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2025-12-26 02:41:37

Charted: America’s Low-Wage Workers by Education Level

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Despite a strong labor market and rising nominal wages, there are still millions of people taking home less than $20 per hour on average. Education plays a major role in determining earnings, but it does not guarantee high wages—or even employment.

This chart shows the share and number of U.S. low-wage workers earning less than $20 per hour by education level, using data from the Economic Policy Institute as of July 2025.

Low-Wage Work Is Concentrated Among Less-Educated Workers

Workers without a high school diploma face the greatest exposure to low wages. Roughly two-thirds of this group—about 6.9 million people—earn less than $20 per hour, reflecting limited access to higher-paying occupations and fewer opportunities for advancement.

The table below breaks down low-wage workers by education level:

Among workers whose highest education is a high school diploma, 43% earn under $20 per hour. This group represents the largest number of low-wage workers overall, totaling nearly 15.9 million people.

Even some college education offers only partial protection. More than one-third of workers with some college (but no completed degree) earn below the $20 threshold, amounting to 12.9 million workers.

College Degrees Don’t Eliminate Low Wages

Higher education significantly lowers the likelihood of earning under $20 per hour, but it does not eliminate it. About 12% of workers with a college or advanced degree, roughly 7.2 million people, still fall below this pay level.

Overall, while education remains one of the strongest determinants of earnings, income outcomes depend on various factors, including industry mix, regional costs of living, and labor market conditions.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you found this interesting, explore more labor market and income visuals on Voronoi, including U.S. States With the Most Low-Wage Workers.

2025-12-25 23:22:44

The Most Spoken Languages: Native vs. Non-Native Speakers

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Language plays a central role in shaping global communication, culture, and economic exchange. While some languages dominate due to large native-speaking populations, others achieve global reach through widespread adoption as a second language.

This infographic compares the native and non-native usage of the world’s most spoken languages in 2025, using data from Ethnologue.

The World’s Most Spoken First and Second Languages

English is the most spoken language with approximately 1.53 billion speakers worldwide.

However, just 390 million people speak English as their first language, meaning nearly 75% of English speakers use it as a second language, making it the dominant global lingua franca across industries and professions.

The table below shows native and non-native speaker counts for the world’s most spoken languages in 2025:

In total, about 18.8% of the world’s population speaks English, but only a quarter of those are native speakers.

Mandarin Chinese ranks second with roughly 1.18 billion speakers. In contrast to English, Mandarin is primarily spoken as a first language, with more than 83% of its speakers being native.

Hindi and Spanish follow as the next most spoken languages worldwide. Hindi has around 609 million speakers, split more evenly between native and non-native usage due to India’s multilingual population.

Spanish stands out as one of the most widely spoken native languages globally, with nearly 87% of its speakers using it as their first language. Spoken Spanish is concentrated across Spain, Latin America, and parts of the United States.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, explore more language and culture insights on Voronoi, including The Most Used Languages on the Internet.

2025-12-25 21:05:03

Ranked: Approval Ratings of World Leaders Heading Into 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.

Public approval of political leaders reflects a mix of economic conditions, policy decisions, and broader voter sentiment. As 2025 comes to a close, approval ratings offer a snapshot of how leaders around the world are perceived heading into 2026.

This visualization ranks major global leaders by approval rating, based on surveys conducted between December 8 and 14, 2025, by Morning Consult,

High Approval at the Top, but Fewer Standouts

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi ranks first overall, with 71% approval heading into 2026. Although still well ahead of peers, his approval declined modestly from 75% in January 2025.

A similar pattern appears elsewhere: even leaders near the top of the rankings faced gradual erosion in support over the year, reflecting persistent inflation, cost-of-living pressures, and political fatigue among voters.

Rank	Leader	Country	Approve	Don’t know / No opinion	Disapprove
1	Narendra Modi	India	71%	7%	22%
2	Sanae Takaichi	Japan	61%	13%	26%
3	Lee Jae-myung	South Korea	56%	8%	35%
4	Javier Milei	Argentina	55%	4%	41%
5	Mark Carney	Canada	48%	11%	41%
6	Anthony Albanese	Australia	47%	9%	43%
7	Claudia Sheinbaum	Mexico	45%	6%	49%
8	Karin Keller-Sutter	Switzerland	43%	27%	30%
9	Donald Trump	United States	43%	6%	51%
10	Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva	Brazil	42%	4%	54%
11	Giorgia Meloni	Italy	41%	6%	52%
12	Bart de Wever	Belgium	41%	10%	49%
13	Christian Stocker	Austria	41%	12%	48%
14	Donald Tusk	Poland	38%	11%	51%
15	Jonas Gahr Støre	Norway	37%	2%	61%
16	Ulf Kristersson	Sweden	37%	8%	55%
17	Dick Schoof	Netherlands	36%	24%	40%
18	Friedrich Merz	Germany	36%	5%	60%
19	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan	Turkey	34%	15%	51%
20	Cyril Ramaphosa	South Africa	34%	10%	57%
21	Pedro Sánchez	Spain	33%	6%	61%
22	Keir Starmer	United Kingdom	23%	9%	67%
23	Emmanuel Macron	France	13%	7%	80%

Approval Gains Reflect New Leadership, Not Turnarounds

Japan, South Korea, Canada, Austria, and Belgium all show higher approval ratings at the end of 2025, but these increases reflect new leaders replacing unpopular predecessors.

