Information is Beautiful
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infobeautiful.bsky.social
Information is Beautiful
@infobeautiful.bsky.social
7.2K followers 36 following 1K posts
Data visualizations & information graphics by David McCandless. Plus favourite finds & graphics from around the web. Making sense of the world - well, trying to - since 2009.

https://linktr.ee/infobeautiful
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infobeautiful.bsky.social
Some good USA deals on our beautiful books out there
📘 20% off Beautiful News - geni.us/BNEWS
📕 10% off Knowledge is Beautiful (hardcover) - geni.us/KIB25
📗 11% off The Visual Miscellaneum - geni.us/VMisc25
bit.ly/IIB-Books
The cover images of three infographic books by David McCandless: Beautiful News, Knowledge is Beautiful and The Visual Miscellaneum
January 26, 2026 at 11:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
In the first half of the 20th century, tens of thousands of people (mostly children) suffered paralysis from polio. The first vaccine was introduced in the USA in 1955. Notice the trend afterwards.

(by @ourworldindata)
Line chart titled "Reported polio cases in the United States". The y-axis represents the number of reported cases, ranging from 0 to 60,000. The x-axis represents the years, from 1910 to 2022. The chart shows a significant spike in polio cases in the late 1940s and early 1950s, peaking around 1952 with nearly 60,000 reported cases. After the introduction of the first polio vaccine in 1955, the number of cases declined sharply. By 1961, with over 85% of children under ten vaccinated, the cases were significantly reduced. The chart indicates that by 1980, wild polio had been eliminated from the US, with reported cases remaining near zero from that point onwards. The data includes both wild- and vaccine-derived poliovirus infections.
January 26, 2026 at 7:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
The true digital divide in Europe

(by reddit user theworldmaps)
Note: Oct 2022 data
A map of Europe showing Android vs iOS mobile operating system popularity by country. Android (green) dominates most of continental Europe, while iOS (blue) is more popular in the UK, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland. Data source: Statcounter, October 2022
January 25, 2026 at 12:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Very bad? Terrible? Or perfect? American superlatives graded. Making American 8.8 again?
today.yougov.com/society/arti...
Chart showing positivity ratings for various words and phrases on a scale from 0 to 10. Words range from "Very bad" (2.22) to "Perfect" (8.75), with color-coded distributions from red (negative) to green (positive). The title references "Make America 8.08 out of 10 again," with "Great" scoring 8.08.
January 23, 2026 at 11:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
How cool something is vs. your age

by Matt Surelee @mattsurelee
Infographic titled 'HOW COOL IT IS vs YOUR AGE' humorously mapping perceived coolness across ages 10–100. Items include 'Skateboarding' (younger years), 'Living alone' (early adulthood), 'Complaining about young people' (older age), 'Juuling' (young trend), 'Being good at patty cake' (childlike skill), 'Being told you look older' (subjective milestone), and 'Celebrating your birthday' (universal but less cool with age). A horizontal age axis runs below with no explicit coolness scale, relying on ironic cultural stereotypes.
January 23, 2026 at 6:34 AM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Be glad you live now. Causes of death in London in 1632

(via Reddit bit.ly/4e4WazX)

interpretation of obscure terms by KimberelyG bit.ly/3KzIgYR
A table titled "Causes of Death in London 1632" which lists various diseases, casualties, and other causes of mortality along with the number of deaths attributed to each cause in that year. The data reveals that some of the leading causes of death in 1632 London were teeth (dental infections) at 470 deaths, flocks and smallpox at 531 deaths, fever at 1108 deaths, and chrisomes and infants at 2268 deaths.
January 22, 2026 at 5:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
New dates for our 'Create Impactful Infographics' trainings. Learn to make memorable, useful, beautiful charts & graphics

2 x virtual half days:
25th & 26th Mar 🇬🇧 UK/EU/AUS
29th & 30th Apr 🇺🇸 USA timezone

Mon 27th Apr 🇬🇧 LDN in-person

Deets bit.ly/IIBWAB
January 22, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
May we mention our new online store? Where you can buy high-quality art prints of our most popular infographics & visualisations
bit.ly/IIBStore
Homepage of Information is Beautiful (IIB) store showing sample data visualization prints, including a left-right comparison chart, a colorful circular diagram, and a word cloud of books. The page includes store navigation, environmental notes about sustainable printing practices, and a welcome message introducing David McCandless's work
January 22, 2026 at 1:55 AM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
The baby boom visualized

