Last year, I wrote two newsletters using a simple formula: collecting interesting graphics. They were timeless pieces, free from the urgency of daily news. I was glad they resonated, because we live in a fierce attention economy — content has never been more abundant, yet our time and mental energy remain scarce.
This dynamic pushes journalists — and almost everyone else — to focus on the topic of the moment: the blackout in Spain, the new Pope, and whatever’s next tomorrow. It’s simply easier to find readers that way. That’s why these compilations feel like a small act of rebellion to me.
Here are seven charts that tell a curious story about how we entertain ourselves, how we age, and how wealth influences the chances of winning a Nobel Prize.
📱 1. How does your generation entertain itself? With a lot of screen time
The first chart shows how many hours Americans of each age spend consuming different types of audiovisual entertainment. The first takeaway? It’s a lot of hours.
People in their twenties in the U.S. spend nearly seven hours consuming audiovisual entertainment daily. This total includes time on social media (1.4 hours), streaming series and movies (1.3), playing video games (1.1), watching YouTube and Twitch (1.0), and listening to music (1.0). But this binge-watching habit is widespread — people in their forties and sixties also spend five to six hours daily with audiovisual content.
It’s interesting to see that young people are moving away from traditional TV, spending less than an hour a day to it, compared to the two to three hours spent by those over 60.
However, my sense is that this gap is closing. New formats are catching up with all of us. Even seventy-year-olds are users of streaming services (1.4 hours), social media (0.6), YouTube (0.4), and video games (0.2).
🦠 2. A strain of flu disappeared in 2020
Flus return every year. But one type seems to have become extinct. According to WHO data, not a single case of Yamagata influenza B has been confirmed since the spring of 2020.
The Yamagata flu was common every season. The graph shows its annual peaks in different countries, with thousands of cases identified in 2018 and 2019. But in 2020, it vanished. The most likely explanation is that COVID-19 measures — masking, social distancing, travel restrictions — slowed its spread from person to person, so the strain failed to spread and eventually disappeared.
This is extraordinary proof that it is possible to suppress a virus globally. Various organizations, including the WHO, the European Medicine Agency (EMA), and the Centers of Disease Control (CDC), recommend eliminating this strain from flu vaccines, which would make room for other, more relevant variants, and make them more effective.
🏠 3. Buying a house is 60% more expensive
In the last decade, the average home price in Spain has risen by 58%, according to INE indices, almost triple the inflation rate. Buying a home is much more expensive today in real terms.
The increase was even more pronounced in the Spanish regions of Catalonia (+70%), Madrid (+79%), and the Balearic Islands (+81%). Only in Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha have prices stayed close to the inflation rate.
The graph is also a portrait of Spanish history. In 2008, housing prices soared, then plummeted during the financial crisis: by 2014, they had dropped by 33%. Since then, they have steadily bounced back. But only in recent years have they surpassed the peak seen during the real estate bubble. The simple conclusion is that more housing has to be built.
🌍 4. In Madrid and Barcelona, the number of people born abroad has risen sevenfold
It’s a huge transformation that goes unnoticed. In 1998, barely 5% of Madrid and Barcelona residents between the ages of 25 and 64 were born in another country. Today, that percentage has increased sevenfold. Foreign-born people now represent 36% of the population in Madrid and 43% in Barcelona. It’s a huge, and rapid, change.
You might be wondering why Alfàs del Pi is mentioned in the graph. The reason is personal: it’s the town on the Alicante coast where I grew up. In the 1990s, my town and its surrounding areas — Benidorm, Altea — were peculiar places because almost half the residents were English, German, Swedish, or Norwegian. We had three schools from three different countries, something I later discovered wasn’t normal. The fascinating thing is that the globalization of large cities resembles that.
🥶 5. Are you in the younger half of your country?
I just turned 44, and that means I’m nearing the end of my career in the younger half of Spaniards. The median age in Spain is 45. That is, half of us are younger and the other half are older.
If we look at the world as a whole, however, I’ve long been in the older half of the population: the global median age is barely over 30. In Colombia and Mexico, for example, it’s 32 and 29 respectively. However, if I moved to Japan, I would remain younger than the median until I turned 49.
The other message from the chart is increasing longevity. In 1950, Spaniards had a median age of 26 years. The people you would have met on the street in 1950 were almost 20 years younger than they are today.
🤖 6. China is already the world’s powerhouse in robotics (and more)
In recent weeks, many in the U.S. have been wondering if this century will be China’s. Derek Thompson put it well: “Some people are still stuck in a mode of thinking about China as being a place that just makes things of little value and significance. But Made in China means something different now.”
China builds more than any other country; it produces 20 times more cement and 13 times more steel than the United States. The Asian giant is leading in key technologies for the future: it manufactures 66% of the world’s electric vehicles, 75% of batteries, and 90% of solar panels. And it is at the forefront of robotics. The graph makes this clear.
In 2012, China installed around 25,000 industrial robots per year, on par with Germany, Japan, and the United States. What about 10 years later? Now China installs 10 times more robots than any of those countries individually. The leap is spectacular.
🧠 7. Half of Nobel Prize winners come from families in the top 5% wealth bracket
We all know that being born into a wealthy family comes with advantages: it’s easier to go to university, you have more information, better networking opportunities… and you can take more risks because you have a safety net. That’s not the only thing that matters — luck and effort also play their part (you probably know people who climbed the social ladder) — but the influence of money is undeniable.
The last chart illustrates this with an extreme case: half of Nobel laureates are children of parents belonging to the richest 5% in their birth country. This is the conclusion of research that traced the social origins of hundreds of laureates.
Which parents’ professions are overrepresented? Scientists, civil servants, engineers, teachers, doctors, and even entrepreneurs abound. And which country offers the most scientific opportunities for low-income families? According to the study, it’s the United States.
But the key insight of the graph is what’s missing: the children whose potential goes untapped. Talent is widely distributed, but opportunities are not. As the authors summarize, “there is a vast reservoir of untapped scientific talent in lower-income countries.”
Many children lack the education, encouragement, and support needed to reach their full potential. And this isn’t just unfair — it’s a loss for everyone. We’re missing out on innovation, growth, discovery, and ultimately, a better future.
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