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2026-04-30 12:49:10

Mapped: Where Young Adults Use Social Media Most in Europe

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Social media use among young adults (aged 16–29) in Europe is nearing saturation, with many countries approaching universal adoption.

But two of Europe’s largest economies stand apart.

Data from Eurostat and Ofcom shows a clear gap. While countries in Northern Europe and the Balkans lead, major economies like Germany (84.2%) and Italy (80.3%) lag behind their peers.

Nearly Universal Adoption With Two Exceptions

In countries like Denmark or Czechia, social media use is close to universal among young adults.

Germany and Italy break from this pattern, highlighting how cultural and structural factors continue to shape digital behavior.

Below is the full ranking of 34 European countries by social media use among young adults:

Rank	Country	Use of Social Networks in 2025 among young adults
1	Cyprus	98.3
2	North Macedonia	97.7
3	Czechia	97.2
4	Serbia	97.2
5	UK	97.0
6	Denmark	96.9
7	Finland	96.6
8	Austria	96.1
9	Montenegro	96.1
10	Switzerland	95.8
11	Norway	95.7
12	Ireland	94.4
13	Netherlands	94.2
14	France	93.9
15	Latvia	93.8
16	Turkey	93.4
17	Romania	92.1
18	Malta	91.9
19	Spain	91.6
20	Portugal	91.6
21	Estonia	91.4
22	Hungary	91.1
23	Slovenia	91.0
24	Croatia	90.7
25	Greece	90.6
26	Poland	90.5
27	Lithuania	89.8
28	Bulgaria	89.4
29	Slovakia	88.7
30	Sweden	88.4
31	Belgium	88.3
32	Luxembourg	84.8
33	Germany	84.2
34	Italy	80.3
--	Average	92.4

Cyprus and North Macedonia have the highest rates of young-adult social media use in Europe, followed closely by Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Serbia, and the United Kingdom.

In these countries, social media functions as essential infrastructure, used for everything from coordinating study groups to maintaining social circles. Being offline can make young people effectively invisible in networks that increasingly operate online.

Germany and Italy: The Exceptions

While social media use exceeds 90% across much of Europe, Germany and Italy stand apart.

Germany, Europe’s largest economy, has 84.2% of young adults on social media, well below many of its neighbors. Italy is lower still at 80.3%, meaning one in five young adults are not on any social platform, the highest share on the continent.

In Germany, stricter privacy norms shaped by GDPR have contributed to a more cautious approach to online presence. Policymakers are even considering restrictions on youth access, with leaders citing the dangers of online socialization.

In Italy, lower usage may reflect a stronger role for offline social life. Everyday interactions, from evening strolls to time spent in cafes, continue to provide alternatives to digital connection.

Migration’s Relationship With Social Media

High social media use in the Balkans is partly linked to emigration.

Roughly a quarter of Western Balkan citizens, for example, move abroad in search of higher wages and better job opportunities. For families split across different countries or even different continents, social media plays a key role in maintaining communication.

Diaspora has helped social media usage overcome the digital skepticism seen in countries like Germany or Italy.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out the We’re Spending More Time Watching Videos on Social Media on Voronoi.

2026-04-30 01:47:57

America Now Spends More on Interest Than Defense

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For the first time since the late 1920s, the U.S. is spending more on interest payments than on national defense.

That shift marks a turning point in federal priorities. As debt levels climb and borrowing costs rise, interest payments are taking up a growing share of the budget—projected to hit $2.1 trillion by 2036, far outpacing defense spending.

This chart compares annual U.S. net interest payments and defense outlays from 1996 to 2036, based on data from the White House and projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as of February 2026.

U.S. Interest vs. Defense Spending (1996–2036P)

In 2024, U.S. interest payments reached $879.9 billion, surpassing defense spending of $850.7 billion.

Projections through 2036 show interest payments continuing to pull ahead, even as defense spending rises.

