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Mitchell Thorson

@mitchellthorson.com

690 followers 620 following 41 posts

Lead data visualization engineer at the Urban Institute. Otherwise reading books, riding bikes, listening to music, or talking a walk. 💻 mitchellthorson.com 📍 Brooklyn, NY

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Nov 12

Hello to all new followers, here's quick intro post.

I'm Mitchell, I make data visualizations and build websites. I work at @urbaninstitute.bsky.social, and I used to work at USA Today where I contributed to a lot of award winning projects. 📊

Learn more at my website! www.mitchellthorson.com

Mitchell Thorson

Mitchell is a data visualization specialist, web developer and information designer.

www.mitchellthorson.com

Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Sep 9

Did you know that nearly half of families in the US with children under 4 struggle to afford diapers?

📊 A new data tool from @urbaninstitute.bsky.social looks at data in states and counties to understand where the largest gaps are.

www.urban.org/data-tools/m...

A map of United States counties showing the number of diapers needed to fill the gap faced by families with young children and low-to-moderate incomes each year. Urban areas and large cities are shaded darkly, indicating a large amount of need, while rural areas also indicate the presence of a gap.

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Aug 13

Link: www.urban.org/stories/disa...

Disasters and the Gulf Coast, 20 Years after Hurricane Katrina

Place-based data about how disasters have affected the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina and the federal government’s role in managing extreme events.,On August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made lan...

www.urban.org

Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Aug 13

Excited to share this new piece from @urbaninstitute.bsky.social @wcurrangroome.bsky.social @andrewrumbach.bsky.social @sara-mctarnaghan.bsky.social and team that gives an excellent data-driven overview of the last 20 years of natural disasters and federal spending in Gulf Coast states. Lots of 📊!

A county-level map of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida showing the number of major natural disasters since Katrina. The text reads:

Every County in the Gulf Coast Has Suffered at Least 3 Major Disasters since Katrina, and Many Have Experienced 10 or More

Major disaster declarations by county, 2005–24

Source: Federal Emergency Management Agency, “OpenFEMA Dataset: Disaster Declarations Summaries – v2”, accessed July 18, 2025, https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/disaster-declarations-summaries-v2.

Notes: Only major disaster declarations (DR) for natural hazard events are included in this analysis.

A time-series chart that shows the cumulative disaster-related property damage from 1992-2023 in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. There are annotations that show that sharp increases in damage align with well-known storms like Hurricane Andrew, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Harvey, and Hurricane Ian.

The text reads:
Disaster Damages Continue to Rise in the Gulf Coast Twenty Years after Katrina

Cumulative disaster-related property damage, 1992–2023 ($)

Source: Center for Emergency Management and Homeland Security, Arizona State University, 2025, “Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States, Version 23.0,” accessed July 14, 2025.

Notes: All dollar amounts are in 2024 dollars. All per capita figures are calculated based on 2023 population estimates.

A time-based stacked column chart that shows the amount of FEMA pre-disaster hazard mitigation assistance funcing by program from 2005-2024, broken out into the following programs: SRL, RFC, FMA, PDM, BRIC, LPDM. The amount of funding trends upwards over time, with large totals over $800 million in 2022 and 23.

The text reads:
FEMA Has Granted Nearly $10 Billion for Hazard Mitigation, Mostly in Coastal Counties

FEMA pre-disaster hazard mitigation assistance funding by program, 2005–24 ($)

Source: FEMA, “OpenFEMA Dataset: Hazard Mitigation Assistance Projects – v4”, accessed July 20, 2025, https://www.fema.gov/openfema-data-page/hazard-mitigation-assistance-projects-v4.

Notes: BRIC = Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities; FEMA = Federal Emergency Management Agency; FMA = Flood Mitigation Assistance; LPDM = Legislative Pre-Disaster Mitigation program; PDM = Pre-Disaster Mitgation grant program; RFC = Repetitive Flood Claims program; SRL = Severe Repetitive Loss grant program. All dollar amounts are in 2024 dollars. All per capita figures are calculated based on 2023 population estimates. Statewide and other multicounty projects’ funding amounts were attributed to the county level proportionate to county populations.

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Nassos Stylianou @nassosstylianou.bsky.social · Jul 31

New visual story: Inside the relentless race for AI capacity

The quest for superintelligence is spurring a data centre boom — but critics question the cost, environmental impact and whether it is all needed

ig.ft.com/ai-data-cent...

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Jul 15

When I read Mood Machine earlier this year, I began seriously thinking about cancelling my Spotify sub. This piece from @hearingthingsco.bsky.social finally pushed me to act. I've been buying more music from @bandcamp.com, and from now on I'll be using a different platform for streaming.

