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Data Vis Dispatch, February 25: German elections and three years of war in Ukraine
The best of last week’s big and small data visualizations
Vivien Serve
Welcome back to the 182 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 the results of Sunday’s federal elections in Germany and the third anniversary of full-scale war in Ukraine.
Last Sunday, German voters went to the polls. In the days leading up to the election, several parties worried whether they would even reach the 5% threshold to enter the Bundestag:
And something else has changed (for the better). Voter turnout was very high this year:
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Die Wahlergebnisse in Daten und Grafiken [Chart description: Voter turnout was historically high this time, at 82.5 percent. This map shows where voter turnout was lowest and highest], February 24
And speaking of change, these charts visualized which parties won over each others voters:
Phew, that’s it from the German election. Let’s move on to the economic situation of… the United States:
The Wall Street Journal: DOGE Claims It Has Saved Billions. See Where, February 22 Joey Cherdarchuk – Obumbratta: “You can explore *and search* the US budget in this interactive visual I made with the phenomenal @amberthomas.bsky.social,” February 18 (Bluesky)
And another country that has stimulated economic visualizations within the past seven days — China:
Yesterday, February 24th, marked the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Visual journalists covered the current state of the war, donations to Ukraine, and people’s wishes for peace:
Let’s stop and appreciate trying something new! These charts use a train line as a location index and a literal calendar to emphasize extreme overtime:
Though we still love the classics — like small multiple lines:
The Washington Post: “I also rec. This data may vanish under Trump, so we charted it. When some of the most valuable datasets in human history briefly vanished from U.S. government websites, it felt like watching the Library of Alexandria go up in smoke,” February 21 (Bluesky, Article)The New York Times: So, You Want to Get Rid of the Penny. Do You Have a Plan for the Nickel?, February 19
It wouldn’t be a Data Vis Dispatch without a section of “too pretty to miss” visualizations. Today, from babyboomers to bacterialbiomass to the centerofacountry:
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.
(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.
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