income left, followed by California at 10.9%. Between 2019 and 2025, California households saw one of the largest declines in affordability across states.

Massachusetts, despite high incomes, ranks near the bottom. Childcare alone consumes 24% of household income, showing how a single cost category can erode income advantages.

Rising Costs Across Basic Necessities

Household budgets have tightened in recent years.

Since 2019, essential expenses have risen by about $15,400 per year for the average family. While incomes increased 30.7% over the same period, most of those gains were offset by higher costs:

  • Shelter and utilities: +33.9%
  • Groceries: +25.1%
  • Health insurance: +22.8%
  • Car insurance: +40.9%
  • Gas: +16.5%
  • Childcare: +39%

For many households, higher earnings haven’t increased flexibility. They’ve just kept up.

As costs continue to rise unevenly across regions, where Americans live is becoming one of the biggest determinants of financial stability, potentially reshaping migration patterns, housing demand, and long-term economic opportunity.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the number of years it takes to save for a home by state.

Europe’s $32 Trillion Economy, by Country

2026-04-27 14:44:22

Europe’s $32 Trillion Economy, by Country

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

Key Takeaways

  • Germany leads Europe’s economy in 2026 with $5.4 trillion in projected GDP.
  • The UK ($4.3 trillion) and France ($3.6 trillion) rank second and third, respectively.
  • Europe’s six largest economies account for over $20 trillion in output.

Europe’s economy is projected to reach $32.3 trillion in nominal GDP in 2026, but a large share of that output is concentrated in just a handful of countries.

This graphic breaks down each European country by its projected 2026 nominal GDP, using data from the April 2026 update of the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook.

Germany is the continent’s largest economy, followed by the UK and France, while Italy, Russia, and Spain complete the group of Europe’s six biggest economies.

Europe’s Biggest Economies Are Still in the West

Europe’s economic core remains firmly in the west, where Germany, the UK, and France together generate over $13 trillion in output.

Rank Country 2026 Nominal GDP (billions $)
1 🇩🇪 Germany 5,453
2 🇬🇧 United Kingdom 4,265
3 🇫🇷 France 3,596
4 🇮🇹 Italy 2,738
5 🇷🇺 Russia 2,656
6 🇪🇸 Spain 2,091
7 🇳🇱 Netherlands 1,450
8 🇨🇭 Switzerland 1,147
9 🇵🇱 Poland 1,134
10 🇮🇪 Ireland 779
11 🇧🇪 Belgium 777
12 🇸🇪 Sweden 760
13 🇦🇹 Austria 624
14 🇳🇴 Norway 599
15 🇩🇰 Denmark 504
16 🇷🇴 Romania 481
17 🇨🇿 Czechia 433
18 🇵🇹 Portugal 381
19 🇫🇮 Finland 338
20 🇬🇷 Greece 308
21 🇭🇺 Hungary 271
22 🇺🇦 Ukraine 225
23 🇸🇰 Slovakia 169
24 🇧🇬 Bulgaria 148
25 🇭🇷 Croatia 117
26 🇷🇸 Serbia 112
27 🇱🇺 Luxembourg 110
28 🇱🇹 Lithuania 106
29 🇧🇾 Belarus 102
30 🇸🇮 Slovenia 87
31 🇱🇻 Latvia 54
32 🇪🇪 Estonia 52
33 🇨🇾 Cyprus 45
34 🇮🇸 Iceland 44
35 🇧🇦 Bosnia & Herzegovina 37
36 🇦🇱 Albania 33
37 🇲🇹 Malta 31
38 🇲🇩 Moldova 22
39 🇲🇰 North Macedonia 22
40 🇽🇰 Kosovo 14
41 🇲🇪 Montenegro 10
-- All of Europe 32,323

France, Germany, and the UK built their economic strength through early industrialization and decades of diversification across manufacturing, finance, and services.

The UK’s economic transformation then spread to neighboring Western European countries, which became industrial heavyweights of their own. The three Benelux countries of Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, for example, have a combined GDP of over $2.2 trillion.

