Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Worldwide Gini Index

This image shows worldwide historical Gini index values from 1950. I am posting it to give additional context to my earlier post of the Gini index for the fifty states and DC.















U.S. Neighborhood Income and Inequality in the 2005-2009 Period

What is the income inequality index for your state? See the Tableau chart below.
The following data announcement was released 10/26 by the U.S. Census Bureau.
"WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Presents analysis of household income inequality using statistics from the 2005-2009 American Community Survey for the nation, states, metropolitan areas, places and census tracts. The Gini index is used for analysis of all these areas. Included is an analysis of the characteristics of census tracts associated with higher or lower inequality. (Census tracts and places with fewer than 50 interviews in the five-year period under study are excluded from the analysis.) Internet address: http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/acs-16.pdf."
I have converted the state-level data. Three measures are used: the Gini index, P90/10, and P95/20. Google "Gini index" here. I have noted the P9*/* index definition in the chart.

Monday, November 7, 2011

Unemployment Rate by College Major Field

Featured on Wall Street Journal today. Based on US Census 2010 Data and research by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

(Related viz on Unemployment Rate by Level of Education Attainment here.)

Occupations of the Top 1%


Here's another angle on the Top 1% income earners. The study was mentioned in a New York Times Op-Ed piece by David Brooks.

UPDATE: Paul Krugman has a rebuttal (sort-of). David Brooks concludes it as an 'educated vs non' class difference but Paul Krugman claims that old argument is nothing more than obfuscation of the truth. His New York Times piece here. He also says that it's not really the 1%, it's the 0.1% (one-tenth of the 1%)The data source I have referenced also includes the 0.1% data, so if anyone would care to visualize it in Tableau Public please let me know.

Fifty corporations that control global wealth

This Tableau visualization is based on the work of Stefania Vitali, James B. Glattfelder, and Stefano Battiston of Systems Design, ETH Zurich in Zurich, Switzerland.

Their research method identified the corporations with the most global influence based upon a score they call 'Network Control'. 147 are identified in their paper. The graphs below show the top 50 of the 147. Update: The study first identified 737 top holders able to potentially control 80% (of the operating revenue of the 43k transnationals). The top 50 graphed below are from this list. Further, looking at the network topology, the core was formed by 1300 companies. Of these, 147 were also in the top 737, controlling about 40%. In the Supplementary Info, (here and pdf here) in the list of the top 50, these are indicated with "SCC" in the column "Network position".

Their paper, titled "The Network of Global Corporate Control" is found here:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025995

Here are my Tableau visualizations. As additional attributes, I've joined the NACE hierarchy which classifies the industry of the corporations. The instant insight is that most of them are in Finance Intermediation. The lone corporation belonging to Manufacturing is Walton Enterprises aka Wal-Mart.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

US Unemployment Rate by Education Attainment as of Oct 2011

This unemployment report is from the US Department of Labor,  Bureau of Labor Statistics.
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t04.htm

The visualization below is based on the employment status of the civilian population age 25 years and over. It is further classified by educational attainment, from 'Less Than High School Diploma' to 'Bachelor's and higher'. The data is from June 2011 to Oct 2011, includes Oct 2010 for comparison, and seasonally adjusted.


How big is Wal-Mart?

In the 2010 US Retailers annual report by the National Retail Federation, Wal-Mart ranks #1 out of the top 100 retailers in the US. Just how far ahead is Wal-Mart from the #2? Kroger, ranked second, had $78 billion in 2010 US retail sales. Wal-Mart had $307 billion. The scatterplot below shows the difference.

(click on image for larger view)


The top 100 ranking is based on US retail sales, but does include figures for worldwide retail sales of the ranked stores. Wal-Mart had $421 billion in retail sales total worldwide for 2010.

If ordered by the aggregate worldwide sales, AT&T Wireless comes in second due to sales outside the United States. What are they selling that is so much bigger outside of the US market? The percent of international retail sales is amazing.

(click on image for larger view)