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Combine the rapid rate of technological change with a globalized economy, and it’s evident that our cities are transforming at an unprecedented pace. But while these fast-moving currents are found in pretty much every urbanized setting, not every city is doing well to navigate them. In an increasingly digital and global economy, cities must be able to attract high-end talent, foster innovation, and maintain competitiveness – and failing to do so can have dire consequences....

Currently, many sovereign rates sit in negative territory, and there is an unprecedented $10 trillion in negative-yielding debt. This new interest rate climate has many observers wondering where the bottom truly lies. Today’s graphic from Paul Schmelzing, visiting scholar at the Bank of England (BOE), shows how global real interest rates have experienced an average annual decline of -0.0196% (-1.96 basis points) throughout the past eight centuries. The Evidence on Falling Rates Collecting data from across 78% of total advanced economy GDP over the time frame, Schmelzing shows that real rates* have witnessed a negative historical slope spanning back to the 1300s....

Copper is one of the most widely used metals on the planet, and has been for more than 10,000 years. It’s history is rich and distinctive as its unique colour, and it is now indispensable in modern society. In this infographic we explore why copper prices have increased by 4x over the course of 10 years. Major factors include lower ore grades, exploration pushed to higher risk areas of the globe, and growing Chinese demand....

Media coverage has reached a fever pitch, and keeping up with the news cycle can be daunting for anyone. To keep the voting public and interested onlookers informed, we’ve compiled nine key charts that can help in answering key questions that people will have today: Who’ll win the U.S. presidential election? How could swing states flip? When will we know the election results? What are the stakes? What does the rest of the world think?...

Heavily urbanized and mature economies generally produce a wealth of up-to-date information on population density and granular demographic data. In rural Africa or fast-growing regions in the developing world, tracking methods cannot always keep up, or in some cases may be non-existent. This is where new maps, produced by researchers at Facebook, come in. Building upon CIESIN’s Gridded Population of the World project, Facebook is using machine learning models on high-resolution satellite imagery to paint a definitive picture of human settlement around the world....

Breaking Down the US Dollar’s Recent Bull Run Over the last year, the US Dollar has had an incredible surge in value of 11%. It appreciated against all main currencies in the world in 2014. Meanwhile, gold also actually increased in value when valued against the vast majority of world currencies but the dollar was the only currency that it could not conquer. What is behind this surge in value for the dollar?...

While this number may seem high, unicorns are still quite the rarity. In the U.S. alone, there are currently 19,550 venture-backed startups vying for those same massive valuations. At the same time, it’s been estimated that each new startup only has a 0.00006% chance of becoming a billion dollar company. How to Improve Those Odds No one ever said that joining the ranks of unicorns would be easy, but there is some good news for aspiring founders....

As many as 80-90% of startups fold and those left standing also fail, repeatedly. Rarely does a business take a straight run at success, and that includes the likes of Apple, Facebook, and their fellow tech giants. Product lines can come to a screeching halt. Ideas can be stolen. And, yes, even geniuses like Steve Jobs get forced out. But by embracing uncertainty and making timely pivots, the tech companies in the infographic above have become some of the most influential—and valuable—organizations on the planet....

The Case for Toll Milling in Peru Gold toll milling infographic presented by: Montan Mining Peru is South America’s largest gold producer and exporter. Worldwide, the country also has the fifth highest gold production. 2014 production: 5.44 million oz (5.4% of global production) 2014 Global production: ~100 million oz However, the Peruvian government estimates that illegal mining accounts for about 20% of gold exports. This mining is done by tens of thousands of artisanal, small-scale miners who use metallurgical processes from centuries ago....

From garden cities to psychogeography, today’s infographic by Konstantin von der Schulenburg is an informative overview of the modern movements and ideas that shaped urban planning. The Evolution of Urban Planning Urban planning has changed a lot over the centuries. Early city layouts revolved around key elements such as prominent buildings (e.g. cathedrals, monuments) and fortification (e.g. city walls, castles). As cities grew larger, they also became more unpleasant. Here are some key ideas from architects and planners who sought tame the unruly urban beast....