The table below shows how annual U.S. net interest payments and defense spending changed from 1996 to 2025, along with projections from 2026 to 2036:

How Interest Overtook Defense Spending

Between 1996 and 2001, U.S. defense spending averaged about 30% higher than net interest costs, as falling interest rates and budget surpluses kept debt servicing relatively low.

That gap widened sharply after 9/11. Military spending doubled over the following decade, reaching $699 billion in 2011, while interest costs rose more slowly to $230 billion.

During the low-interest-rate era of the 2010s, borrowing costs stayed low even as federal debt nearly doubled—from $9.0 trillion in 2010 to $16.8 trillion in 2019—masking the long-term cost of that debt.

After COVID-19, that dynamic reversed. A surge in borrowing combined with higher interest rates pushed debt servicing costs sharply higher, with net interest outlays nearly tripling to $970 billion by 2025.

At a projected $1.0 trillion in 2026, America’s net interest bill is set to become the fastest-growing major budget item.

By 2036, net interest outlays will more than double to $2.1 trillion, while defense spending is projected to reach $1.1 trillion.

If current projections hold, the U.S. will spend far more on servicing its debt than on national defense within a decade, raising questions about how future budgets will balance economic stability, security, and growth.

Why This Shift Matters

This crossover isn’t just symbolic. It marks a fundamental shift in how the U.S. allocates its resources—toward servicing past borrowing rather than funding current priorities.

As interest costs rise, a growing share of federal spending is effectively locked in, reducing flexibility for areas like defense, infrastructure, and research. Over time, this can crowd out new investments and make it harder for policymakers to respond to economic downturns or emerging challenges.

In other words, higher interest payments don’t just reflect rising debt—they actively shape what the government can afford to do next.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about which NATO countries dominate defense spending, check out this graphic, which visualizes NATO countries by their estimated defense spending.

2026-04-29 23:33:00

Published

13 hours ago

on

April 29, 2026

By

Cody Good

Graphics & Design

• Athul Alexander

• Abha Patil

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The following content is sponsored by BullionVault

3 Costs Impacting Gold Returns

Key Takeaways

• Price premiums, including spreads and trading fees, directly impact how much value investors retain when buying and selling gold.
• Where gold investments are stored plays a critical role in shaping the cost, security, and overall value.
• Ongoing management fees, particularly in financial products, can reduce returns over time, giving physical gold a potential cost advantage as investments grow.

Commodity price spikes historically capture mass attention, but few have drawn as many eyes as gold. The metal has been on a record-setting bull run, making it a persistent topic of interest since at least 2023.

The historic, multi-year price rally raises an important consideration: how investors choose to access gold can significantly impact their returns. There are several different paths to gold investment, each with its own costs and benefits that shape overall performance.

This graphic, in partnership with BullionVault, shows the key cost factors that impact gold returns.

How to Invest in Gold

Every gold investment starts as a 400-troy-ounce wholesale bar. From this foundation, investors have three options, each with a distinct cost structure that can affect returns over time. They are:

1. Retail products, like coins and small bars
2. Financial products, such as ETFs
3. Wholesale bullion, often stored in professional vaults

Retail and wholesale investments allow for physical ownership of gold with the decision-making power over where and how the gold is held. In contrast, ETFs offer investors shares in a trust to gain easy access and exposure to the price of gold.

Across all methods, three key factors shape returns: price premiums, storage and insurance costs, and ongoing management fees.

The Hidden Premiums of Gold Investment

Every gold investment includes a premium, regardless of the path taken. This premium comes from two factors: the price spread and trading costs.

The price spread indicates the percentage gap between gold’s buy and sell price. It captures real-world costs like minting, shipping and delivery, and dealer markups.

Trading costs are the commissions and trading platform access fees, as a percentage of trade value. Together, these premiums determine how much value investors retain when entering or exiting a position.

Here is a table that shows how spreads and trading fees compare across different gold investment methods, using a baseline $10K investment.

Form	Cost
Coins	$800
Bars	$500
BullionVault	$115
ETF	$50
Investment Value	$10,000

Source: Daily Gold Price; ETF.com; BullionVault.

Minimizing these combined costs can help investors retain more capital when seeking gold exposure.

Gold Storage and Ownership Trade-offs

Where gold is kept directly affects the cost, security, and value of the investment. Storage options include homes with or without a safe, bank deposit boxes, and professional vaults.

This table shows what first-year storage costs can look like across methods using a $10K baseline:

Storage Option	Cost
Basic home safe	$1,985
Safety deposit box	$1,125
BullionVault	$48
ETF	$32
Investment Value	$10,000

Source: London Gold Exchange & BullionVault.

While home storage offers full control, it often requires additional spending on a safe and insurance. Bank deposit boxes may limit access and exclude insurance coverage.

Meanwhile, ETFs remove storage concerns but also eliminate ownership benefits, while charging expense ratios to cover the operating and management fees of the fund. In contrast, professional vaults can offer lower costs and stronger security through institutional-scale infrastructure.

Platforms like BullionVault, provide access to these vaults, passing on lower costs and economies of scale to individual investors.

Long-Term Cost Efficiency for Gold Investment

Across most metrics, ETFs often appear cheaper at the start, but their cost advantage can change as investments frow. Ongoing fees, though small, can compound and reduce returns over time.

The table below compares the weighted average monthly cost of ETF ownership with BullionVault’s monthly costs.

Investment Value	BV Storage Fee /Month	US Weighted Avg ETF (0.32%)
1000	4.00	0.27
5000	4.00	1.33
10000	4.00	2.67
15000	4.00	4.00
20000	4.00	5.33
25000	4.00	6.67
30000	4.00	8.00
35000	4.00	9.33
40000	4.00	10.67
45000	4.50	12.00
50000	5.00	13.33
55000	5.50	14.67
60000	6.00	16.00
65000	6.50	17.33
70000	7.00	18.67
75000	7.50	20.00
80000	8.00	21.33
85000	8.50	22.67
90000	9.00	24.00
95000	9.50	25.33
100000	10.00	26.67
Fee as a % of investment value	0.01% ($4 minimum)	0.32%

Source: BullionVault. *Average weighting based on each ETF’s gold holdings.

Based on this structure, once an investment exceeds $15K worth of gold, BullionVault can become more cost-efficient than the average U.S. ETF.

Ultimately, investors that reduce trading, storage, and management fees can retain more of gold’s value. BullionVault offers an easier way to buy, store and sell physical gold at wholesale prices, with access to five professional-market vaults worldwide.

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2026-04-29 22:22:48

Ranked: America’s Top Non-Ivy League Universities

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The Ivy League is often shorthand for elite higher education in the U.S., but many of America’s highest-ranked universities sit outside that group.

Two non-Ivy schools, MIT and Stanford, rank ahead of every Ivy League university in the 2026 QS World University Rankings.

This graphic ranks the top 25 non-Ivy League universities in the U.S. using 2026 data from QS World University Rankings, which scores universities based on academic reputation, research, employability, sustainability, and global engagement.

Surpassing the Ivy Leagues

MIT and Stanford are the clearest examples of how U.S. academic prestige extends beyond the Ivy League. Both rank ahead of every Ivy League university in the 2026 QS World University Rankings, with MIT earning a perfect score of 100 and Stanford scoring 98.9.

The following data table lists non-Ivy League universities in the U.S. alongside their QS score for 2026.

Decades of academic excellence have turned MIT and Stanford into intellectual centers that power their regions. More than 100 MIT alumni have gone on to win the Nobel Prize, and the university is best known for its contributions to engineering, science, and technology.

Meanwhile, Stanford played a key role in the mid-20th-century creation of Silicon Valley in the Bay Area. Its alumni include the presidents of six countries and multiple Supreme Court justices.