The Energy Giants of Europe

In contrast to the role played by industry in Britain and Germany, or agriculture in France, energy is a major driver of Russia’s large economy ($2.7 trillion).

Russia is a major energy producer, with hydrocarbons like oil and natural gas making up over half of the country’s exports. Despite not being part of OPEC, which helps regulate oil prices, Moscow is often an active participant in discussions shaping oil markets.

The second-largest economy in Northern Europe is also a major oil and gas player. Despite having a population of around 5 million people, Norway’s economy is just shy of $600 billion, supported by its impressive energy reserves.

The Rise of Southern Europe

While northwestern Europe still dominates overall output, growth momentum is shifting south, where economies like Spain and Portugal are expanding faster than their larger peers.

Today, Southern Europe hosts dynamic economies like Spain ($2.1 trillion) and Portugal ($381 billion), which are projected to grow by roughly 2% each in 2026, more than double the rates of peers like France and Germany.

This shift has been supported by the post-COVID recovery in tourism, greater energy self-sufficiency, and higher public investment.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Since 1960, Singapore has risen from 3x poorer than Western Europe to twice as rich on Voronoi.Use This Visualization

AI Week: 6 Insights Shaping the AI Economy

2026-04-27 11:58:24

AI WEEK IS HERE ONLY ON VISUAL CAPITALIST APRIL 20-26 SPONSORED BY TERZO

Artificial intelligence is no longer just a story about models. It is also a story about infrastructure, chips, enterprise adoption, and the growing role AI is playing in how businesses operate and how content gets created.

For AI Week, we partnered with Terzo to explore the infrastructure, markets, and adoption patterns shaping the AI economy.

From hyperscaler spending to business usage and the rise of AI-generated content, the series revealed how quickly AI is reshaping business and technology. Below, we’ve compiled six key takeaways.

1. AI Usage by Businesses by State in 2026

The preview image for a U.S. map showing which states have the largest share of businesses using AI.

Geography still shapes technology adoption, and this map shows where businesses are using AI the most across America and how that usage varies from state to state.

👉Explore the map

2. AI Chip Sales by Company

The preview image for a ranking of companies by their AI chip sales in Q4 2025, using data from Epoch AI.

Behind every leading AI model is a massive amount of computing power, and this graphic compares the companies supplying that capacity with a financial lens.

👉See the ranking

3. Big Tech AI Spending Over Time

The preview image for a stacked area graph showing big tech company capex spending over time, using data from Epoch AI.

From cloud giants to data center buildouts, this graphic tracks how AI-driven capital spending has evolved across the biggest tech companies and why that surge matters for the future of infrastructure.

👉See the graphic

4. Which AI Models Are Businesses Paying For?

A stacked area chart showing the share of U.S. businesses paying for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, and DeepSeek AI models from January 2023 through early 2026.

Using business payment data over time, this chart shows how the enterprise AI market is evolving and which model providers are gaining traction with paying customers.

👉View the chart

5. The Smartest AI Models in 2026

The preview image for a bar chart showing the IQ scores of each AI model in 2026, using data from Tracking AI.

Measured against a well-known IQ-style benchmark, this ranking offers a snapshot of how leading AI models stack up on abstract reasoning tasks at this stage of the race.

👉View the ranking

6. Content Created by Humans vs. AI

The preview image for a line graph showing, over time, the percentage of content that is AI-generated, using data from Graphite.

Online publishing is changing quickly, and this graphic shows how the balance between human- and AI-written articles has shifted over time in a large sample of web content.

👉See the comparison

Looking Ahead: The AI Economy Is Expanding Fast

Taken together, these visuals point to a larger trend: AI is no longer confined to research labs or product demos. It is now influencing how companies spend, how hardware markets are valued, how enterprises choose tools, and how digital content is produced.

Terzo is helping spotlight the data behind this shift through AI Week, our sponsored series on the infrastructure, markets, and adoption patterns shaping the next phase of artificial intelligence.