Data vis lists, 2025

Happy New Year! While our regular Data Vis Dispatch is still on holiday break, we've collected plenty of lists highlighting the best data visualizations of 2025. They celebrate data journalism, data visualization, simple charts, elaborate maps, and their creators from the past year, as we like to do. We've gathered them all in one place for you to explore.

Recurring topics include — well — you have to look into the lists for that.

First up: existing lists (and even awards) of the best data visualizations of 2025, which were created to highlight outstanding charts, maps, and data journalism from the past year.

Global Investigative Journalism Network: <a href="https://gijn.org/stories/2025-editors-picks-data-journalism/"><strong>Editor’s Pick: Best of Data Journalism from 2025</strong></a>, December 19 — Global Investigative Journalism Network: **Editor’s Pick: Best of Data Journalism from 2025**, December 19

The Pudding: <a href="https://pudding.cool/pudding-cup/"><strong>The Pudding Cup - The best visual and data-driven stories of 2025</strong></a>, December 15 — The Pudding: **The Pudding Cup - The best visual and data-driven stories of 2025**, December 15

Swiss Viz:<a href="https://www.swissviz.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com"> <strong>3rd Swiss Viz Awards</strong></a>, November 21 — Swiss Viz: **3rd Swiss Viz Awards**, November 21

Numerous newsrooms and companies presented and collected their own visualizations from the year 2025 into rich and varied portfolios.

Bloomberg:<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-in-graphics/"> <strong>2025: The Year in Graphics</strong></a>, December 15 — Bloomberg: **2025: The Year in Graphics**, December 15

McKinsey & Company: <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/year-in-review/year-in-charts"><strong>McKinsey Publishing’s year in charts</strong></a>, December 8 — McKinsey & Company: **McKinsey Publishing’s year in charts**, December 8

The New York Times: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/12/22/us/2025-year-in-graphics.html"><strong>2025: The Year in Visual Stories and Graphics</strong></a>, December 22 — The New York Times: **2025: The Year in Visual Stories and Graphics**, December 22

Nexo Jornal: <a href="https://www.nexojornal.com.br/especial/2025/12/26/retrospectiva-do-ano-2025-em-graficos"><strong>O ano de 2025 nos gráficos do Nexo</strong></a> [<em>The year of 2025 in the Nexo charts</em>], December 29 — Nexo Jornal: **O ano de 2025 nos gráficos do Nexo** [*The year of 2025 in the Nexo charts*], December 29

The Straits Times: <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/multimedia/graphics/2025/12/visual-stories-and-digital-graphics-2025/index.html"><strong>2025 in visual stories and digital graphic</strong></a>s, December 29 — The Straits Times: **2025 in visual stories and digital graphic**s, December 29

The Washington Post: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2025/washington-post-favorite-visual-stories/"><strong>2025 in visual storytelling</strong></a>, December 24 — The Washington Post: **2025 in visual storytelling**, December 24

... and some newsrooms, individuals, and organizations selected their most popular, important, (and even worst) visual works of 2025.

maps.com: <a href="https://www.maps.com/revisit-the-most-popular-maps-of-2025/"><strong>The Most Popular Maps of 2025</strong></a>, December 15 — maps.com: **The Most Popular Maps of 2025**, December 15

Our World in Data: <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/top-of-the-charts-2025"><strong>Top of the Charts: our most popular work in 2025</strong></a>, December 5 — Our World in Data: **Top of the Charts: our most popular work in 2025**, December 5

Pew Research Center: <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/12/15/our-favorite-data-visualizations-of-2025/"><strong>Our favorite data visualizations of 2025</strong></a>, December 15 — Pew Research Center: **Our favorite data visualizations of 2025**, December 15

The Texas Tribune:<a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2025/12/29/texas-tribune-data-visuals-top-stories-2025/"> <strong>Here are the most important stories from our data visuals team in 2025</strong></a>, December 29 — The Texas Tribune: **Here are the most important stories from our data visuals team in 2025**, December 29

Topdown Charts: <a href="https://entrylevel.topdowncharts.com/p/my-worst-charts-of-2025"><strong>My Worst Charts of 2025</strong></a>, December 28 — Topdown Charts: **My Worst Charts of 2025**, December 28

Other lists focus on visualizations that help explain 2025 and its most common topics.

Harvard Business Review: <a href="https://hbr.org/2025/12/the-hbr-charts-that-help-explain-2025"><strong>The HBR Charts that Help Explain 2025</strong></a>, December 29 — Harvard Business Review: **The HBR Charts that Help Explain 2025**, December 29

The New York Times:<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/business/dealbook/charts-2025-economy.html"> <strong>From A.I. to Tariffs, 14 Charts That Explain 2025</strong></a>, December 20 — The New York Times: **From A.I. to Tariffs, 14 Charts That Explain 2025**, December 20

Financial Times: The year in review, December 23 (<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/ddf7aef6-b466-40f5-b456-5618a703cffc"><strong>Part 1</strong></a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e92915cb-9783-4a2d-a19d-9c981ff26f29"><strong>Part 2</strong></a>) — Financial Times: The year in review, December 23 (**Part 1**, **Part 2**)

Finally, we at Datawrapper haven't fallen behind. We've written two articles looking back at 2025. Which visualizations did Datawrapper users create? And what were our favorite news visualizations?

Datawrapper: <a href="https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/popular-chart-types-2025"><strong>Which chart types did our users create in 2025?</strong></a>, December 25 — Datawrapper: **Which chart types did our users create in 2025?**, December 25

Datawrapper:<a href="https://www.datawrapper.de/blog/data-vis-dispatch-december-23-2025"> <strong>Data Vis Dispatch, December 23: Holiday special</strong></a>, December 23 — Datawrapper: **Data Vis Dispatch, December 23: Holiday special**, December 23

With that, thank you for an inspiring 2025 and a very vis-y New Year!

What else we found interesting

Applications are open for…

A cartographic design intern at Esri Creative Lab
A graphics reporter (deleted data project) at The Guardian
A data storyteller at Kontinentalist

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