CuriositiesOCT 7, 2021

"Data Is Beautiful": 30 Charts That Might Change Your Perspective On Things (New Pics)

Justinas Keturka and Rokas Laurinavičius

235

Visualization can be applied to pretty much any field; it helps to tell stories by curating data into a form that's easier to understand, highlighting any trends and outliers. And there's no place on the internet that is as obsessed with it as r/DataIsBeautiful.

The subreddit runs on a simple mission: to collect visualizations that effectively convey information. But the way its 16 million members go about it is anything but. There are no fake numbers, goofball statistics, and trivial analysis—just legitimate facts, portrayed in aesthetically pleasing ways. Such a delicate balance.

We at Bored Panda have already covered it once but when a community is that big, you know it's gonna keep delivering quality content so we just had to make an update. Enjoy!

#1 Symptomatic Breakthrough Covid-19 Infections

DarrenLu

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309points

#2 World Elevation Map, Including Bathymetry (Ocean Floor)

JoeWDavies

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203points

One of the subreddit's moderators, u/PHealthy, took some time out of their day to tell Bored Panda about the latest r/DataIsBeautiful news. "Obviously, these days COVID is a very popular topic, and [our posts] frequently make r/all but really anything topical/trending tends to do well," they explained.

"So for instance, a Nobel prize or school shooting post would probably do well. But a soundly made novel DataViz always tends to do well, e.g. Tyler's recent post. But meta posts can do very well, too. So really it's all about balancing DataViz presentation with the topic being relatable, all the better if it's Reddit-related."

#3 The Massive Decrease In Worldwide Infant Mortality From 1950 To 2020 Is Perhaps One Of Humanity's Greatest Achievements

abu_doubleu

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181points

#4 There Are More Cows Than People In The States Colored Blue

toddrjones

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172points

Let's pause and think for a moment. 16 million people is a huge audience. (And I'm not even talking about making it to Reddit's front page). One that many publishers would be proud of. Reaching such a number with just organic growth is proof that people really value r/DataIsBeautiful.

As my colleague Jonas pointed out in his text, the moderator team is purposefully left as a small group of professionals who focus on data visualization at some part of their lives.

Plus, the subreddit treats its original content creators as "first-class citizens," constantly engaging them and making sure they're credited and acknowledged for their work. As always, we provide a link to each post that we feature as well (you can find it under the pictures), so if you're interested in some particular visualization, follow it to its roots — there's usually an interesting discussion in the comments, too.

"We bring a data-centric view of the world to millions of people every day—from important information about the COVID-19 pandemic all the way to a random dude's daily bowel movements—and our community prides itself in that fact. For example, we had community members posting analyses and projections of COVID-19 trends back in January and February 2020—well before anyone in the U.S. was taking the pandemic seriously. r/DataIsBeautiful is THE place to go when you want to see the signal through the noise of hectic daily life,” one of the moderators explained in the earlier Bored Panda piece.

#5 Countries With A Higher Life Expectancy Than The United States (World Health Organization 2019)

TheRedditHike

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147points

#6 This Map Shows All Of The Earthquakes With A Magnitude Greater Than 5.0 Over The Last 20 Years

symmy546

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142points

#7 Digital Elevation Model Of Greece

JoeWDavies

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142points

Even with so many members, u/PHealthy believes that r/DataIsBeautiful retains a certain character, "unique to this corner of Reddit in regards to churning out decent DataViz posts. Of course, the creators take center stage with their amazing original content but (not to pat my own back) fairly strict moderation is a big part of keeping the community unique and also keeps the sub from turning into just another garbage re-posting karma farm like a lot of subs on Reddit."

The human brain processes visual information better than it processes text — so the charts, graphs, and other elements found on r/DataIsBeautiful can be very powerful — you understand exactly what they're telling you. Something tells me this isn't the last time we'll feature this awesome subreddit.