Check traits to sort the population into groups. Hover over any dot to see their specific demographic intersection.
Off by default to find the modal adult. Turn on, then check adult-only traits (e.g. Generation + Work): every child collapses into one giant bucket and "a child" becomes the false modal answer — the episode's fake-out.
Method: Following NPR's Planet Money "The Modal American," the mode is computed over a large simulated population (150,000) so percentages stay stable even when traits slice it into thousands of buckets. The dots are a 1,000-person visual sample.
Sources: distributions approximate U.S. Census Bureau population estimates & ACS (race, education, marital status), Pew Research (urban/suburban/rural & generation bands), and BLS Current Population Survey (work status by age & sex). The 2017 view mirrors the episode's ACS-based figures; the 2025 view uses current data.