(by Reddit user: u/Serkan089)
A heatmap titled "The U.S. Baby Boom was between 1946 and 1964" illustrates age-specific fertility rates in the United States from 1935 to 2020. The y-axis represents the age of mothers, from 15 to 45. The x-axis represents the year. The color intensity of the grid cells corresponds to the fertility rate, with a color scale below the chart ranging from light pink (0.00) to dark purple (0.25). A vertical black box with a horizontal arrow across the top highlights the period from 1946 to 1964, visually marking the "Baby Boom." The heatmap shows a significant area of dark color, indicating high fertility rates, concentrated in the age range of 20-30 during the Baby Boom years, with the highest concentration around age 25. The high-fertility area shrinks and shifts slightly to the right in subsequent years, showing a general decline in the overall fertility rate, but a slight increase in fertility rates for older age groups over time. The data source is the Human Fertility Database (2024), and the visualization is by Miguel HG.
January 21, 2026 at 6:38 AM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
A true world divide
A world map infographic comparing annual per capita consumption of coffee versus tea, with countries shaded brown where coffee is consumed more and teal where tea is consumed more. Large swaths of the globe including most of Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and the UK are shown preferring tea, while North America, most of South America, much of Europe including Scandinavia, and Australia are shaded for coffee. The split shows clear regional trends: coffee dominates in the Americas, Northern and Central Europe, and Australia, while tea dominates in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The map is titled “COFFEE VS TEA What’s consumed more in cups per year,” with a key identifying coffee in brown and tea in teal, and cites Statista as the source. At the bottom is the logo for The World in Maps.
January 21, 2026 at 6:36 AM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Hard agree
The Witcher series poster with three characters and episode ratings table for four seasons. Episode ratings range from 4.0 to 8.8 displayed in colored blocks. Episodehive logo and tagline 'View episode details at episodehive.com' at the bottom
January 20, 2026 at 7:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
For reference...
Map highlighting control over the North Pole, divided into regions: Russia, Norway, Greenland (Denmark), Canada, U.S. (Alaska), and international waters.
January 20, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
www.eclipseatlas.com/2026-august-12

by Instagram user: @eclipseatlas
This satellite map titled "Total Solar Eclipse Over Spain on August 12, 2026" displays the path of totality and partial eclipse visibility across the Iberian Peninsula and surrounding regions, showing Spain, Portugal, France, Andorra, Morocco, and Algeria with political boundaries marked in red and pink lines, overlaid with yellow diagonal lines indicating the eclipse path and timing information showing durations like "1 min 50 sec" and "1 min 48 sec" at various points along the centerline of totality which crosses northern Spain from the Atlantic coast near A Coruña through cities like Oviedo, Santander, Bilbao, Pamplona, and Zaragoza before exiting near Barcelona, while black circles with percentage values ranging from 52% to 99% are positioned around the coastlines indicating the degree of partial eclipse visibility at those locations, with the ocean areas shown in dark blue and the landmasses displayed in realistic terrain coloring showing topographical features, and the map includes major cities labeled in white text including Madrid, Lisbon, Valencia, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, and Algiers, created by EclipseAtlas.com as indicated by their logo in the bottom left corner featuring a stylized sun and earth design.
January 20, 2026 at 6:37 AM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Evolution of the Alphabet via usefulcharts.com
Infographic showing the "Evolution of the Alphabet" from Proto-Sinaitic (c. 1750 BCE) to Modern Latin Script. Colorful arrows trace the development of each letter through Phoenician, Archaic Greek, Archaic Latin, and Roman scripts, culminating in the modern 26-letter alphabet. The image demonstrates how letter shapes transformed over time.
January 19, 2026 at 5:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
New dates for our 'Create Impactful Infographics' trainings. Learn to make memorable, useful, beautiful charts & graphics

2 x virtual half days:
25th & 26th Mar 🇬🇧 UK/EU/AUS
29th & 30th Apr 🇺🇸 USA timezone

Mon 27th Apr 🇬🇧 LDN in-person

Deets bit.ly/IIBWAB
An infographic flyer advertising an online seminar for learning how to create impactful infographics and data visuals with best-selling author and data-visualisation practitioner David McCandless of Information is Beautiful. Discounts are available.
January 19, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
It's all to me (regional variations)
www.instagram.com/languages.eu
A colorful map of Europe illustrating the phrase equivalents for "It's all Greek to me" in various languages. The map categorizes countries based on their expressions for incomprehensible language, highlighting cultural differences: "Greek": Common in English-speaking and nearby countries like the UK, Ireland, and France. "Chinese": Used in most Central and Eastern European countries like Germany, Poland, and Hungary. "Hebrew": Found in Scandinavian countries such as Norway and Sweden. Unique phrases: Some regions have distinct metaphors, such as: "Volapük" (a constructed language) in the Netherlands. "Arabic" in Italy. "Patagonian" in Bosnia. "Railway station" in Denmark. The map playfully explores linguistic diversity and cultural idioms for describing confusing language.
January 19, 2026 at 12:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Alligator population by state... Good to know!