California’s Clear Concentration

California has the strongest showing of any state in the ranking, led by Stanford, Caltech, UC Berkeley, and UCLA. This concentration reflects the state’s mix of private research powerhouses and major public universities.

The UC system spans 10 campuses across the state and serves roughly 300,000 students. In addition to UC Berkeley, the Los Angeles (84.4), San Diego (76.9), and Davis (66.3) campuses are also world-renowned for their academic rigor and contributions to both STEM fields and the social sciences.

Alongside high-research universities like Caltech, the UC system has helped shape California’s reputation as a center of intellectual rigor and entrepreneurship.

Major Schools in the Midwest

While regions west of the Mississippi River have relatively few leading universities outside of Texas, Illinois anchors another hub of major non-Ivy colleges, especially around its largest city.

The University of Chicago (93) is the fourth-best non-Ivy school in the country. Founded by John D. Rockefeller in 1890, it served throughout the 20th century as a key center for law, nuclear research, chemistry, and political economy. Meanwhile, Northwestern University (85.1), located in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, counts nearly 50 Pulitzer Prize winners among its alumni.

Outside the Chicago area, the Midwest is home to leading universities such as the University of Michigan (84.7), Purdue University (71.1), and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (75.9).

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out the The U.S. Dominates the World University Ranking on Voronoi.

2026-04-29 19:38:42

Ranked: The World’s Largest Importers in 2025

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Despite rising trade tensions, the world’s largest economies remain deeply dependent on imports to function.

In 2025, the United States remained the world’s top importer, accounting for more than 13% of global goods imports. From energy and raw materials to finished products, global supply chains remain critical to both consumption and industrial output.

This graphic ranks the world’s 30 largest importers using the latest available data from the World Trade Organization.

The U.S. is the World’s Top Import Market

In 2025, the United States remained the world’s largest importer by a wide margin. The $3.5 trillion imported by the U.S. is nearly a trillion dollars more than second-place China ($2.6 trillion).

The massive surge in U.S. imports from countries like Canada, China, Japan, and Mexico in recent decades has led to Washington running an over $1 trillion trade deficit, larger than any other country. The strong U.S. dollar also makes imports cheaper—reinforcing America’s role as the world’s largest buyer of goods.

This data table lists the world’s top 30 largest importers alongside their total import value in 2025.

Rank	Country	Value (Billion USD)	Global Share (%)
1	United States	3,507	13.2
2	China	2,583	9.7
3	Germany	1,543	5.8
4	United Kingdom	949	3.6
5	Netherlands	870	3.3
6	Hong Kong	832	3.1
7	France	786	3.0
8	Japan	756	2.8
9	India	753	2.8
10	Mexico	683	2.6
11	Italy	669	2.5
12	South Korea	632	2.4
13	United Arab Emirates	619	2.3
14	Canada	577	2.2
15	Belgium	538	2.0
16	Spain	513	1.9
17	Switzerland	507	1.9
18	Singapore	506	1.9
19	Taiwan	494	1.9
20	Vietnam	454	1.7
21	Poland	421	1.6
22	Turkey	365	1.4
23	Thailand	345	1.3
24	Malaysia	340	1.3
25	Australia	311	1.2
26	Russia	303	1.1
27	Brazil	294	1.1
28	Saudi Arabia	254	1.0
29	Czech Republic	253	1.0
30	Indonesia	242	0.9
--	Top 30 Importers	21,899	82.5

Many across the U.S. push for the country to reduce its imports and produce more domestically, particularly in manufacturing. High-value goods such as cars, of which the U.S. imported over $216 billion in 2024, are particular points of tension, as well as products made overseas by U.S. firms like Apple’s iPhones.

However, the reality of international supply chains is that even many locally-made products require different imported input components, from car parts to steel to processors. As a result, trade protectionism in the world’s largest consumer market also has an impact on American manufacturers.

China: A Different Type of Importer

While the U.S. imports primarily finished consumer goods, China’s import profile looks very different—focused heavily on raw materials that power its manufacturing engine.

