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Welcome to The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members that looks closer at how the charts get made. I’m Nathan Yau. To decide if values are high or low, sometimes you have to divide the numbers for a relative comparison instead of an absolute one. You have to normalize the data.
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Posted by in comparison, denominator, The Process
Covid-19 cases in the United States were down, but they’re moving up again, mostly among the unvaccinated. Dan Keating and Leslie Shapiro for The Washington Post break down the comparisons by state.
A difference chart for each state shows the overall rate compared against an adjusted rate for the unvaccinated population. As you might expect, the rate for the latter is always higher.
There are three more points of reference. A dotted line shows the adjusted national rate, a black dashed line shows how the current rate is a step back to a previous time, and a smaller, zoomed out version of the chart in the top right provides context back to March 2020. You can see it for cases, deaths, and hospitalizations.
Getting vaccinated strongly appears to be the way to go any way you cut it.
Tags: comparison, coronavirus, unvaccinated, Washington Post
Posted by in comparison, coronavirus, Statistical Visualization, unvaccinated, Washington Post
Covid-19 cases in the United States were down, but they’re moving up again, mostly among the unvaccinated. Dan Keating and Leslie Shapiro for The Washington Post break down the comparisons by state.
A difference chart for each state shows the overall rate compared against an adjusted rate for the unvaccinated population. As you might expect, the rate for the latter is always higher.
There are three more points of reference. A dotted line shows the adjusted national rate, a black dashed line shows how the current rate is a step back to a previous time, and a smaller, zoomed out version of the chart in the top right provides context back to March 2020. You can see it for cases, deaths, and hospitalizations.
Getting vaccinated strongly appears to be the way to go any way you cut it.
Tags: comparison, coronavirus, unvaccinated, Washington Post
Posted by in comparison, coronavirus, Statistical Visualization, Washington Post
Welcome to issue #136 of The Process, the newsletter for FlowingData members where I talk about charting better. I’m Nathan Yau, and this week I’m thinking about comparisons.
In analysis and visualization, you’re often tasked with the “compared to what” question. How is this year different from last year? How does this offering compare against that other offering? Is that group better than the other group?
Become a member for access to this — plus tutorials, courses, and guides.
Posted by in comparison, scale, The Process
As part of their Citizen Browser project to inspect Facebook, The Markup shows a side-by-side comparison between Facebook feeds for different groups, based on the feeds of 1,000 paid participants.
There are pretty big differences for news sources and group suggestions, but the news stories don’t seem as big as you might think with a median 3 percentage points difference between groups. Although, the distribution shows a wider spread.
Tags: comparison, facebook, feed, The Markup
Posted by in comparison, Facebook, feed, Infographics, The Markup
As part of their Citizen Browser project to inspect Facebook, The Markup shows a side-by-side comparison between Facebook feeds for different groups, based on the feeds of 1,000 paid participants.
There are pretty big differences for news sources and group suggestions, but the news stories don’t seem as big as you might think with a median 3 percentage points difference between groups. Although, the distribution shows a wider spread.
Tags: comparison, facebook, feed, The Markup
Posted by in comparison, Facebook, feed, Infographics, The Markup
A chart from Business Insider makes a poor attempt to compare the death rates, by age, for the common flu against Covid-19:
The age groups on the horizontal axes are different, so you can’t make a fair side-by-side comparison. For example, the flu chart has a 50-64 age group. The Covid-19 chart has a 50-59 group and a 60-69 group.
Ann Coulter’s interpretation of the chart might be worse than the chart itself:
For people under 60, coronavirus is LESS dangerous than the seasonal flu: pic.twitter.com/3EFzUSaOVo
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 24, 2020
No.
The values for people under 60, other than for the “under 30” group, are greater for Covid-19 than for the flu. Coulter’s interpretation is wrong no matter which way you cut it. Also, the article that the chart comes from points out the opposite.
I get it. It’s Twitter. There will be mistakes. But at least correct or delete them, instead of dangling it out there for people to spread.
For those making charts, please think about how others will interpret them. These are weird times and we don’t need to add more confusion. For those sharing charts, please think for a second before you put it out there.
Tags: Business Insider, comparison
Posted by in Business Insider, comparison, Mistaken Data
Visualization is all about making comparisons. If you have nothing to compare to, then the chart fails. In this issue I describe some of the ways you can make your charts more comparable. Read More
Posted by in comparison, The Process
Focus on finding or displaying contrasting points, and some visual methods are more helpful than others. A guide. Read More
Posted by in comparison, contrast, difference, Guides
Apples and oranges situations where the comparisons make no sense. Read More
Posted by in baseline, comparison, Guides