There are currently over 6,500 active coasters in the world

Roller coasters can cost millions of dollars to make, but they often offer a substantial payoff

Over 6,000 roller coasters are in operation around the world as of 2025, with ongoing demand to build more each year. Despite being costly (some theme parks pay upwards of $50M for these rides), their financiers are able to justify the investment when considering the long-term value of a ride that sticks around for decades with daily streams of visitors.

Russia is credited with developing the original roller coaster

Roller coasters are believed to have originated in the 1600s with 70-foot wooden ice slides, typically enjoyed by the upper class. Over the past few centuries, the machinery developed into more daunting designs like the modern gigacoaster, which features a drop of 300 feet or more.

The odds of getting seriously injured on a US roller coaster are one in 15.5 million rides taken

Understanding the mechanics of a ride can help explain why they are so safe. Lift hills, launches, and breaks are each crucial components of coasters and are designed to possess numerous safety features in case of any dysfunction.

Explore a map of data centers worldwide, numbering over 12,250 as of August 2026, with over 4,500 in the US.

44 states in the US have implemented ride safety laws

Rides are developed and tested for years before they host passengers. Maintenance teams perform various tests every day before opening coasters to the public. The chances of risk are rare, as exemplified in 2019 when amusement parks saw .8 injuries per million rides.

Corkscrew roller coasters feature tracks that twist 360 degrees around their axis

Thanks to the incorporation of steel, rides have gotten increasingly versatile, daring, and smooth, performing loops and turns that are much more difficult to safely achieve with wood.

'The Wizarding World of Harry Potter' sparked record theme park attendance

A Forbes analysis found Universal’s parks in Florida, Japan, and California saw average attendance growth of 32% after opening Wizarding World attractions, with Orlando’s Islands of Adventure—the home of the Wizarding World—rising 64.5% to 9.8 million visitors.

See who is in space right now

Over 600 people have been in space since the space race took off decades ago, with roughly 10 in space at any given time, typically operating the world's growing number of space stations. This fun, simple tracker keeps up on who is in space right now and provides links to each space traveler's profile.

Millennial tastes in amusement parks have made coasters more family-friendly

As parks raced to make the biggest, longest, tallest roller coasters, costs skyrocketed, and the return on investment became more challenging to achieve. Consumer tastes have also changed, with Millennials in the US preferring more mid-tier rides for family inclusion.

Check out information on the over 1,000 protests across the globe since 2017.

The first US patent for a roller coaster was issued in January 1884

Despite their Russian origins, roller coasters are often associated with the US. This is in part thanks to a businessman and inventor named LaMarcus Thompson, who revolutionized the amusement industry in the US beginning with the Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway at Coney Island. He is now known as the "father of the American roller coaster."

Researchers are studying roller coasters to improve mental health treatments

Scary rides stimulate our fight-or-flight response while simultaneously releasing feel-good endorphins like dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. Once we realize we're in a safe space, we can enjoy the ride and even feel confident and relieved by the accomplishment of overcoming a fearful feat.

View a distribution of wind turbine locations across the US

As of May 2025, the US Wind Turbine Database maps and provides technical specifications for 76,051 onshore and offshore turbines from 1,794 projects, ranging from small installations to large-scale wind farms.

Mapping the world records held by each US state

What world record does your state hold? Check out this map of the United States to see what weird accomplishment took place near you.

Track individual sharks around the world in real time.

Modern innovations have allowed rides to simultaneously become more extreme and safer

Several ingenious additions to roller coasters, such as extra wheels, magnetic brakes, and hydraulic system safety bars, have largely reduced discomfort and threats such as broken rides or ejected passengers.

The National Parks System is a popular attraction in the US

More than 16 billion people have visited the US National Park System since 1904. Curious about how something like World War II affected park visitation? This table of annual recreational visits spans the early 20th century through 2023, demonstrating the slow-but-steady rise in visitors over the decades.

Mapping the world's cell towers

Millions of cell towers around the world help connect the world's 8 billion people via cell phones and the Internet. But access to such coverage, while still expanding, is not equal. This data visualization depicts the world's many cell connections across a global map, revealing cell use hot spots and the world's many gaps in coverage.

The first American roller coaster was built at Coney Island

LaMarcus Thompson was an inventor and businessman who developed the first US amusement park ride in the 19th century and sparked a booming business. Customers spent a nickel to coast on wheeled benches over gentle hills, leaving Thompson with around $600 per day in profits.

The World Bank’s population data bank

This website by the World Bank provides visualizations for demographic data from around the world. Specific demographic data, such as total population, can be viewed through maps, charts, and graphs. Results can be filtered by sex, country, or year....

Data visualizations showing population growth around the world

This page presents data, charts, and analysis on changes in population growth around the world. Over the last few centuries, the human population has gone through an extraordinary change. In 1800, there were 1 billion people; today, there are more...

A statistical breakdown of the global film industry

Dive into this collection of stats and infographics explaining the current state of both Hollywood and the global film industry. The page covers a variety of topics, including independent film production, box office revenue, global film markets, movie-going demographics and more. It also addresses the relatively new phenomenon of home video streaming.

Track every cruise ship in real time, with itineraries and accident history

CruiseMapper is a live global tracker covering hundreds of vessels across major cruise lines. The site layers in port schedules, cabin-level deck plans, repositioning voyages, and a searchable database of 15 incident types—fires, groundings, virus outbreaks, drug smuggling, passenger deaths, and more.

