200 Years of Immigration to the US Visualized
insightfulinteraction.com
insightfulinteraction.com
But the way the data is visualized, and the way you can explore it, is awesome. It's like a database you can query just by moving the mouse around. Strike the "like" - that is exactly what it is.
The totals look to drop sharply by about 70%, but looking at the data, it was pretty consistent at about 1 million a year.
In general I have a problem with applying smooth curves to data derived from histograms.
the drop at the end could easily make a reader think that immigration has dropped recently. to avoid giving that misimpression, i'd recommend to multiply the last datapoints by 10/4; equivalently, think of your y-axis units as immigrants per year, rather than immigrants per 10-year bucket.
the problem with smooth curves is that they create data that doesn't exist; like someone who invents a few extra details when telling a story in order to make it more interesting. there's no clear line between editorializing, clarifying, embellishment and fabrication; even a blue dress can look white.
anyway, smooth curves obscure the limits of your data; without them it'd be more clear that we're strictly dealing with decades. for your most interested readers that clarity would be helpful.
Regarding smooth curves, you see, the data is unchanged - you can see exact numbers in tooltips, the visualization is just new look of it, what it's supposed to be )