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Ralitza Soultanova

@ralitzas.bsky.social
1K followers 972 following 102 posts

Data Interpreter & Visualizer: Transforming Complex Data into Compelling Visual Stories. Writes about DataViz, R, Science Communication. Teaching statistics to undergraduate students.

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
Day 29 · #30DayChartChallenge · Monochrome 165 students guessed the sweets in a jar. Only 15% got within ±10% of the truth. Nearly 1 in 3 was off by more than half. And most of them felt confident. The humbling geometry of being wrong. #rstats #dataviz #statistics #teaching
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Day 28 · #30DayChartChallenge — Uncertainty 165 students guessed the sweets in a jar. 119 were confident they knew the answer. 119 were wrong in the same direction. One jar. One bias. One very good first stats class. 🍬 #rstats #dataviz #statistics #teaching
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Day 27/30 — Uncertainty in Motion PISA reading scores animated as a Voronoi diagram. Green = above OECD average, orange = below. Close to the mean? You fade into the background. Not the most readable chart. But fun to make. #DataViz #RStats #30DaysOfCharts
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 26/04/2026
Day 26/30 — Uncertainty Trend Which countries got better at reading? Not the ones you'd expect. 20+ years of PISA data. Only 10 of 38 countries improved. Finland dropped 56 points. Iceland fell 71. Chile and Colombia led the improvers. No clear pattern. #DataViz #Education #PISA #30DayOfCharts
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 25/04/2026
Day 25 — #30DayChartChallenge Averages are comforting. They’re also misleading. The left plot looks clean: continental averages, neatly organised. One number can feel clear. It can also hide very different realities. Data: UNESCO & Our World in Data #DataViz
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Day 24 — Time Series | #30DaysOfCharts Hong Kong graduates heading overseas for university hit a 14-year low in 2025 — down 56% from the 2014 peak. Been wanting to try gganimate for a while — fun to play with, even if animated charts aren't always the most readable! #DataViz #RStats #ggplot2
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 22/04/2026
Is coding becoming secondary in data viz? No R. No ggplot. Just Claude — 3 interactions. From 1 in 10 adults able to read → nearly 9 in 10 today. Same data. New tools. Maybe the real skill isn’t coding. It’s knowing what to show — and how. How are you using AI? #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #AI
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
From no schooling → mass education In 1950, nearly half of the world had no formal education. By 2020: just 13% — and secondary became the norm (49%). Access expanded massively. Now the challenge is progression and inequality within systems. #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Day 20 — Global change In 1900, most children were out of school. Today, it’s a small minority. But not for everyone — girls were left behind for decades. Progress is real. Inequality too. #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 19/04/2026
Day 19 — Timeseries (Evolution) Higher education enrolment across EU countries, 2000–2024. Each small chart shows one country in focus (yellow), against the EU context (grey). Education expansion is not uniform — but it is widespread. #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education #EU #Timeseries
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Day 18 — UNICEF data In most countries, girls outperform boys in reading in class 2-3 of primary school. Across 34 countries (MICS6), girls are ahead in 24 — often by a small margin, but consistently. Data: UNICEF MICS6 #DataViz #Education #GenderGap #UNICEF #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Day 16 — Remake Back to Day 9, but simpler. Same idea, new chart: wealth vs years of schooling. The relationship is still there — clear and strong. #DataViz #Education #Wealth #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
Day 16 — Causation 37% vs 98%. A child's chance of finishing primary school, depending on where they're born. Poverty causes low education. Low education causes poverty. A cycle — but not an unbreakable one. In 1990 that 37% was only 14%. #DataViz #Education #R #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Day 15 — Correlation A clear shift in new students in the UK after Brexit: fewer from the EU, more from elsewhere. Correlation or causation? #DataViz #InternationalStudents #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
Day 14 — Trade Where European students go to study. This Sankey maps flows of tertiary students across the EU — from top sending countries to main destinations. #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education #EU
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Day 13 - Education doesn’t run on good intentions. It runs on funding. In the EU, public spending on education varies from 2.9% to 7.3% of GDP. Same ecosystem. Very different levels of support. 3 highest and 3 lowest spending countries. #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #Education
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Most European adults are learning more than in 2016. Sweden leads at 37.5%. Bulgaria sits at 1.8%. The EU target is 60% by 2030 — most countries have a long way to go. Day 12 of #30DayChartChallenge — Built in R · Data: Eurostat #DataViz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 11/04/2026
81% of adolescents worldwide don't move enough. Girls: 85%. Boys: 78%. Every square = 1 child. The gold ones are the minority. Day 11 of #30DayChartChallenge — Physical. Built in R · Data: Guthold et al., The Lancet (2019) #DataViz #RStats #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Day 10 — Pop culture A few iconic dropouts—Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates—have shaped how we think about success. But they are exceptions. Across countries, OECD data shows that higher education still brings substantial economic returns. #DataViz #Education #Inequality #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
Day 9 — Wealth Wealth and education move together. Across countries, the richer the country, the longer people stay in school. A strong relationship (r =0,84). Distance = years of schooling Size = GDP per capita #DataViz #Education #Wealth #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Day 8 · Circular Same dataset, different view. The gap is now small almost everywhere — and sometimes reversed. Still work to do in Asia and Africa. More to explore at country level. #DataViz #Education #30DayChartChallenge
#30DayChartChallenge Petal chart
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Day 7 — Multiscale Girls are catching up. Across every continent, schooling is rising — and the gap with boys is shrinking. Not at the same pace, but in the same direction. #DataViz #30DayChartChallenge
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Day 6 of #30DayChartChallenge — Reporters Without Borders Does education buy press freedom? Somewhat. r = 0.40 across 148 countries — a real but imperfect relationship. Education matters. But it's clearly not enough. Tools: R · ggplot2 Data: UNESCO / Our World in Data · RSF 2025 #DataViz #Rstats
