This article is brought to you by Datawrapper, a data visualization tool for creating charts, maps, and tables. Learn more.

All Blog Topics
Data Vis Dispatch
August 13th, 2024

Data Vis Dispatch, August 13

The best of last week’s big and small data visualizations

Vivien Serve
Vivien Serve

Welcome back to the 155th edition of the Data Vis Dispatch! Every week, we publish a collection of the best small and large data visualizations we find, especially from news organizations — to celebrate data journalism, data visualization, simple charts, elaborate maps, and their creators.

Recurring topics this week include climate phenomenons, artificial land, and the Olympics:

First up, the sporting event that has us all most excited this week: the 10th San Sebastian Classic, a road cycling day race:

EL DIARIO VASCO: Pillotegi Bidea, Un muro inédito con una rampa que impresiona [Pillotegi Bidea, an unprecedented wall with a ramp that impresses], August 8

Okay, not quite! We were all in Olympic fever for another week until the games ended Sunday 11th. Here are final medal counts and a look at individual countries:

Le Monde: JO 2024 : l’évolution du classement des pays en temps réel [2024 Olympics: the evolution of the country rankings in real time], August 7
The Economist: As usual, the medal tally at the Olympic games was lopsided, August 12
The New York Times: Who Won the Olympics? All the Ways We Could Think Of to Track the Medal Count, August 10
Diario Sur: Medallero histórico de España en los Juegos Olímpicos [Spain’s historic medal tally at the Olympic Games], August 11
Taiwan Data Stories: 台灣的43面奧運獎牌 [Taiwan’s 43 Olympic medals], August 12
De Tijd: Welk land is de échte medaillekoning? Het recept voor olympisch success [Which country is the real medal king? The recipe for Olympic success], August 13

France finished the Games with a record number of medals. This begs the question: Is there such a thing as a host country bonus? Spoiler alert: yes!

Le Monde: JO de Paris 2024 : le record de médailles françaises montre l’effet « pays hôte »[Paris 2024 Olympics: French medal record shows the “host country” effect], August 12
Financial Times: France uses Olympics home advantage to boost medals tally, August 11

One last look at the individual athletes and sports:

BBC: پاکستان کے سٹار ایتھلیٹ ارشد ندیم کی طرح جیولن کیسے پھینکا جائے [
How to throw javelin like star athlete Arshad Nadeem of Pakistan], August 6
Tanya Lomskaya: “These #WOW2024 small multiples from @YetterDataViz are so cute, I couldn’t pass them up. Thanks for the challenge!”, August 7 (Tweet)
The New York Times: Relive the Biggest Little Runs in Paris, August 10
Der Spiegel: Ein gewaltiger Spagat [A huge balancing act], August 9

Although the Olympics were a great success overall, we did see some controversy:

SBS News: ‘XY 염색체’ 선수의 여성부 경기 출전, 어떻게 생각해? [What do you think about the participation of ‘XY chromosome’ athletes in women’s competitions?], August 8
Le Monde: JO de Paris 2024, le bilan : médailles par pays, records battus, les Jeux olympiques en quatre graphiques [Paris 2024 Olympics, the results: medals by country, records broken, the Olympic Games in four graphs], August 12

Let’s start the next section with a quote from a 64-year-old Club France fan, Christine Frant: “Now we have to wake up from this beautiful dream“. Because France has not yet formed an absolute majority in the National Assembly after the elections at the beginning of July:

Le Monde: Construisez votre majorité absolue à l’Assemblée nationale avec notre simulateur de coalition [Build your absolute majority in the National Assembly with our coalition simulator], August 6

More on the elections: In the U.S., fewer and fewer voters are undecided:

The Wall Street Journal: Race Is On to Reach the Rapidly Shrinking Pool of Undecided Voters, August 10
Bloomberg: The Swing-State Economic Realities Shaping the US Election, August 8

Well, we’re going to stay in the U.S., specifically on the West Coast (close enough). Here you can get on the train in moderate temperatures and get off somewhere else in unbelievably hot temperatures:

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area microclimates can feel completely different. This BART map shows how much, August 10
The New York Times: Nights in Las Vegas Are Becoming Dangerously Hot, August 11
Bloomberg: The Risky Business of Predicting Where Climate Disaster Will Hit, August 9

