Cities with the Most Skyscrapers
graph by @stats_feed; slow reveal by Jenna Laib
(Slide Deck includes notes and questions to elicit discourse)
Type of Graph: bar graph
Visualization Source: @stats_feed, “Cities with the Most Skyscrapers.” Instagram: May 20, 2023.
Data Source: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. “Cities by Number of 150m+ Buildings.” Skyscraper Center. Accessed May 25, 2023.
Wikipedia. “List of Cities with the Most Skyscrapers.” Accessed May 25, 2023.
Potential Math Content: bar graphs, estimating values, using benchmarks
Potential Content Connections: cities, urban planning, buildings, economy, geography
I was surprised not to see Chicago on this list, since it’s known for its skyscrapers. This led me to look at the source data, which lists Chicago as having 135 skyscrapers, right below Chongqing. Turns out there are lots of cities besides Chicago skipped in this list, disproportionately from China. The 24 cities “with the greatest number of skyscrapers” includes 10 cities from China according the source data, but this visualization only includes 4 cities from China.
I hope this doesn’t come across as nit-picking. I find the math education work you do really interesting! But having gone down the rabbit hole, I thought it was worth sharing.
!!! This is absolutely worth sharing, and I am so glad you did! Ironically, I had linked to the Wikipedia page with the ranked list of cities, but I trusted the data viz and didn’t cross reference. (Also, on a personal note, I’m hitting up Chicago in a few days!)
I’ll be adding a note to this graph later. Again, very glad that you wrote!