Misc

Charts: How Americans Differ by Age

Published

7 years ago

October 10, 2017

Jeff Desjardins

From the day of birth, most Americans are told by society that their life should follow a certain trajectory: go to school, get a higher education, get married, start a career, and retire as soon as they are gray and old.

For many people, their life story plays out exactly like this – but people actually do it at very different speeds, or people end up hitting these milestones in different orders. Meanwhile, some Americans deviate from the typical path altogether, forging their own unique stories.

Charting Life Events

Interestingly, all of these landmark life events can be viewed through the lens of demographics, and today’s charts from Overflow Data help to tell this tale. In the below charts, we’ll look at education, employment, and marital status all visualized based on a spectrum of age.

The end result? You’ll see when people hit certain landmarks such as graduating from college, getting married, or getting a job. You’ll also see an alternate perspective as well, such as the points in time where millions of people are outside of the workforce, or when divorce rates spike.

Getting an Education

The below chart shows the American population by age, sorted by the level of education attained.

Getting a Job

Next, here is the U.S. population by age, sorted by status in the labor force.

Getting Married

The below chart shows the American population by age, sorted by marital status.

Even though each person charts their own unique course in life, it is interesting to look at the data in aggregate as well.

From these three charts we can see when most major life events occur, and they help to paint an even bigger picture of the lives of the 323 million people in the U.S. population.

Related Topics:America Education united states population age employment marital status

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Misc

How Hard Is It to Get Into an Ivy League School?

We detail the admission rates and average annual cost for Ivy League schools, as well as the median SAT scores required to be accepted.

Published

2 days ago

April 17, 2024

Marcus Lu

Graphic showing the admission rates and average annual tuition for Ivy League schools, as well as the median SAT scores required to be accepted.

How Hard Is It to Get Into an Ivy League School?

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Ivy League institutions are renowned worldwide for their academic excellence and long-standing traditions. But how hard is it to get into one of the top universities in the U.S.?

In this graphic, we detail the admission rates and average annual cost for Ivy League schools, as well as the median SAT scores required to be accepted. The data comes from the National Center for Education Statistics and was compiled by 24/7 Wall St.

Note that “average annual cost” represents the net price a student pays after subtracting the average value of grants and/or scholarships received.

Harvard is the Most Selective

The SAT is a standardized test commonly used for college admissions in the United States. It’s taken by high school juniors and seniors to assess their readiness for college-level academic work.

When comparing SAT scores, Harvard and Dartmouth are among the most challenging universities to gain admission to. The median SAT scores for their students are 760 for reading and writing and 790 for math. Still, Harvard has half the admission rate (3.2%) compared to Dartmouth (6.4%).

School	Admission rate (%)	SAT Score: Reading & Writing	SAT Score: Math	Avg Annual Cost*
Harvard University	3.2	760	790	$13,259
Columbia University	3.9	750	780	$12,836
Yale University	4.6	760	780	$16,341
Brown University	5.1	760	780	$26,308
Princeton University	5.7	760	780	$11,080
Dartmouth College	6.4	760	790	$33,023
University of Pennsylvania	6.5	750	790	$14,851
Cornell University	7.5	750	780	$29,011

*Costs after receiving federal financial aid.

Additionally, Dartmouth has the highest average annual cost at $33,000. Princeton has the lowest at $11,100.

While student debt has surged in the United States in recent years, hitting $1.73 trillion in 2023, the worth of obtaining a degree from any of the schools listed surpasses mere academics. This is evidenced by the substantial incomes earned by former students.

Harvard grads, for example, have the highest average starting salary in the country, at $91,700.