Primary goods such as iron, oil, and soybeans dominate Chinese imports, although there are also key finished products like semiconductors which are essential for local manufacturing. China maintains a fairly major trade surplus of over $1 trillion, although Beijing does run a deficit with certain large emerging markets like Brazil.

Neighboring Hong Kong also imported over $832 billion worth of goods in 2025, with only $232 billion of these being retained imports for local consumption, contrary to goods which were then reexported.

Germany: Punching Above Its Weight

Germany stands out among major economies: despite its smaller size, it imports far more relative to GDP than either the U.S. or China, reflecting its deep integration into global supply chains.

Germany’s $1.5 trillion in 2025 imports is over half of the Chinese total and over 40% of the total for the far larger U.S. economy. Close trade ties within Europe have made Germany one of the most interconnected economies in global trade.

Meanwhile, the country has long depended on foreign energy imports to power its world-renowned domestic industry.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out Global Trade Dominance: U.S., EU, or China (2000 vs. 2024) on Voronoi.Use This Visualization

2026-04-28 23:44:00

Published

2 days ago

on

April 28, 2026

By

Ryan Bellefontaine

Graphics & Design

• Abha Patil

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The following content is sponsored by National Public Utilities Council

Mapped: The States Most Prepared for Power Demand Surges

Key Takeaways

• Florida leads all states with 3,003 MW in potential peak demand savings.
• Alabama and Minnesota also rank highly, each exceeding 2,000 MW.
• Rhode Island and Wyoming report no demand-response capacity.

Extreme weather, electrification, AI, and data centers are putting more pressure on America’s power grids.

As demand rises, utilities need flexible tools to reduce strain before outages occur. But which states lead on flexibility?

This graphic, in partnership with the National Public Utilities Council, shows the states most prepared for power demand surges using peak potential demand savings data from the EIA.

The States That Can Cut the Most Power Demand

Demand-response programs help utilities lower electricity use during high-stress periods. For example, customers may reduce consumption or shift usage away from peak hours, often in exchange for compensation.

Here is a table showing potential peak-demand savings in MW by state in 2024.

State	Potential Peak Demand Savings in 2024 (MW)
FL	3,003
AL	2,153
MN	2,009
NC	1,858
MI	1,550
SC	1,324
GA	1,266
IL	1,143
NY	1,070
CA	1,061
TX	1,050
AR	1,024
TN	991
OK	869
NE	857
ND	854
WI	830
CO	795
IA	759
KY	732
IN	671
OH	668
MD	613
AZ	555
MS	522
ID	466
UT	336
MO	307
LA	267
DE	246
NV	200
SD	180
OR	178
VA	163
KS	143
CT	135
MA	120
WA	112
VT	72
NM	69
HI	58
MT	52
PA	43
WV	34
NJ	27
DC	20
AK	18
ME	15
NH	5
RI	0
WY	0

Florida ranks first, with 3,003 MW in potential peak demand savings. Alabama follows at 2,153 MW, while Minnesota places third at 2,009 MW.

Together, these states demonstrate how demand-response capacity can buffer the grid during grid stress. Meanwhile, data center power demand continues to rise as AI adoption grows.

The Southeast Leads the Rankings

Florida and Alabama lead the nation, supported by demand-response programs from utilities including FPL, Duke Energy Florida, Alabama Power, and TVA. North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia also rank in the top seven.

As a result, the Southeast stands out for its ability to manage demand spikes. These programs can help utilities avoid outages without adding new generation immediately.

Where Capacity Is Limited—and Why It Matters

At the other end, Rhode Island and Wyoming report no demand-response capacity. That leaves fewer options to cut demand when electricity use surges.

Several northeastern states, including New Hampshire, Maine, and New Jersey, also report minimal demand-response capacity.

As U.S. electricity demand rises from data center construction after years of slower growth, demand-response programs give utilities an important tool to manage peak stress.

Related Topics: #data centers #florida #ai #electricity #power #energy

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