“The dirty little secret that data journalists aren’t telling you”

“Visualizing data is as much an art as a science. And seemingly tiny design decisions — where to set a color threshold, how many thresholds to set, etc. — can radically alter how numbers are displayed and perceived by readers.”

Take a look at the map above. It tells the story of a year’s population change in the United States, according to the latest Census data. It shows where the population is growing, like the coasts, the Sunbelt, and the oil fields of western North Dakota.

Read more at: www.washingtonpost.com