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Day 5 of #30DayChartChallenge — data art. Each spiral is a country. Its length = years in school. From barely 1 to 14. Some barely get started. Others unwind freely. That gap is what this is about. Same data as Day 3 — UNESCO via Our World in Data. #DataViz #RStats #Education
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 04/04/2026
Day 4 — Slope Illiteracy is declining across the world. Countries don’t start from the same place — far from it. But over time, the slopes of decline look strikingly similar. #DataViz #RStats #ggplot2#Education #OpenData #30DayChartChallenge.
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Day 3 mosaic Friday = something more artistic. 193 tiles = 193 countries Color = average years of schooling From 1.4 (Nigeria) to 14.3 (Germany) Data: UNDP (2025), via Our World in Data #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #RStats
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
#30DayChartChallenge day 2: Pictogram A shameless bit of self-promotion today. Give a try to ggpop. A couple of years ago I made a plot that caught the eye of Jorge Roa who build (together with others) ggpop, an R package for creating icon-based population charts. #DataViz #ggplot2 #ggpop
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
Day 1 of #30DayChartChallenge This year: education data. Good news to start — global illiteracy has fallen drastically. I used a donut chart. Yes, the one I tell everyone to avoid. When the message is this simple, it can work. R + ggplot2 #rstats #dataviz #education
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
I ran my first road marathon. Looking around, everyone around me seemed to be a young man. Confirmed by the data: - Only 1 in 4 runners was a woman - 4 in 10 runners were men under 35 - Women my age or older? Less than 2% #DataViz #DataVisualization #marathon #running
population pyramid of runnners
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 02/04/2025
30 Days of Charts – Day 2: Slope Did you ever tried running or biking up Rue du Mystère in Brussels? A street with a slope of 11.3% It might not look daunting on a graph, but trust me, it's a challenge when you are out there! #Brussels #RueDuMystère #30DayChartChallenge #DataViz #DataVisualization
dataviz 30Days of charts
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 01/04/2025
30 Days of Charts — Day 1 - Fractions Education on the Rise In Brussels, the share of young adults (aged 25–34) with a higher education diploma has steadily increased over the past 20 years. Rising from 46% in 2004 to 60% in 2024. #30DayChartChallenge, #fractions #dataviz
education, dataviz, 30days of charts
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 31/03/2025
30Days of Charts starts tomorrow, and I'm excited to join #30DayChartChallenge again! This year, I’m aiming for 10 charts throughout the month. To stay efficient, I’ll set a 60-minute timer for each chart—otherwise, I tend to spend way too long fine-tuning the details.
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 13/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 13 : Triangles and nothing else. The rotation of a triangle. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5 #GenerativeArt #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt #genartclub
rotation tringle, generative art
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 12 : Subdivision. I created fractal trees with curvature of the branches and some randomness. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5 #GenerativeArt #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt
Genuary, tree, fractal
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 11 : Impossible day - Try to do something that feels impossible for you to do. I tried to embrace the randomness. I wanted to play with flowers without an idea of the final result I want to achieve. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #p5 #GenerativeArt #geometry #DigitalArt
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 10 : You can only use TAU in your code, no other number allowed. That was a funny challenge In 34 lines of code 37 uses of TAU :-) #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5 #GenerativeArt #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt
TAU, creative coding, concentric circles
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 9 : The textile design patterns of public transport seating. Colour coud have made more cense here but I'm keeping my grey scale approach #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5 #GenerativeArt #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
version 3
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Version 2
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 8: Draw one million of something. One million bezier curves . Random gray scale colour of the stroke is changing every 8000 strokes. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary5 #codeart #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt
Bezier curve, Generative Art, random
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 7: "Use software that is not intended to create art or images". Here I used random numbers and conditional formatting in Excel. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary5 #codeart #generativeart #geometry #DigitalArt #GeometricArt
random numbers, conditional formatting
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
I was not very happy with version one of day 6 so decided to test something else. Genuary 2025 Day 6: Make a landscape using only primitive shapes. Keeping it very simple for this submission. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary6 #codeart #generativeart #geometry
Simple generative art
minimal landscape
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 6: Make a landscape using only primitive shapes. Keeping it very simple for this submission. #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary6 #codeart #generativeart #geometry
#Genuary
#Genuary2025
#JavaScript
#p5.js
#GenerativeArt
#Genuary6
#codeart
#generativeart
#geometry
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 5: isometric art Today I played with isometric cubes #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary5
isometric cubes
P5.js 
generative art
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Genuary 2025 Day 4: Black On Black on Black #Genuary #Genuary2025 #JavaScript #p5.js #GenerativeArt #Genuary4
generative art, black on black, genuary
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
✨ Interactive CV Journey ✨ Today, I created a visual interactive CV to showcase how mathematics, social sciences, and photography have been the pillars of my career and life. 🌟 Do you happen to know how to make tooltips work with streamgraph and GGPlot? 📊, #dataviz, #datavis, #R, #Florish
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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 05/11/2024
🚀𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐕𝐢𝐳 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐆𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐍 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐮𝐦 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐩! 🚀 I created an interactive map that brings to life data on Colombia’s international entry points and top visitor nationalities. Link to the Medium article describing the steps t.ly/3NpLG
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