- Giants
- Financial Times
- US UK literacy earnings
US UK literacy earnings
Financial Times's scatter plot drew 1.3M views on X: 2.9x its typical post and #10 of 25 Financial Times charts we track by views. Read Oct 10, 2026.
New from me:
Why it spread
This post spread because it paired a striking claim about US workers who are functionally illiterate earning roughly the same per hour as the average British worker with a scatter chart, drawing 6,762 likes, 1,022 reposts, 315 quotes, 1,800 saves and 1,336,676 views, helped by many quotes and an independent author.
What worked
- The post text leads with a counterintuitive comparison that makes the chart feel necessary rather than decorative.
- The chart is a scatter with high self labelling and a source line, so viewers can read the relationship without extra explanation.
- The topic sits in data journalism with a branded chart and top quarter source reach, giving it credibility beyond the author's own audience.
What to borrow
We could take a simple relationship from our own data, state the surprising comparison in one plain sentence, then let a clearly labelled scatter carry the proof.
Careful
Do not copy the exact literacy and earnings comparison or assume the same framing will travel, since the spread also depended on many quotes, an independent author and a top quarter source reach.
Written by our analysis model from the measured numbers above, not by Financial Times.
Make it yours
Your numbers, the bar chart way.
Starts from the real numbers of "US workers who are functionally illiterate earn roughly the same per hour" by Financial Times. Replace every number with yours before you post. Make one like this, step by step
Free pictures carry a small "Made with ViralChart" line. That line is how other people find us.
API · Max
Use this chart via API
On the Max plan you can pull this chart's numbers with the provenance of each one, as JSON or CSV, with its redraw spec, or call it from an agent over MCP. Chart id 36961772818d.
Approximate values. Our two readings of this chart agreed only in part (confidence 0.30 of 1), so check the original before you quote a number. The API marks it lowConfidence, and ?min_confidence=0.5 leaves it out.
| Path | Returns | Plan | |
|---|---|---|---|
| GET | /api/v1/charts/36961772818d | Title, publisher, date, form, point count; with a Max key, the data link | Open |
| GET | /api/v1/charts/36961772818d/data | Every point with its provenance and confidence, plus the redraw spec. Add ?format=csv for CSV | Max |
| GET | /api/v1/charts/36961772818d/render?view=1 | The draw-only view this page uses | Open |
| POST | /mcp | Tool get_chart_data with this id, for Claude, Cursor and other agents | Max |
curl -s https://viral-chart.com/api/v1/charts/36961772818d/data \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $VIRALCHART_KEY"claude mcp add --transport http viralchart https://viral-chart.com/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer $VIRALCHART_KEY"60 requests a minute per key; over that you get 429 with Retry-After. Up to 5 keys per account, made on your account page and shown once. Without Max, the data route answers 402 with a link to the plans. The numbers describe a chart its publisher owns, and every file carries a license note.
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Questions people ask
How far did Financial Times's "US UK literacy earnings" chart travel?
1,336,676 views, 6,762 likes, 1,022 reposts and 1,800 saves on X, read Oct 10, 2026. A normal post from @jburnmurdoch gets about 455K views.
What kind of chart is it?
A scatter plot. US workers earn same as UK at low literacy.
Can I use Financial Times's chart?
Use the format, not the picture. The chart, logo and design belong to Financial Times. ViralChart redraws the chart type with your numbers and words, and credits the original publisher.