Why roller coaster loops are never circular

The beloved looped roller coaster rides used to be shapes as perfect circles and constructed with wood, resulting in wobbly machinery that gave people whiplash. After the invention of steel and further scientific understanding, Six Flags debuted The Great American Revolution—a modern, oval loop with steel that offered a safer and smoother experience.

America’s first roller coaster initially transported coal instead of people

The Mauch Chunk Switchback Railway in the hills of Pennsylvania wasn’t initially intended to be a ride, but over time passengers and businessmen alike took advantage of the lovely tour through nature. The railway eventually reached over 100,000 riders in some years.

Explore a database of more than 220,000 shipwrecks, the largest compilation to date.

Explore NASCAR’s dozens of tracks across the US and Mexico

See detailed information on every track used for NASCAR’s top three divisions. Tracks vary in shape, length, and seating capacity.

Visualize population densities around the world represented as geographic terrain and how those densities changed from 1900 to 1975 to 2015.

See the real-time numbers of ships traversing the canal each day

This platform uses satellite data to track chokepoints and trade disruptions along the shipping lanes that crisscross the globe. Search for data from more than 1,600 ports, or run the climate scenario simulator.

Visualizing the symbols and history of world flags

More than 200 world flags feature high-intent designs, projecting ideals and values to the world through archetypal symbols, colors, and shapes. This page effectively depicts the data behind symbol and shape usage, how much each country's flag has changed over time, the most popular colors used, and more in a series of elegantly simple charts.

Snowfall records from every county in the US

Discover the one-day snowfall records of every county in the US in this comprehensive map. Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captures inches of snowfall and the year it fell the most in each county. See the contrasts between the inches of snowfall in warm southern American states and the cooler East Coast.

Why so many people love roller coasters even though they’re scary

When a threat arises, it triggers our bodies to go into fight-or-flight mode and prepare for danger. However, when no obvious threat to our safety is present, this natural high can become enjoyable. Some people are more likely to enjoy these thrills based on factors like individual brain chemistry or physical health.

Visualizing the world's population centers

What does population density look like on a global scale? These detailed 3D renders illustrate our biggest urban areas and highlight population trends.

View the past month of earthquakes worldwide with this digital globe, which displays data from the US Geological Survey.

See America's loneliness and disconnection—charted.

Our World in Data's COVID-19 tracker, with global case, death, and vaccination data for every country, though updates to the dataset ended in 2024.

The UN’s interactive site analyzing the world’s population

The 2022 revision of World Population Prospects contains the official population estimates and projections from the United Nations. It presents population estimates from 1950 to present for 237 countries or areas around the world. The data consider...

Charting how many Olympic tickets are sold

This chart compares the total number of tickets sold for Summer Olympic sporting events with the number of tickets available. The article sources the data from the International Olympic Committee website and goes back to the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

The steep and slippery Russian ice slides sparked centuries-long obsessions with thrill-seeking

When a French traveler happened upon the 17th and 18th century Russian pastime of sledding down man-made hills, he brought the idea home and inspired others to modernize the mechanics. Adoration for coasters spread around Europe and eventually reached the US, where the scream machine would undergo major advancements.

Explore an interactive atlas of worldwide critical mineral production

This tool from the US Geological Survey tracks the production over over 90 minerals in 180 countries. For a selected country, you can see how many critical minerals it produces, where else those minerals are produced, and what each mineral is used for.

Visualizing the world's wealth in 2019

The world has a net worth of $360T. The U.S. economy continues to dominate given its sheer size, Asia and Europe are not that far behind.

See a census of college students dating back to 1850

The first mention of college students in census surveys dates back to 1850, when officials realized a sizeable proportion of Americans lived on campus. More modern data from the National Center for Education Statistics capture the growth in the student population, with a breakdown beginning at the end of World War II with gender and type-of-institution data.

Measuring which nation has the most baseball fans

It's known as America's pastime, but just how devoted are Americans to baseball? FiveThirtyEight outlines several metrics indicating Puerto Rico may have the most devoted fanbase. See how they used an adjusted metric to rank the world's biggest...

American beer, by the numbers

This statistics-focused resource breaks down the shape of the beer industry in the US, outlining the amount of beer produced by American breweries, the state cranking out the most beer, and the states with the most breweries per capita.

A deep dive into the lives of Guinness World Record addicts

Most people don't hold any world records. Then, there's this group of adventurers, who are racing to own the most. A look at the ambitious world record pursuers racking up hundreds of accomplishments.

Vizualize global debt by country

Global debt reached $226T by the end of 2020—the biggest one-year jump since World War II. This graphic compares the debt-to-GDP ratio of various countries.

Explore a map of coral reefs around the world and the extent of coral bleaching.

A collection of fascinating facts about the planet and its creatures

You may have already heard that cheetahs are the fastest animals on land, but did you know that Savannah elephants are the strongest? This page on the World Wildlife Fund's UK website features a diverse range of articles on mammals, underwater creatures, birds, reptiles, insects, and landscapes. Discover captivating information about Earth and the creatures you share it with.

Abandoned racetracks can be found via Google Earth

With auto racing a favorite American pastime in the 1900s, tracks both small and large were built across the country. Some were local tracks used for small races, while others were super-speedways used by NASCAR.

Chess is played by an estimated 600 million people worldwide

Chess remains one of the most popular games in history, with roughly 600 million players across the globe. The game thrives casually in homes, schools, and parks, while also sustaining robust online communities and professional tournaments.