iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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 · 23/04/2026

Yes, you have a point. Wouldn't have done this myself.

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Yes, usually use it in the middle as well. Here the data is very simple and the check if it's hallucinating is easy.

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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

Germany (≈84M persons) sends the most students. But population alone doesn’t explain it — France (≈68M) plays a different role.

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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 · 10/04/2026

That explains the difference. Here the data is for all educational years starting from primary school.

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Lisa, That data doesn't show that The most educated country is Germany (14,3 years of school) United States and Canada are both on 13.9, and indeed USA's GPD is a bit bigger than Canada.

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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

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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 · 05/04/2026

Iliteracy has declined. Literacy raised.

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 05/04/2026

Less people can't read now than in 1980.

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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

alphabétique du pays. Mais le but n'est pas de pouvoir lire les pays mais de voir la diversité. Mais je peux en faire une version interactive avec nom du pays et durée de études au survol.

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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

For Day 2 I used it to visualise a striking gap in global education: upper secondary school enrolment stands at 95% in developed countries — and just 44% in the least developed. Same age. Very different futures. 🔗 Give ggpop a try: jurjoroa.github.io/ggpop/

jurjoroa.github.io

Icon-Based Population Charts and Plots for ggplot2

ggpop is an R package for creating icon-based population charts and pictogram plots with ggplot2. Use geom_pop() and geom_icon_point() to visualize proportion and population data with 2,000+ Font Awes...

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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 · 02/04/2026

lnkd.in

This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn

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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

What happened to library(camcorder) in R? Do you have an idea why it's not working lately? Any turnaround? I don't like ggsave as you don't see the exact plot in the preview. 📊, #dataviz

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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

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

David this should be impressive. I'm preparing a trail next month with a short portion of 34%.

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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

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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

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

Stay tuned for more hashtag#DataViz and hashtag#RStats updates!

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Ralitza Soultanova @ralitzas.bsky.social · 31/03/2025

When I experiment with non-standard charts, I’ll share tutorials so you can follow along. I’ll be using R and ggplot2, focusing on Brussels data. And if you know of any interesting Brussels datasets, don’t hesitate to share them with me.

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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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