It’s predicted that by 2025 we will reach 175 zettabytes of data created worldwide. For reference, one zettabyte stores as much information as 33 million human brains. Seeing such a figure, it can be hard to wrap around our heads just how much data is available to us, let alone be able to scratch its surface.
That’s why the creator of the Instagram account “We Have The Data” does their best to find and share data visualizations that present big amounts of information in an easy-to-understand and aesthetically pleasing way. Scroll down to find their best posts and make sure to upvote the ones that you find the most enlightening.
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Image credits: matt_gray_
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Image credits: historyinmemes
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Image credits: wehavethedata
In the last eleven years, the generated volume of data grew by almost 5000% worldwide. And if someone would download all the information from the web today, it would take approximately 181 million years.
Despite these numbers being quite substantial, only 10% of the data we have today is original. The rest is copied and replicated. In fact, it’s predicted that the unique and copied information ratio will change from 1:9 to 1:10 by the end of 2024.
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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"The journey of an Arctic Fox who walked from Norway to Canada in 2018"
Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: Rainmaker1973
Internet users spent around 2.8 million years online in 2018, generating more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day. This number just keeps growing, as it was found that in 2020, internauts created 1.7 megabytes of information every second, totaling 40 zettabytes that year.
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Image credits: AlecStapp
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Image credits: artisanrocky
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"The Amazon River and its tributaries"
Image credits: wehavethedata
How do we do it? Well, WhatsApp users alone exchange more than 65 billion messages and complete 55 million video calls daily. The app allows more than 1 billion groups to connect and interact with each other, generating large amounts of data.
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Image credits: WarMonitors
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Image credits: Rainmaker1973
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Image credits: MadelnCanada
According to 2023 statistics, Facebook produces 4,000 terabytes each day and ranks as the most visited site worldwide. Meanwhile, X accumulates 500 million posts daily, totaling 560 gigabytes of information. And the young people’s favorite app, TikTok, averages 7.35 terabytes of data each day.
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Image credits: JamesLucasIT
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
Before most of this information is stored away, it’s converted into numbers 1 and 0. When it’s changed into symbols that computers can process quicker, it can be stored away in one of three locations. First are devices that can be linked to the internet, like our personal computers, smartphones, tablets, and other similar technologies.
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"Tracking of an eagle over a 20 year period"
Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: erikphoel
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"The easternmost point of Brazil is closer to Africa than to its westernmost point"
Image credits: wehavethedata
The second is called the edge, which already includes bigger infrastructures like cell towers and servers used in institutions like universities, government offices, factories, and banks. The third location that stores the most amount of data is known as the core, which are traditional data servers and cloud data centers.
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"Uptown, midtown, downtown of Toronto"
Image credits: wehavethedata
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"The numbers 0-99 sorted alphabetically in different languages"
Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: scienceisstrat1
The largest data center in the world belongs to China Telecom Data Centre, in Hohhot. It occupies 10.7 million square feet, equivalent to about 180 football fields. When we say that we store information in the cloud, it’s not being stashed away somewhere in the atmosphere. It’s being kept in massive data centers—physical objects that actually take up quite a lot of space on our planet.
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Image credits: tradingMaxiSL
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"A cool guide showing you the various patterns of black and white or tuxedo cats"
Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: MAstronomers
Since data generation is ever-growing, to meet the demand for storage, around 100 new data centers are built every two years. It’s estimated that if it continues to increase at the rate it is now, to sustain it, in 110 years we’ll need all the planetary power we consume today.
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: tanayj
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: amazingmap
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Image credits: Noahpinion
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Image credits: sdand
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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"Ugly Gerry" is a font created by gerrymandered congressional districts
Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: BrilliantMaps
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: Rainmaker1973
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: waitbutwhy
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: Locati0ns
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: RizomaSchool
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: wehavethedata
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Image credits: Rainmaker1973