Much of Europe enters 2026 with leaders facing net-negative approval. France’s Emmanuel Macron ranks last, with approval in the low teens and disapproval near 80%. The UK’s Keir Starmer, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, and several Nordic leaders also post approval ratings in the 30% range or lower.

In the United States, Donald Trump sits in the middle of the ranking, with approval and disapproval nearly evenly split.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out The World’s Top Nations by GDP Per Capita Growth on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2025-12-25 01:44:44

Ranked: The World’s Most Used Ecommerce Apps

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.

Mobile apps have become the primary gateway to online shopping for hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide. From everyday essentials to fast fashion and electronics, ecommerce apps now shape how people browse, compare, and buy products across borders.

This visualization ranks the world’s most popular ecommerce apps in 2025 based on average monthly active users (MAUs). The data for this visualization comes from Similarweb.

Together, the top 10 apps reach well over two billion users each month.

Amazon’s Global Lead

Amazon ranks first by a wide margin, with an average of 651.7 million monthly active users. Its dominance reflects a broad product selection, deep logistics infrastructure, and strong brand recognition across North America, Europe, and parts of Asia.

Notably, Amazon is one of only three companies in the top 10 that are not based in Asia.

Asia’s Ecommerce Powerhouses

Asian platforms account for seven of the top 10 apps, led by Shopee (392.8 million MAUs), Temu (246.4 million), and Shein (215.1 million). These companies have grown rapidly by combining mobile-first design, aggressive pricing, and highly localized offerings.

India and Southeast Asia are also well represented. Flipkart (190.8 million) and Meesho (159 million) reflect India’s fast-growing digital consumer base, while Singapore’s Lazada (109.2 million) continues to serve multiple Southeast Asian markets through a single app ecosystem.

App	Country	Monthly Users
Amazon	United States	651.7M
Shopee	Singapore	392.8M
Temu	China	246.4M
Shein	China	215.1M
Flipkart	India	190.8M
AliExpress	China	159M
Meesho	India	159M
Mercado Libre	Argentina	125.3M
Lazada	Singapore	109.2M
Walmart	United States	93.9M

Regional Champions Outside Asia

Beyond Amazon, two other non-Asian platforms appear in the top 10. Mercado Libre ranks eighth with 125.3 million monthly active users, reflecting its dominant position across Latin America. Walmart rounds out the list at 93.9 million MAUs, supported by its strong U.S. retail footprint.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out ChatGPT Climbs to #10 in U.S. Web Traffic on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

2025-12-24 23:26:57

Ranked: The 5 Largest Megacities in 2025, Based on Built-Up Area

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.

By 2050, 68% of the global population is projected to live in urban centers, up from 55% today.

The world’s largest megacity, when measured by the combination of satellite imagery and census data, is Guangzhou, China. Strikingly, the population has boomed by nearly 20-fold in just 50 years driven by China’s rapid economic rise.

This graphic shows the growth of the world’s megacities, based on data from the European Commission via Our World in Data.

The Rise of the World’s Megacities (1975-2025P)

Below, we show the rise of the top five largest cities worldwide—using satellite imagery and census data—not administrative borders:

Since 1975, the population of Guangzhou has expanded by 40.9 million. It has the equivalent population of the entire country of Canada.

During the 1990s, the city’s population growth accelerated, driven by trade and industrial activity. Located on the Pearl River Delta, north of Hong Kong, it stands as a key port and transportation hub.

Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital and the economic hub of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, has undergone massive expansion. Its population has surged by 29 million over the past five decades, reaching 38.1 million today.

Meanwhile, New Delhi, India has grown 398%, supported by rising incomes and urban migration. By 2030, the city is expected to gain nearly two million more residents, spanning a population of 33.3 million.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

To learn more about this topic, check out this graphic on the world’s fastest-growing economies.

2025-12-24 21:10:54

Visualizing the Relationship Between Country Size and GDP

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.

When comparing countries, two common metrics are land area and GDP. But how closely are they actually related?

This visualization, created by Julie Peasley, juxtaposes the land area and economic output of the 30 largest countries in the world. It draws from World Bank GDP data and Wikipedia’s country size estimates, offering a unique look at just how different these measures can be.

Here’s the full data used in the visualization:

While China is slightly larger in land area than the U.S. (by about 72,000 sq. km), America’s GDP is over $10 trillion higher. Meanwhile, Russia and Canada—two of the largest countries—fall behind in economic output, illustrating the lack of a strong link between size and GDP.

Does Geographic Size Influence GDP?

Looking at this data, there’s no strong correlation between landmass and economic output. According to a 2023 research paper, GDP is more strongly influenced by population and infrastructure than sheer physical size.

For instance, India, with only a third of the U.S. or China’s landmass, ranks third in GDP due to its massive population and growing industrial base. On the flip side, Australia and Canada boast vast territories but smaller populations, limiting their economic scale.

Outliers That Punch Above Their Weight

Several countries in the visualization illustrate this dynamic vividly:

• Japan and Germany: Relatively small in landmass but economic powerhouses, ranking high in global GDP.
• Indonesia: The fourth most populous country, yet its GDP lags behind similarly sized countries due to development disparities.
• Brazil: A mix of large area and moderate economic power, it sits in the middle of the pack.

As this chart shows, while landmass can support economic activity (through agriculture, resource extraction, etc.), it does not guarantee high GDP. In fact, many of the most prosperous countries are relatively small but highly industrialized and urbanized.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Looking to explore more comparisons like this? Check out Comparing the Land Area of the 15 Largest Countries in the World on the Voronoi app.