Vaccinations have helped decrease the number of cases of infectious diseases in the last 110 years.
The bubble chart on the left shows the number of cases of infectious diseases in the United States in the 1900s. Even though diseases like measles, pertussis, mumps, and rubella that used to infect hundreds of thousands of people have not disappeared, nowadays they infect a much lower number of people thanks to the use of vaccines, as shown on the bubble chart on the right.
Source: Vaccines.com
In this map published by The Atlantic we can see each state according to its most famous brand based on which state each company was founded.
In that regard, Texas is famous for Dr. Pepper, North Carolina for Bank of America, Seattle for Starbucks, California for Apple, Arkansas for Walmart, Georgia for Coca-Cola, Tennessee for FedEx, and Florida for Hooters.
An estimated 100 countries have signed bilateral extradition treaties with the United States, including all Latin American countries, Western European countries, Egypt, India, Australia, and New Zealand to name a few. Some 60 nations including China, Russia, several Middle Eastern and African countries have not. However, even if some countries signed extradition treaties they can still refuse to hand an individual over to the U.S. if that person is seeking asylum or if he/she would face the death penalty.
Source: The Economist: Daily Chart: Where can he go?
The Supreme Court stroke down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) on June 26th, 2013 ruling in favor of recognition of same-sex marriage by the federal government in states where it is already legal.
To date, 12 states have already legalized same-sex marriage: Massachusetts (first state to do so in 2003), Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, Maine, and Iowa. The District of Columbia also legalized gay marriage. Additionally, 8 states have certain legal provisions and civil unions for gay couples: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, and Wisconsin.
Several states are still against same-sex marriage, and 29 of them amended their constitutions to ban it.
For the interactive map, please visit: Pew Research Center: Same-Sex Marriage State-by-State
The Economist compiled a visualization of the highest consumption of selected spirits worldwide. The selected spirits include vodka, rum, scotch whiskey, gin, and tequila.
The largest consumer of vodka is Russia, followed by the United States, Ukraine, Poland among others. The largest consumer of rum is India, followed by the United States, Philippines, and Cuba. The largest consumers of scotch whiskey, gin, and tequila are France, Philippines, and the United States respectively.
The United States provides 60% of the funding to fight the AIDS epidemic worldwide. The highest recipients of this funding are African nations. Other countries include Bolivia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
Latin America depends on these funds to fight AIDS too. Latin American nations are recipients of up to 24% of funding from the US along with Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Bulgaria, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Source: The Nation: Who Depends Most on US Funds to Fight AIDS Epidemic
To date, 15 countries allow gay marriage: Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, South Africa, and New Zealand.
Same-sex marriage is legal in some jurisdictions of Mexico and the United States. Currently, 12 states in the U.S. permit same-sex marriage, while 30 states have amended their constitutions to ban it.
Resource: Pew Research Center: A global snapshot of same-sex marriage
The United States increased its funding to fight AIDS globally ten years ago. But, to qualify for funding, NGO’s had to enforce an explicit policy against prostitution. Female sex workers are 13.5 times more likely to have contracted the HIV virus, but because of the enforced anti-prostitution policy, female sex workers do not qualify to receive treatment.
This visualization by The Nation shows the rate of HIV infection among sex workers around the world. The highest rates of HIV infection are in Africa, with Swaziland at an staggering 70%.
The Guardian created this comparison of the U.S. and China, comparing several indicators such as GDP growth, GDP per capita, carbon emissions, exports, literacy rate, unemployment rate, military expenditure, outdoor pollution, to name a few.
The US is ahead of China in terms of literacy rate, number of internet users, military expenditure as a percentage of GDP, unemployment rate, GDP per capita, market capitalization, and social media. On the other hand, China is ahead of the U.S. in terms of exports, GDP growth, number of people, carbon emission, and outdoor pollution.
While the U.S. has the largest deficit in its current account, China has the largest surplus.
We launched today a new state comparison section which allows you to get high-level side by side comparisons of any two states in the United States of America. The data behind the comparisons comes from the United States Census Bureau. Here are some examples of popular comparisons: