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2026-02-19 23:22:36

Charted: The Growth of $100 by Asset Class (1965–2025)

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What would $100 invested in 1965 be worth today? For stocks, it would’ve multiplied 435 times, but other asset classes have significantly lower returns.

Here’s how each asset class performed over 60 years, based on data from NYU Stern professor Aswath Damodaran.

Stocks reflect S&P 500 total returns with dividends reinvested, real estate follows the Case-Shiller Home Price Index (price only), and cash represents three-month U.S. Treasury bills.

Stocks Outperform Other Asset Classes Since 1965

The table below shows the nominal (before inflation) returns of a $100 investment across six major asset classes between 1965 and 2025, with values representing the investment’s value at year-end:

Numbers have been rounded. S&P 500 includes dividends. Cash represented by 3-Month U.S. T-Bills. Corporate Bonds represented by Baa corporate bonds. Real Estate represented by the Case-Shiller Home Price Index. | As of Dec-31-2025

Stocks can build wealth faster than other major assets because company profits tend to grow over time, dividends can be reinvested, and returns compound.

The trade-off is risk and volatility as stock prices can swing sharply up and down.

In this 60-year window, a large share of equity gains happened during two major bull cycles.

Two big bull runs drove most stock gains: 1982–2000 (about 17x) and the post-2008 rebound (about 10x), so missing either one could’ve significantly dampened investment returns.

How Drawdowns and Recoveries Affect Returns

Every asset class has faced major drawdowns and recoveries, but stocks were often the fastest to recover.

In 2008, equities fell 37% in a single year, then rebounded to new highs in roughly four years as aggressive Fed support steadied markets.

After the COVID-19 shock, bonds—long seen as a safe haven—suffered their worst two-year stretch in decades.

Gold saw the longest dry spell: after its 1980 peak, it took 26 years just to break even as high real rates and a strong dollar dragged on returns. Once it finally cleared that level, it nearly doubled again by 2011.

Real estate also took time after its major drawdown—after the housing bust in 2008/2009, prices needed about a decade to fully recover.

Together, these cycles show that while no asset class is immune to deep losses, recovery timelines can vary dramatically—and patience often matters as much as diversification.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about stock performance over the last 152 years, check out this graphic on Voronoi which plots out each year’s S&P 500 return.

2026-02-19 21:02:59

Mapped: Job Growth in Every U.S. State in 2025

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In 2025, employment growth across the U.S. was modest overall, with 14 states ending the year with fewer jobs than they had in December 2024. At the same time, several Southern states posted some of the strongest gains in the country.

This map shows how payroll employment changed in all 50 states between December 2024 and December 2025, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data via Arizona State University.

Missouri recorded the fastest growth rate at 1.7%, while New Hampshire saw the steepest decline at 0.8%. Overall, 14 states ended the year with fewer jobs than they had in December 2024.

Job Growth by State in 2025

Below, we show the change in employment between December 2024 and December 2025:

Missouri’s 1.7% increase was driven largely by health services and private education, along with leisure and hospitality. Trade, transportation, and utilities saw declines.

North Carolina followed with 1.5% job growth. Construction led job gains in the state, growing by nearly 5%, supported by major investments from Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.

Given the state’s ample land and power, it hosts 40 data centers, with several others announced or under construction.

Texas added the most jobs overall in 2025, increasing payrolls by 120,700. As a growing hub for high-value manufacturing, finance, and tech, the state has created about 20% of new jobs in the U.S. over the past five years.

By comparison, Maryland shed the most jobs in 2025, dropping by 14,200, with a significant share being federal employees. It lost more federal workers than any other state, significantly dragging down overall job growth.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on unemployment by state in 2025.

2026-02-19 02:22:51

Ranked: The Biggest Buyers and Sellers of U.S. Debt (2025)

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.

Each year, the U.S. relies on investors to finance its growing debt, which stood at $38.6 trillion as of February 2026.

Both domestic and overseas investors buy this debt, with foreign holders of U.S. Treasuries owning a record $9.4 trillion of the total. While U.S. debt pays well due to its high yields currently, some countries, like China, have been selling their U.S. Treasury holdings.

This chart shows the countries that are the 20 largest buyers and sellers of U.S. Treasury securities from November 2024 to November 2025, based on data from the U.S. Treasury Department.