Hearing Things @hearingthingsco.bsky.social · Jul 15

I don’t know how any ardent music fan could read @lizpelly.bsky.social's book 𝘔𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘔𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘦 and *not* be moved to cancel their Spotify subscription

Why We Quit Spotify

Enough is enough

www.hearingthings.co

Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Jason Wilson @jasonaw.bsky.social · Jul 3

Cremieux’s real name is Jordan Lasker. I put his name in the newspaper. He’s a scientific racist www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Ben Kates (he/him) @benkates.com · Jul 3

New case study up on my redesigned website! Full process of building a custom #datavisualization tool: brainstorming and prototyping to refining the UX through cross-functional teamwork and creative problem-solving! Inspired by @alv9n.com's great project walkthroughs!

Ben Kates - Case Study: Getting a Good Job Depends More on Race and Gender than Education

Ben is a data-focused technologist based in Philadelphia, PA creating custom data experiences for clients across industries.

benkates.com

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · May 15

What a beautiful new album from Duval Timothy out this week: duvaltimothy.bandcamp.com/album/wishfu...

wishful thinking, by Duval Timothy

16 track album

duvaltimothy.bandcamp.com

Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · May 15

This week, @urbaninstitute.bsky.social launched the Education-to-Workforce Framework data tool.

This was one of the more complex @svelte.dev apps we've built, and @benkates.com led the way on development and made something really cool with this one.

apps.urban.org/features/edu...

Screenshot of a series of data visualizations. There are three metrics displayed: Share of students in grade 3 who meet grade-level standards in math, and in language arts, as well as the share of students in grade 8 who meet grade-level standards in math. For each metric, there is a line chart showing the trend from 2013 through 2020 for Cook County, Illinois, the state of Illinois, and the U.S. as a nation.

A choropleth map showing the share of students in grade 3 who meet grade-level standards in math by county in the mid-Western United States. Cook county Illinois is highlighted.

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · May 14

This is really great! Thanks for sharing.

Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Matthias Stahl @higsch.com · May 13

Learn ggplot from the best in the field! 👇
This is also super interesting for my friends in science and their research groups.

Cédric Scherer @cedricscherer.com · May 12

Excited to launch "ggplot2 [un]charted" with @yan-holtz.bsky.social! 🎉

An online course to master #ggplot2 with exercises, quizzes, and modules—and hands-on code running in your browser!

Still WIP—sign up now for a limited discount:
👉 www.ggplot2-uncharted.com

#rstats #DataViz #DataVisualization

The landing page of the course "ggplot2 uncharted" with the title teasing it with "Master Data Visualizations with ggplot2".

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · May 12

NYC’s congestion pricing is a policy miracle: Less traffic, less noise, faster transit, more business sales, more transit revenue. And it hasn’t produced the negative effects outside the cordon zone we were afraid of.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Congestion pricing has improved life in New York City by: reducing cars on the street, speeding traffic (especially at peak hours), speeding buses and making them more reliable, expanding transit ridership, reducing car crashes, reducing noise complaints, and increasing the number of visitors.

Fire response times fell in the NYC congestion zone, even as they increased in the rest of the city.

Car crashes with injuries fell citywide, but they fell especially dramatically in the congestion pricing zone from 2024 to 2025

Local buses have sped up dramatically in the congestion pricing zone.

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Waxy.org @waxy.org · Mar 20

the html review 04: my favorite internet journal put out a fourth issue of experimental web writing https://thehtml.review/04/

the html review 04

It reminds me of the motivational lies my dad told my siblings and I while hiking: promising the summit was just around the corner, over that next hill, past this one last tree. The infinite scrollbar is grotesque, it just keeps pulling us along with no summit in sight, but somehow, we all go along with it.

thehtml.review

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · Mar 13

New data tool launch today 🚨 @urbaninstitute.bsky.social's Federal Infrastructure site.

It includes detailed information on funds from 110 programs across all states, counties & metro areas.

Tool pinpoints the support that communities receive for transportation, housing, energy, water & broadband.

Are Federal Infrastructure Dollars Meeting Your Community’s Needs?

Data analysis tracking whether the billions in funding that the US has committed to its roads, bridges, housing, and other infrastructure are getting to the communities that need it most.

apps.urban.org

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Aleszu @aleszu.bsky.social · Mar 11

Very gratifying to see three data visualization projects we worked on at @urbaninstitute.bsky.social longlisted at the Information is Beautiful awards.

Kudus to @mitchellthorson.com @benkates.com and @arobotwriting.bsky.social for their outstanding work bringing these complex datasets to life.

Screenshot showing the Urban Institute tool "Upward Mobility Data Dashboard."

