Data Visualisations in Economics

Our World in Data is a project involving the University of Oxford and the charity Global Change Data Lab. This page is a large list of interactive visualisations, each combining maps, timelines, and tables. These cover a wide range of demographic, economic, political, health, and other data. These can usually be embedded in other websites, or exported as images or tables that can be freely reused with attribution.

Interactive workbook using the Tableau.com platform, visualising the US housing market from 1996 to 2017. As well as an instructions tab, there are four interactive tabs. The first of these gives a US map with time series of house prices by state. Ctrl-clicking on individual states adds or removes them from the time series display. This view can be filtered in various ways. The second has home value time series for selected metro areas, and the remaining tabs are scatter-plots of home value versus rent

Set of data visualisations that students can step through to explore inequality within countries. Using data from 1980 to 2014, the tool introduces Lorenz curves and the Gini coefficient, skyscraper plots, and rich/poor income ratios. The display changes in response to the time slider and the users' selection of up to seven countries.

Interactive view of social mobility data for the United States. Two dozen different outcomes can be analysed, and the results segmented by gender, race and native/immigrant as well as geographically. The site has built-in tutorials, downloadable data and the ability to upload and overlay your own data. There is a permalink feature that allows you to bookmark and share the exact state of the map you are looking at. The "stories" function shows how the data have been used to reach specific research conclusions. In Advanced Mode, it is possible to filter for specific ranges of values.

Interactive graph of UK income inequality (Gini coefficient) versus household disposable income (for a selectable percentile) from 1964 to 2018, with the line colour-coded by Prime Minister.

The site is in German, but still useable without the language as it generates graphs of rental price per square metre on a zoomable map, showing East/West and urban/rural differences. 

Impressive visualisation of house price changes in England and Wales, derived from Land Registry data and Ordnance Survey data. It colour-codes the price changes of individual properties and can be filtered by price or by change in price.

Interactive, zoomable map of England which colour-codes areas by different measures of deprivation, including the Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). Selecting a location brings up facts and figures about its measures of deprivation. The mouse wheel can be used to zoom in or out, and places can be searched by name.

Aiming to "make data on world development understandable, enjoyable and free", Gapminder offers interactive uses of technology to humanise economic data. These include "Dollar Street", in which you tour homes that are representative of various incomes, as well as several interactive graphs of health, income and education.

This is a simple interactive graph to illustrate the transition that happened with the Industrial Revolution. It shows real wage data for London craftsmen over a long period, along with the population of London. A timeline of significant events in London can optionally be superimposed. The viewer controls how much of the graph is visible, either by clicking and dragging or by moving controls underneath. It was created to be used in lectures, showing part of the graph at first and prompting students to predict what comes next.

Interactive visualisation of the US Federal Income Tax system as of 2012. Readers can click and drag thresholds and marginal rates, and see a dynamic graph of effective tax rate. The graph also shows the change in tax revenue based on IRS, Census, and NBER data .

Interactive maps, some with images and links, relating to famous economists. These have been generated with the Wikidata service - a sister project of Wikipedia - which in turn uses Open Street Map. The data themselves are free for reuse without any restriction. The maps and images are available under a variety of Creative Commons licences.