Europe and Japan Lead U.S. Treasury Buying

The table below shows the top countries buying U.S. Treasuries from November 2024 to November 2025, in both the U.S. dollar value and percentage change in relation to their Treasury holdings:

Rank	Country	Change in U.S. Treasury Holdings (Millions, Nov 2024 - Nov 2025)	Percentage Change
1	United Kingdom	$121,613	16%
2	Belgium	$119,704	33%
3	Japan	$115,528	11%
4	Canada	$99,835	27%
5	Norway	$56,335	35%
6	France	$43,538	13%
7	United Arab Emirates	$30,335	41%
8	Taiwan	$26,539	9%
9	Cayman Islands	$22,131	5%
10	Israel	$20,265	23%
11	Singapore	$19,934	8%
12	Spain	$17,619	27%
13	South Korea	$17,605	14%
14	Kuwait	$13,643	27%
15	Saudi Arabia	$13,283	10%
16	Bermuda	$12,883	14%
17	Thailand	$10,061	14%
18	Germany	$9,699	10%
19	Luxembourg	$7,811	2%
20	Australia	$7,158	11%

Three countries top $100 billion on the buyer side. The UK led at $122 billion, followed by Belgium and Japan, each within $6 billion of that mark. Canada and Norway rounded out the top five.

Together, these five accounted for roughly 65% of the $786 billion in total purchases.

Belgium’s 33% surge looks dramatic, but it is largely technical.

Brussels hosts Euroclear, a major clearinghouse that holds bonds on behalf of investors across Europe. Hence, the number can indicate where the debt is held rather than who actually purchased it.

The same logic applies to other financial hubs, such as the UK, the Cayman Islands, and Luxembourg.

China, Brazil, and India Lead U.S. Treasury Selling

The table below largest sellers of U.S. Treasuries from November 2024 to November 2025, in both the U.S. dollar value and percentage change in relation to their Treasury holdings:

Rank	Country	Change in U.S. Treasury Holdings (Millions, Nov 2024 - Nov 2025)	Percentage Change
1	China	-$85,960	-11%
2	Brazil	-$60,847	-27%
3	India	-$47,517	-20%
4	British Virgin Islands	-$38,956	-32%
5	Bahamas	-$13,822	-35%
6	Mexico	-$13,320	-13%
7	Hong Kong	-$9,821	-4%
8	South Africa	-$6,356	-39%
9	Indonesia	-$4,865	-14%
10	Netherlands	-$4,750	-6%
11	Portugal	-$3,959	-66%
12	Ireland	-$2,876	-1%
13	Denmark	-$2,663	-21%
14	Philippines	-$2,246	-3%
15	Colombia	-$1,780	-4%
16	Ecuador	-$647	-35%
17	Sweden	-$637	-1%
18	Austria	-$361	-5%
19	Barbados	-$257	-8%
20	Trinidad and Tobago	-$249	-6%

China shed $86 billion in Treasuries, a further 11% annual decline that continues a multiyear reduction in U.S. debt holdings as Beijing diversifies its reserves into gold and other assets.

Other BRICS countries, such as Brazil and India, also cut their holdings by a combined $108 billion.

That move partly reflects governments’ efforts to defend their own currencies by drawing on dollar reserves, but could also point to a continuous trend of de-dollarization.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about the U.S. debt, check out this graphic which visualizes it all in one dollar bills on Voronoi.

2026-02-19 00:46:00

Published

24 hours ago

on

February 18, 2026

By

Julia Wendling

Graphics & Design

• Athul Alexander

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Mapped: The U.S. States Building the Most Homes in the Fire Line

   

Key Takeaways

• Urban growth is expanding directly into wildfire-prone areas, increasing structural exposure.
       
• The wildland–urban interface (WUI) now includes nearly one-third of U.S. homes, concentrating risk along fire lines.
       
• Each new home in the WUI compounds insurance and recovery challenges, raising costs for mitigation, protection, and rebuilding.
       

Urban sprawl is increasingly colliding with climate risk, as more and more homes are being built into the fire line.

This visualization, created in partnership with Inigo, provides visual context to the risk of urban sprawl. Data is from the U.S. Fire Administration.

Growth Is Pushing Housing Into Fire Zones

According to the U.S. Fire Administration, nearly one-third of all U.S. homes now sit in the wildland–urban interface (WUI). These are areas where human development meets high-risk burn zones.

