The Data is Beautiful subreddit was created in February 2012, and it’s amassed an impressive 19.4 million members since then. The group’s description explains that it’s for “visualizations that effectively convey information”, and notes that, “Aesthetics are an important part of information visualization, but pretty pictures are not the sole aim of this subreddit.” So while you might find these pics stunning, you’re also going to learn something. The moderators note in the subreddit’s rules that posts must contain a “qualifying data visualization”, which, for the purposes of this subreddit, means no photographs. 

“Fake data, goofball statistics, and trivial analysis” are also not welcome in Data is Beautiful. The information shared must be based on real or simulated data, a mapping of information to a visual property, must be more than “dots on a map”, must be made with the intent to communicate data, and must be comprehensible based on the visual and labels included.  

We’ve previously covered Data is Beautiful on Bored Panda over the past couple years, and in the past, we were lucky enough to get in touch with the group’s moderators to learn more about running this informational subreddit. The moderators previously shared with Bored Panda that they hold high standards for the community, ensuring that members are treated as “first-class citizens” who are always credited and acknowledged for their work. 

“We bring a data-centric view of the world to millions of people every day—from important information about the COVID-19 pandemic all the way to a random dude's daily bowel movements—and our community prides itself in that fact,” one moderator previously shared. “For example, we had community members posting analyses and projections of COVID-19 trends back in January and February 2020—well before anyone in the U.S. was taking the pandemic seriously. /r/DataIsBeautiful is THE place to go when you want to see the signal through the noise of hectic daily life.”

According to the moderator team of Data is Beautiful, the subreddit receives between 400-500 submissions every week, and in one given month, they had 2,370 approvals, removals and spam posts. Meanwhile, the number of comments the subreddit receives is far too many to count, with an estimate of over 100k. And the rules of the group are frequently being assessed and improved by the moderators. “For example, we no longer allow YouTube videos as it was being abused by content creators looking for subs on their channel,” one moderator previously told Bored Panda. “We also occasionally temporarily prohibit specific subjects, like Tinder or dating posts, when a topic overwhelms the subreddit although dating posts are allowed again.”

“We also only allow personal posts (posts about the poster such as miles jogged over a year, as an example) on Mondays, which I believe we instituted during my tenure,” one moderator added. “That's just a flavor of the types of rules we add, adjust, or remove over time. Rule changes are done by consensus of the mods and we will often spend days or weeks deciding on new rules and how to word them.”

And while the moderators are constantly working hard to ensure that the subreddit is functioning as perfectly as possible, due to the sheer amount of content, they can’t filter through every single post. “Most posts are visible immediately, however, we also utilize AutoMod to ‘filter’ out posts that likely violate a rule,” one moderator previously explained to Bored Panda. “Speaking of AutoMod, we heavily rely on it to filter, or make invisible, both posts and comments based on keywords, user karma, and URL links (to name a few) which then have to be manually approved before they are visible. We also utilize it to automatically remove posts that violate our rules (e.g., YouTube links or directly linking an image and not claiming [OC]) so we mods don't even have to see them.”

As far as growth is concerned in this subreddit, it’s been pretty steady, according to the moderators. They shared that it started to slow down in 2017 and 2018, but since the last time we featured Data is Beautiful, the subreddit has gained over 3 million members, so it has definitely continued its growth over the years. The moderators also previously told Bored Panda that, “The way Reddit works, the subscriber count isn't all that important above a certain point, which is enough to get on r/all and/or the front page. That hits on a topic most of the more serious subreddits face: good content vs popular content.”

The moderators also noted that they work “above and beyond and really keep the community moving.” And as far as what’s popular in the community, there’s a wide variety of charts being shared. A couple of years ago, COVID posts had a massive spike, understandably, but today there are different trends. And when it comes to what type of graphs are ideal for the page, one moderator previously told Bored Panda, “Pies and bars certainly both have their uses, but we've all seen the results of tortured dataviz, and I think that's where something like the pie chart gets a bad rap.”

There are literally no limits to the kinds of information that can be displayed in a gorgeous graph or captivating chart. All you need to make your own is some reliable data, a computer program that can create a stunning display of information and a clear message to convey. Data is anything but boring, because it can be about anything you like! If you’re interested in food, politics, cultural differences around the world, or anything else, you can certainly learn something new in the Data is Beautiful group.

Are you feeling wowed by these gorgeous charts and displays of data? These pics just go to show that everything in life can be fascinating, even statistics, if displayed in the right way. Keep upvoting the charts you love the most, and let us know in the comments what information you’d like to see conveyed in a gorgeous way. Then, if you’re interested in checking out Bored Panda’s previous publications featuring the Data is Beautiful subreddit, you can find those right here and here!