While the concept of culture seems qualitative and fuzzy to many entrepreneurs or managers, the research on the impact of culture on organizations is very clear and data-driven. Companies with highly-engaged employees have low turnover, high productivity, more satisfied customers, and higher profits. To sum it up culture’s potential impact more succinctly, management guru Peter Drucker famously put it a different way: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” The Pitfalls of Culture Change The benefits of a strong company culture are many – and it’s no surprise to see companies all over the world aspiring to build world-class cultures within their organizations at almost any cost....

More than in the past, the population is divided on whether globalization is a force for good or not. In the aftermath of events like Brexit and the Trump election, it’s clear that there’s a growing movement of people that are skeptical about wider integration into the global economy and foreign cultures. While this countervailing force has always existed, only recently has it become powerful enough to change the outcomes of key elections and referendums....

From the gasoline in our cars to the plastic in countless everyday items, crude oil is an essential raw material that shows up everywhere in our lives. With around 18 million barrels of crude oil consumed every day just in America, this commodity powers transport, utilities, and is a vital ingredient in many of the things we use on a daily basis. This graphic visualizes how much crude oil is refined into various finished products, using a barrel of oil to represent the proportional breakdown....

For various reasons — from tech disruption to changing media consumption habits — the U.S. has seen a net loss of 1,800 local newspapers over the past 15 years. As regional newspapers are bundled together, and venture-backed digital media brands expand their portfolios, the end result is a trend towards increased consolidation. Today’s graphic, created by TitleMax, is a broad look at who owns U.S. news media outlets. Escaping the News Desert As outlets battle the duopoly of Google and Facebook for advertising revenue, the local news game has become increasingly difficult....

While we each intrinsically know that our days as teenagers will be vastly different from those as senior citizens, it is interesting to see how this looks from a 10,000-foot perspective. Using demographic data on the American populace, we can spot key differences between age groups, including some aspects that make each generation of Americans unique. The U.S. Population, by Age Today’s interactive data visualization comes to us from Overflow Data, and it charts out the entire U....

Humanity has been tinkering with natural life for thousands of years. We’ve become remarkably good at it, too—to date, we’ve modified bacteria to produce drugs, created crops with built-in pesticides, and even made a glow-in-the-dark dog. However, despite our many achievements in the realm of genetic engineering, one thing we’re still working on is bringing extinct animals back to life. But scientists are working on it. In fact, there’s a whole field of biology that’s focused on reviving extinct species....

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the country accounted for nearly 15% of the world’s total oil production in 2020, churning out close to 13 million barrels of crude oil per day—more than Russia or Saudi Arabia. Although total U.S. oil production declined between 1985 and 2008, annual production increased nearly every year from 2009 through 2019, reaching the highest amount on record in 2019. The Dominant Oil Producing States Impressively, 71% of total U....

Humans have made such dramatic changes to Earth’s systems, from climate to geology, that many are suggesting we’ve entered into a new epoch – the Anthropocene. To better understand the challenges of this era of wide-sweeping human impact on the planet, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has produced a massive report covering land use and climate change. According to the IPCC, the situation is looking more dire by the year....

More than 130 countries have set or are considering a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Achieving net-zero on a global scale, however, requires $125 trillion in climate investment by 2050, according to research commissioned by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While that level of investment hasn’t been achieved yet, it’s ramping up. In 2021, the world spent $755 billion on deploying low-carbon energy technologies, up 27% from the year prior....

The full circle, known as a Voronoi Diagram, represents the entirety of the $74 trillion global economy in nominal terms. Meanwhile, each country’s segment is sized accordingly to their percentage of global GDP output. Continents are also grouped together and sorted by color. Here is the data for the Top 20 Countries in table form: Download the data from the World Bank. (Updated Feb 1, 2017) on The good news is that the Federal Reserve, U....