State	Number of homes in WUI
California	5,089,397
Texas	3,173,293
Florida	2,586,713
North Carolina	2,113,853
Pennsylvania	1,967,753
Georgia	1,920,046
New York	1,686,022
Arizona	1,461,103
Virginia	1,389,800
South Carolina	1,312,624
Alabama	1,271,160
Massachusetts	1,225,594
Colorado	1,080,835
Michigan	1,064,107
Washington	1,043,366
Tennessee	927,138
New Jersey	884,114
Louisiana	879,906
Ohio	787,712
Connecticut	765,301
Mississippi	725,748
West Virginia	665,808
Maryland	657,306
Oklahoma	651,632
New Mexico	640,093
Oregon	601,454
Kentucky	594,334
Wisconsin	585,984
Maine	579,101
Utah	572,967
Nevada	571,013
Arkansas	557,920
Missouri	518,985
Hawaii	508,193
New Hampshire	493,741
Minnesota	440,237
Illinois	396,295
Montana	321,816
Indiana	320,704
Idaho	297,386
Vermont	236,060
Alaska	219,319
Wyoming	217,708
Kansas	170,952
Rhode Island	145,597
South Dakota	101,947
Nebraska	99,310
Iowa	73,265
North Dakota	57,231
Delaware	44,350
District of Columbia	980

As housing demand rises, construction has accelerated fastest in regions already prone to wildfire. Since 1990, states such as California, Texas, and Florida have each added more than a million homes within the WUI. Most commonly, there are near forests and grasslands that are drying out under rising temperatures and prolonged drought.

Why the WUI Is a Growing Risk Frontier

This expansion doesn’t just raise the likelihood of loss, it multiplies exposure. Every additional home in the WUI increases the cost and complexity of fire protection, evacuation, and recovery, creating a compounding challenge for insurers, reinsurers, and property risk managers.

As development continues along the fire line, mitigation (through land-use planning, building codes, and defensible space) may become the defining frontier of U.S. housing risk. Understanding where and why these overlaps occur is critical for assessing future property exposure.

Explore the data behind emerging global property risks.

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2026-02-18 23:16:56

Ranked: China’s Largest Trading Partners in 2025

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.

China’s trade engine continues to expand, but the geography of that growth is shifting.

In 2025, total trade exceeded $6.3 trillion, driving a record $1.2 trillion surplus as exports outpaced relatively flat imports. While the U.S. remained China’s largest trading partner, trade momentum increasingly tilted toward Southeast Asia.

At the same time, strains are emerging in Europe. German car exports to China have dropped 66% since 2022, reflecting intensifying competition in the world’s largest auto market.

This graphic shows the country’s largest trading partners in 2025, based on data from China’s General Administration of Customs.

The U.S. Remains China’s Largest Trading Partner

At $560 billion in total trade, the U.S. accounted for 8.8% of China’s global trade in 2025. However, bilateral trade declined 18.7% year over year amid escalating tariff tensions.

Rank	Country	Trade Value 2025	Share 2025	Change 2024-2025
1	U.S.	$560B	8.8%	-18.7%
2	Hong Kong SAR	$367B	5.8%	18.9%
3	South Korea	$331B	5.2%	1.2%
4	Japan	$322B	5.1%	4.5%
5	Taiwan	$314B	5.0%	7.3%
6	Vietnam	$296B	4.7%	13.7%
7	Russia	$228B	3.6%	-6.9%
8	Germany	$211B	3.3%	4.6%
9	Australia	$207B	3.3%	-2.3%
10	Malaysia	$192B	3.0%	-9.6%
11	Brazil	$188B	3.0%	-0.1%
12	Indonesia	$167B	2.6%	13.4%
13	India	$156B	2.4%	12.4%
14	Thailand	$153B	2.4%	14.4%
15	Singapore	$119B	1.9%	7.5%
16	Netherlands	$114B	1.8%	3.9%
17	Mexico	$109B	1.7%	0.0%
18	Saudi Arabia	$108B	1.7%	0.5%
19	UAE	$108B	1.7%	6.0%
20	UK	$104B	1.6%	5.3%

Hong Kong ranked second at $367 billion, followed by South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan—all of which saw modest trade growth.

Meanwhile, Vietnam posted a 13.7% increase in bilateral trade, part of a broader surge in trade across the ASEAN region. Chinese exports to Africa also rose 25.8% year over year.

Europe’s Auto Weakness Stands Out

China-Germany trade reached $211 billion in 2025, up 4.6% overall. However, German exports to China fell 9.3% during the year.

Much of that decline reflects weakness in autos. Since 2022, German car exports to China have fallen 66%, raising pressure on manufacturers as domestic Chinese brands gain share.

India ranked 12th overall with $156 billion in trade, posting double-digit growth alongside Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the top import partner of each U.S. state.

2026-02-18 21:03:31

The World’s Data Centers by Country (2026)

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.

Data centers power everything from streaming and cloud storage to the AI systems reshaping industries. When it comes to scale, one country stands far ahead.

The U.S. has 3,960 data centers in this dataset—more than the next 14 countries combined.