(via Reddit www.reddit.com/r/MapPorn/co...)
A map of the United States displaying alligator populations by state, shaded in green to represent the numbers. The highest populations are concentrated in the southeastern states: Louisiana (2,000,000), Florida (1,300,000), Texas (400,000), Georgia (200,000), South Carolina (100,000), and Mississippi (70,000). Other states, including Alabama (32,000), Oklahoma (2,000), and Arkansas (100), have significantly smaller populations. Most other states are marked with a "0" population and are shaded gray, indicating no alligators.
January 18, 2026 at 7:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Deep truth

(creator: unknown)
Image depicting alignment chart with different monitor setups. Each setup corresponds to alignments like lawful good with three horizontal monitors, neutral good with two, chaotic good with one horizontal and one vertical, lawful neutral with one monitor and a laptop, true neutral with one monitor, chaotic neutral with one horizontal and one vertical, lawful evil with two stacked monitors, neutral evil with two side-by-side vertical monitors, and chaotic evil with an irregular stack of monitors.
January 18, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
2050: Where one in four people might be retirement age (double today)
A line graph showing the projected number of people aged 65 years and older worldwide from 2024 to 2054. The graph shows that the global population of people aged 65 and older is expected to increase from 830 million in 2024 to 1.7 billion in 2054. The graph also shows the projected number of people aged 65 and older in Asia, Europe, and Africa. The data is based on the UN's medium scenario.
January 17, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Some good UK deals on our beautiful books out there
📘 63% off Beautiful News- just £9! geni.us/BNEWS
📕 20% off Information is Beautiful geni.us/IIBbook
📙 25% off Knowledge is Beautiful geni.us/KIB25

Info bit.ly/IIB-Books
The cover images of three infographic books by David McCandless: Beautiful News, Knowledge is Beautiful and Information is Beautiful
January 16, 2026 at 12:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Countries where non-voters would be the strongest voting bloc / party
A map of Europe indicating countries where non-voters would have been the strongest political entity in the most recent parliamentary election between 2021 and 2025. Countries highlighted in red are those where the percentage of non-voters exceeded the vote share of the leading political party. Countries in green indicate that the strongest party received more votes than the number of non-voters. A few countries are shown in grey, likely indicating missing data.
January 15, 2026 at 12:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
“What a wonderful world it could be”… wait, CORRECTION: *is kinda already*
A different way of seeing the news

informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnew...
A mockup of 'The New York Good Times' newspaper website, featuring positive news stories. The main headlines include 'Amazon Deforestation at a 9 Year Low' with a split image showing lush forest next to dry land, 'STUDY: Zero Cases of Cervical Cancer Seen in Women Vaccinated Against HPV as Girls' with a microscopic image of the virus, and '13,370 Children's Deaths from Preventable Disease Prevented Today' accompanied by a medical syringe image. Other stories include 'A 5th Person Has Been Cured of HIV' with a photo of a hand holding a red AIDS awareness ribbon, positive headlines about wind power in Europe, dog cancer vaccines, and women in parliament. The layout mimics The New York Times website design, with navigation sections for U.S., World, Business, Arts, Lifestyle, and other categories at the top.
January 13, 2026 at 5:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
% of world population with colour-blindness:
Deuteranomaly (green-weak) 4.6%
Deuteranopia (green-blind) 1.3%
Protoanomaly (red-weak) 1%
Protanopia (red-blind) 1%
Tritanopia (blue-blind) ~rare

This condition affects 1 in 12 men, 1 in 200 women, so more than 350m worldwide. 1 in 22 people.
Four images of tomatoes showing how different types of color blindness affect vision: normal, deuteranomaly, protanopia, and tritanopia. Each image displays varied tomato colors and sizes.
January 13, 2026 at 3:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Rubbish? Fine? Brilliant? British superlatives graded and ranked.
yougov.co.uk/society/arti...

US version here ('quite' interesting comparison)
today.yougov.com/society/arti...
A stacked area chart shows gradations of British superlatives from Abysmal (1.21) through terrible (1.75) and rubbish (2.17) to average (5.09), fine (5.8), and topping out at "very good" (7.9) and excellent (8.95)
January 13, 2026 at 12:55 PM
infobeautiful.bsky.social
Most generous countries.

Often, nations who’ve suffered massive instability are among the most generous. Haiti. Liberia. Iraq.

(source: Charities Aid Foundation)

part of our Beautiful News project
informationisbeautiful.net/beautifulnew...
Scatter plot showing the relationship between generosity and wealth among various countries. Nations like Indonesia, Myanmar, and Kenya, which are marked as poorer, appear highly generous. Richer countries such as the USA and Ireland also exhibit significant generosity. The x-axis represents wealth, and the y-axis illustrates generosity levels. Circle size indicates the scale of the economy. The chart highlights that some of the world's poorest nations are among the most generous.
January 13, 2026 at 9:55 AM