Image of a data tool published by the Urban Institute featuring a unique radial visualization categorizing occupations in terms of quality and occupational crowding across demographic groups

Image showing the Urban Institute data tool "The Changing Medical Debt Landscape in the United States" which allows users to explore medical debt and its drivers at state and county levels, highlighting the 15 million Americans that have medical debt in collections and how the amounts they owe differ between regions.

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Gregor Aisch @driven-by-data.net · Feb 27

For the German election we wanted to use a cartogram of German election districts but didn't find anything good, so we created our own. Here's a little nerd thread how the final algorithm worked 🤓 🧵 #gis #cartogram #election #datavis #cartography

Cartogram of 299 German election districts

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · Feb 25

New research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social shows that mass deportations would likely worsen the housing shortage by decimating the labor force.

Immigrants make up >23% of the construction workforce & more in FL, TX. About half are estimated to be undocumented immigrants. www.urban.org/urban-wire/m...

Mass deportations would reduce the construction labor force and exacerbate the housing shortage nationwide.

More than 30% of construction workers were born outside the US in California, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · Feb 21

HUD programs support more than 5 million low-income households. They're now under threat of big cuts.

Our new data tool @urbaninstitute.bsky.social provides detailed info about people supported by HUD programs—and funds received—in every state & Congressional district: www.urban.org/data-tools/f...

Almost 600,000 people are supported by HUD affordable housing programs in Texas. Cities, towns, and counties throughout the state receive hundreds of millions of dollars each year in Community Development Block Grants.

In Mississippi, federal housing programs support 105,758 people and 53,157 households. These programs support people across all of Mississippi's Congressional districts. Overall, HUD's programs distribute more than $400 million annually into Mississippi alone.

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Aleszu @aleszu.bsky.social · Feb 20

Dismantling the Dept of Ed or disrupting functions like enforcing critical civil rights laws or halting IDEA funding could affect students with disabilities across the US.

The number of public school students with Individualized Education Programs may surprise you:

www.urban.org/urban-wire/h...

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Aleszu @aleszu.bsky.social · Feb 19

How long will housing recovery following LA's wildfires take? My team @urbaninstitute.bsky.social requested data on four recent fires and analyzed the recovery phases along three key milestones: 1) Debris removal 2) A building permit and 3)
Certificate of occupancy www.urban.org/urban-wire/w...

Line charts showing the timing of recovery phases for the 2018 Carr Fire.

Line charts showing the timing of recovery phases for the 2018 Camp Fire.

Line charts showing the timing of recovery phases for the 2022 Marshall Fire.

Line charts showing the timing of recovery phases for the 2023 Maui Wildfires.

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Jan 27

I haven't actually taken this, and it is a couple of years old, but I think Connor's course here bills itself more or less as what you're describing? www.newline.co/courses/bett...

Better Data Visualizations with Svelte | newline

Learn how to declaratively build responsive, interactive data visualizations with Svelte and D3. This course contains dozens of lessons, each complete with live coding examples for students to study a...

www.newline.co

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Aleszu @aleszu.bsky.social · Jan 8

Even among families who can afford most of their day-to-day needs, many cannot weather unexpected expenses, like trouble with their car or a visit to urgent care.

Urban has new analysis out showing, by state, how many families lack the resources to thrive.

www.urban.org/urban-wire/h...

Tile map showing by state the proportion of families across the US that lack the resources they need to thrive. In Hawaii, the state with the largest share of people in families with resources below the Urban Institute's true cost of economic security (TCES) threshold, 66 percent of people lacked the resources needed to thrive. And in North Dakota, which had the smallest share of people in families with resources below the threshold, 40 percent of people still did not have the resources necessary to achieve economic security.

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Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Dec 18

Gorgeous!

Mitchell Thorson @mitchellthorson.com · Dec 12

Curious about the thinking behind the 📊 charts in a project like the @urbaninstitute.bsky.social Upward Mobility Data Dashboard? Check out this new behind-the-scenes blog post from @aleszu.bsky.social and yours truly where we talk about our chart design process: medium.com/urban-instit...

How We Elegantly Visualized Complex Measures for the Urban Institute’s Upward Mobility Metrics

In October 2024, the Urban Institute launched the Upward Mobility Data Dashboard, a tool for local leaders to explore 24 conditions…

medium.com

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Reposted by Mitchell Thorson

Yonah Freemark @yonahfreemark.com · Dec 7

42% of Americans would live in a smaller home in a more walkable community.

Yet the reality is that, in most metro areas, those communities are few & far between—and they’re typically too expensive for many people to afford.

Work by @harrystevens.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

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