Not surprisingly, the climate and climate phenomena are becoming more challenging:

Bloomberg: Hurricanes Debby and Beryl Show How Hot Oceans Fuel a Deadly Storm Season, August 7
The New York Times: How Close Are the Planet’s Climate Tipping Points?, August 11 Exceptional visualizations for an important topic
The Washington Post: Summer or winter: Which season is warming faster in your town?, August 8

This week’s environmental stories are a rollercoaster of emotions, U.S. avocado imports from Mexico lead to deforestation and overuse of water (😢), European second-hand app Vinted avoided over 600,000 tons of CO2 (😇), Drax is the UK’s biggest CO2 emitter (😢), and the grizzly population is growing (😇):

Reuters: Avocado goldrush links US companies with Mexico’s deforestation disaster, August 6
theeuropeancorrespondent: “Vinted, Europe’s leading reselling platform with over 100 million members, is transforming the fashion industry by promoting sustainable behavior. Through the purchase of secondhand clothing, Vinted members contribute to a significant reduction in CO2e emissions. This shift away from fast fashion helps lower the environmental impact associated with new garment production. By choosing pre-owned fashion, consumers actively participate in the fight against climate change. Created by Mandy Spaltman,” August 8 (Instagram Post)
Ember: The largest emitters in the UK: annual review, August 9
The Wall Street Journal: America Saved the Grizzlies, and Now the Bears are Invading Towns, August 10

Also on a roller coaster this week: the global financial market. Buying houses, on the other hand, is a downhill ride:

Financial Times: In charts: the summer storm rocking global financial markets, August 7
The Wall Street Journal: Boomers Buying Houses Had It Bad in the ’80s. Millennials Have It Worse, August 11

The news on (gender) equality is rather bad. In Brazil, people in diplomatic positions are overwhelmingly white men, and more anti-DEI records are being filed:

Gênero e Número: No exterior, o Brasil é um homem branco [Abroad, Brazil is a white man], August 7
Bloomberg: For Anti-DEI Groups Swarming Annual Meetings, Even a Loss Is a Win, August 11

And tragically, war and violence, as well as preparations for war continue:

Neue Zürcher Zeitung: Deutsche Schützenpanzer auf russischem Boden: Welche Rolle spielen westliche Waffen bei der ukrainischen Offensive in Kursk? [German armored personnel tanks on Russian soil: What role do Western weapons play in the Ukrainian offensive in Kursk?], August 9
Financial Times: Ukraine’s incursion displaces more than 133,000 in Russia, August 12
Kiel Institute for the World Economy: Ukraine Support Tracker, August 6
The New York Times: The Toll of 10 Months of Simmering Conflict on the Israel-Lebanon Border, August 8
Financial Times: Russian navy trained to target sites inside Europe with nuclear-capable missiles, August 13

We end with a look at Asia, where China is building cities to protect its borders and Vietnam is building islands to challenge China. Oh, and yes, Singapore is happy to be a year older:

The New York Times: China’s Great Wall of Villages, August 11
The Washington Post: Vietnam accelerates island building to challenge China’s maritime claims, August 9
The Straits Times: Sounds of Singapore, August 6

What else we found interesting

Visual Agency: “How can we align data with our experience of it? A poetic approach could help: sometimes “feeling” a phenomenon is as vital as “seeing” the data behind it. Prof Ciuccarelli explores this subject #InfoPoetry #DataDesign,” August 8 (Tweet, Infopeotry Archive)






下田スケッチ: “コップの色の観察 [Observing the color of a cup], ” August 9 (Tweet)
El Confidencial: BREAKing, August 9

Applications are open for…

Help us make this dispatch better! We’d love to hear which newsletters, blogs, or social media accounts we need to follow to learn about interesting projects, especially from less-covered parts of the world (Asia, South America, Africa). Write us at hello@datawrapper.de or leave a comment below.

Want the Dispatch in your inbox every Tuesday? Sign up for our Blog Update newsletter!

Vivien Serve
Vivien Serve
(she/her) is a working student on Datawrapper’s Communications team. She creates the Data Vis Dispatch to keep data visualization enthusiasts up to date on exciting new projects. When she’s not working, she studies interface design, and when she’s not studying, she’s planning a festival stage or soldering light installations. Vivien lives in Potsdam.

Comments