Facebook Breakups Chart and David McCandless’ “Information Is Beautiful” blog

So SAI Chart of the Day sent out a fabulous graph of relationship breakups over time, thanks to Facebook and David McCandless:

I have had some harsh things to say about Chart of the Day in the past (see: “Bad Measurement: This Is The Kind of Chart that Really Pisses Me Off”), but this very interesting graphic pretty much makes up for past transgressions (although note the spelling of “Valentine's Day...”)

I can understand why people break up on Mondays, what with probably an eventful weekend preceding. Likewise it's obvious that what happens on spring break doesn’t always stay on spring break. But what's up with April Fool's Day?

And who would have guessed that so many breakups happen just before Xmas? (Although, come to think of it, that‘s when my ex-wife walked out. So there you have it.)

But hey, how come there are so few breakups at the end of the summer? I wonder what the demographics of this Facebook sample are and how that would affect these results?

So I followed the link trail over to David McCandless’ blog Information Is Beautiful, and wow! there are some seriously great info-graphics there. Including:

Snake Oil? Scientific evidence for popular health supplements

The Billion Dollar-O-Gram. Where the big money goes to.

Reduce Your Odds Of Dying In A Plane Crash 

 

--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.

 

Comments

[Christina]

My guess is April Fools Day "break-ups" are simply people who change their relationship status in an attempt to "fool" their friends...

[nhommua]

Thanks for sharing information

[Carbonated Tv]

Valentine's Day is disturbingly high. O.o April Fool's Day just made me lol for some reason.Facebook breakups - a fine use of fancy charts, lol.