Technology
Mapped: A Snapshot of the Airbnb Landscape in Three Megacities
Visualizing the Airbnb Landscape in Three Megacities
Since its inception in 2008, Airbnb has grown into one of the most popular travel and short-term accommodation apps on the market.
In 2021 alone, there were more than 300 million bookings (for both accommodation and experiences) made through the app.
To visualize just how massive the Airbnb landscape has become in major cities, this graphic by Preyash Shah shows every single listing in New York, London, and Paris.
About the Data
To make this graphic, Shah used September 2022 data from insideairbnb.com, a website that pulls data directly from the Airbnb app. Once collected, the raw data was then cleaned to include active listings only fitting a few key parameters:
- Any listing that did not have a review in 2022 was removed
- The most expensive listings were individually checked to ensure the listing price matched the actual historical price and removed if there was a major discrepancy. This is due to inactive listings that are extremely marked up instead of de-listed
After scrubbing the data, each city’s immediate metro area was left with roughly 20,000 listings.
As the data shows, a majority of these listings were for entire apartments. Paris had the biggest share, with about 85% of listings for entire apartments rather than private or shared rooms.
This is especially interesting considering that Paris has extremely strict regulations around short-term rentals and Airbnb usage, one being that an Airbnb rental must be someone’s primary residence.
Airbnb’s Beginnings
Two co-founders of Airbnb include Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, two roommates in San Francisco.
In an act of desperation, they decided to set up and rent out a few air mattresses on the floor of their apartment to help pay their rent. Free breakfast was included with the stay, and after getting $80 a night for each mattress, Chesky and Gebbia knew they were onto something.
Yet, while Airbnb has shown great success over the last decade, it’s received its fair share of criticism from skeptics. Because of concerns over housing supply and price gouging, many cities have put restrictions around the use of Airbnb, or even outright banned the platform.
Like other technology companies, Airbnb has had a challenging year in the stock market. Once valued at $113 billion in 2021, the company is currently sitting closer to a $60 billion market capitalization today.

This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist's Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
Technology
Ranked: Google’s Thirstiest Data Centers
Locating and ranking the thirstiest of Google’s data centers in America, by the millions of gallons of water consumed in 2023.

How Much Water do Google’s Data Centers Use?
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.
This map locates Google’s data centers that consume the most water in America. Data is sourced from Google’s 2024 Environment Report.
Why do data centers need water? It’s because computer servers generate significant heat that must be dissipated to maintain performance.
As a result, water is used in chiller plants, evaporative cooling systems, and humidification to manage temperature levels.
Ranked: Google’s Thirstiest Data Centers
Google’s data center in Council Bluffs, Iowa consumed nearly 1 billion gallons of water in 2023, by far the most by any single complex listed in their report.
All of that water was potable, i.e., safe for drinking.
Rank | Location | State | Water Used 2023 (Gallons) |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Council Bluffs | IA | 980M |
2 | Mayes County | OK | 815M |
3 | Berkeley County | SC | 763M |
4 | Douglas County | GA | 346M |
5 | Lenoir | NC | 337M |
6 | The Dalles | OR | 302M |
7 | Montgomery County | TN | 289M |
8 | Leesburg | VA | 173M |
9 | Henderson | NV | 159M |
10 | Jackson County | AL | 142M |
11 | Midlothian | TX | 136M |
12 | Papillion | NE | 135M |
13 | New Albany | OH | 127M |
14 | Sterling | VA | 56M |
15 | Ashburn | VA | 55M |
16 | Lockbourne | OH | 23M |
17 | Lancaster | OH | 8M |
18 | Storey County | NV | 0.2M |
The data center complexes in Mayes County, Oklahoma and Berkeley County, South Carolina are the next “thirstiest,” using 750–800 million gallons of water a year.
These top three locations are well-above their counterparts across the U.S., and the rest of the world in water usage.
Together all of Google’s data centers used nearly more than 6 billion gallons of water in 2023, the equivalent of 41 golf courses.
Do Google’s Data Centers Drink Water?
Technically, data centers don’t actually “consume” all the water they use. Most of it is circulated in a closed-loop cooling system, with some loss.
However these numbers are from Google’s Sustainability Report, which specifies the water it’s withdrawn from the supply, discharged, and “consumed,” with the latter visualized here.
Also in drier areas, water is actively used to control humidity by evaporation which means it is being lost to the surroundings.
Finally, heated water returned to the ecosystem can have an adverse environmental impact.
Learn More on the Voronoi App 
The other thing data centers need a lot of: electricity. Check out Data Center Electricity Consumption by State for a breakdown.
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