The map above, based on data from Data Center Map, counts operational facilities by country, from small cloud hubs to sprawling colocation campuses. While totals vary by methodology, the concentration of infrastructure in a few major economies is unmistakable.

U.S. Leads by a Wide Margin

With nearly four thousand data centers in this dataset, the U.S. is the world’s largest data center market.

Country	Data Centers
USA	3,960
United Kingdom	498
Germany	470
China	365
France	335
Canada	285
India	275
Australia	268
Japan	249
Italy	206
Brazil	198
Spain	189
The Netherlands	186
Indonesia	184
Russia	178
Ireland	128
Switzerland	113
Sweden	110
Malaysia	109
Poland	97
Finland	90
Norway	87
South Korea	86
Hong Kong	85
Denmark	81
Turkey	76
Chile	66
Singapore	65
Israel	65
Romania	63
Mexico	62
South Africa	61
Thailand	59
Saudi Arabia	58
United Arab Emirates	57
New Zealand	57
Czech Republic	54
Austria	53
Belgium	48
Portugal	44
Argentina	43
Colombia	41
Vietnam	41
Ukraine	37
Taiwan	37
Philippines	36
Bulgaria	31
Pakistan	30
Greece	25
Latvia	24
Nigeria	23
Iran	20
Slovenia	20
Lithuania	19
Kenya	19
Cyprus	18
Hungary	17
Panama	17
Oman	16
Luxembourg	16
Kazakhstan	15
Bangladesh	15
Croatia	15
Morocco	14
Peru	14
Serbia	13
Egypt	13
Slovakia	13
Estonia	12
Iceland	12
Costa Rica	12
Tanzania	11
Qatar	11
Angola	10
Nepal	10
Cambodia	10
Malta	10
Mauritius	10
Uruguay	10
Ecuador	9
Ghana	8
Puerto Rico	8
Jordan	8
Bahrain	8
Paraguay	7
Guatemala	7
Mongolia	7
Senegal	7
Macedonia	7
Venezuela	7
Liechtenstein	7
Ethiopia	6
Uzbekistan	6
Moldova	6
Ivory Coast	6
Mozambique	6
Gibraltar	6
Algeria	6
Isle of Man	6
Libya	6
Botswana	5
Bolivia	5
Trinidad and Tobago	5
Myanmar	5
Reunion	5
Kuwait	5
Jersey	5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	4
Sri Lanka	4
DR Congo	4
Uganda	4
Tunisia	4
Albania	4
Honduras	4
Georgia	4
Bahamas	4
Brunei	4
Guam	3
El Salvador	3
New Caledonia	3
Dominican Republic	3
Madagascar	3
Monaco	3
Djibouti	3
Curacao	3
Rwanda	3
Zambia	3
Kyrgyzstan	3
Nicaragua	3
Azerbaijan	3
Bhutan	3
Guernsey	3
Maldives	3
Andorra	3
Zimbabwe	3
Armenia	2
Namibia	2
French Polynesia	2
Belarus	2
Togo	2
Cameroon	2
Jamaica	2
Afghanistan	2
Bermuda	2
Laos	2
Lebanon	2
Sudan	2
Cayman Islands	2
Suriname	2
Greenland	2
Lesotho	2
Mayotte	1
Iraq	1
Guyana	1
Syria	1
Martinique	1
Guinea	1
Burkina Faso	1
Macau	1
French Guiana	1
Malawi	1
Papua New Guinea	1
Republic of the Congo	1
Palestine	1
Gabon	1
Mali	1
Equatorial Guinea	1
Eswatini	1
Kosovo	1
Solomon Islands	1
Seychelles	1
Sierra Leone	1
Somalia	1
US Virgin Islands	1

This U.S. dominance reflects heavy investment by major cloud providers and tech companies. Years of hyperscaler investment help explain why much of the world’s cloud and AI capacity is built in the country.

Some other industry estimates place the U.S. total above 5,000 facilities, reflecting differences in how data centers are defined and counted.

Europe’s Strong Presence

Europe represents the second-largest concentration of data centers globally. The United Kingdom, Germany, and France each have hundreds of data centers. These nations host key internet exchange points and serve as hubs for multinational cloud and IT services.

Other countries like the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden also maintain strong data center footprints.

Growing Markets in Asia and Beyond

Asia’s footprint is expanding rapidly, led by China, Japan, and India. Rising digital demand and cloud adoption are driving continued expansion across major Asian markets.

Emerging economies also appear on the list, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and South Korea. Meanwhile, smaller countries like Singapore and Hong Kong punch above their weight due to strategic connectivity and business-friendly environments.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Charted: The Jobs Most Exposed to Generative AI on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.