BY THE NUMBERS 2017 — The year in figures and charts Telling the story of the last 12 months through data.

From Brexit negotiations to migration, Donald Trump's Twitter feed to the #MeToo movement, these are the figures behind the topics that defined 2017.

#MeToo

Widespread discussion of sexual harassment, sparked by allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against prominent men like Harvey Weinstein, only really kicked off toward the end of 2017, but the topic was one of the defining aspects of the year.

The hashtag #MeToo quickly spread across social media after actress Alyssa Milano asked women to share their experiences — sparking over 1 million #MeToo tweets within the first week. The movement reached the Brussels Bubble, where female MEPs told their own stories of sexual harassment. Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová opened up about her experience of sexual violence, encouraging women to report inappropriate behavior.

According to Facebook, 4.7 million people around the world joined the #MeToo conversation within the first 24 hours, writing over 12 million posts.

Google Trends also shows the explosive growth of the movement in October.

Electoral upheaval

After surprising vote results in the U.K. and U.S. in 2016, many European leaders were concerned about what elections across the Continent would bring in 2017.

In some cases, youthful members of the political establishment successfully cast themselves as agents of change. Emmanuel Macron in France and Sebastian Kurz's center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) both saw their support climb high in opinion polls before their elections and ultimately won.

While Angela Merkel, the EU's longest-serving leader, secured a win for her CDU party in Germany's September ballot, her conservatives also experienced their worst result since 1949 and have since struggled to form a new coalition government.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' far-right PVV won enough support to gain five seats, but still received far fewer votes than had been expected.

Polls in the U.K. gave Theresa May the support to push for a snap election. But May's popularity slumped and she lost her majority, as well as leeway in Brexit negotiations.

Brexit

The ups and downs of Brexit negotiations don't seem to have caused many voters to change their minds since the 2016 referendum, according to recent surveys. Support for the prime minister's approach is steadfast among Tory voters. Opinions across Britain's biggest parties remain divided.

In the meantime, migration to the U.K. — a central concern in the Brexit vote — has dropped dramatically.

Migration

Migration continued to dominate political debate in the EU, with the focus shifting to the protection of the bloc's external borders. At the same time, the EU's lack of consensus on the issue was highlighted by a rift over mandatory refugee quotas.

But while policies are often still fueled by the 2015 migration crisis, the facts on the ground looked very different in 2017: The number of migrants traveling to Europe dropped sharply and the most common countries of origin changed. Due to border restrictions, migrant routes have shifted away from the east, leaving the Central Mediterranean passage — the most deadly route — as the most traveled.

Trump's year through Twitter goggles

From "covfefe" to retweets of a British far-right leader that sparked an international row, the U.S. president's Twitter feed made headlines throughout his first year in office. Using the number of retweets as a way to measure the tweets that reached the most people, the U.S. president's most popular tweets for every month provide an overview of Trump's highs and lows in 2017.