Our top data visualizations of 2015

In the year since The Oregonian/OregonLive launched its new Data Team, we've produced a huge trove of data visualizations, infographics, maps and searchable databases. Many of these items were important. Others were merely fun. A rewarding percentage provoked thoughtful questions, commentary and -- best of all -- reader requests for more, more, more. And so, without further delay, here's the first annual year-end countdown of our most popular data interactives.

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13. Terrorism

November's horrific attacks in Paris, the downing of a Russian passenger plane and this month's mass shooting in California led us to start pulling together data on terrorism. A University of Maryland's database helped us provide an infographic of terrorism deaths country by country, a time-lapse of fatal attacks since 2001, and a map of attacks on U.S. soil.

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12. School vaccination rates

A measles outbreak at Disneyland rekindled national debate over whether parents should be allowed to reject vaccination for their children. We provided a searchable database of vaccination rates at 3,000 public and private schools and examined why Oregon ranks No. 1 for the vaccine opt-out rate.

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11. Property tax losers

Many people have noted that Oregon's unusual tax system creates winners and losers, but no one's ever said WHO wins and loses. We did. Search your Portland-area address and see how much better or worse off you'd be if taxes were tied to property values. (Spoiler alert: Odds are, you're a loser.)

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10. Dog names

We acquired 158,000 dog licenses for four counties in the Portland area as part of an analysis of breeds involved in dog bite investigations. We asked: What are the most popular dog names in each zip code?" Search for any dog in the database, or take our dog name quiz.

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9. Oregon vs. Ohio

When the University of Oregon and Ohio State faced off in January's college football championship, we did some trash-talking with data. That didn't end so well for the West Coast, but the Timbers' MLS Cup victory over the Columbus Crew in December made up for it.

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8. Marijuana maps

Oregon's large marijuana industry was already gearing up for retail dispensary sales to medical cardholders before voters legalized weed in 2014. Our dispensary locator was popular, but so were maps illustrating increases in legally sanctioned grow operations.

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7. Portland vs. Seattle

Two cities known for rain are going to spend a lot of time debating bragging rights. We tried to bring some facts to this otherwise unwinnable argument, creating a short series of charts based on historic weather data.

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6. Your earnings

Children First Oregon used Census Bureau data to project likely wage levels for parents based on certain demographic characteristics. We turned those estimates into our heavily used wage calculator.

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5. Controversial books

The Oregon State Library's Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse maintains a spreadsheet of more than 700 formal complaints at Oregon libraries. We identified the most commonly cited books, authors and objections for this visualization.

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4. Guns

After a gunman killed nine people at Umpqua Community College on Oct. 1, we started amassing gun data for the country and Oregon. We mapped all mass shootings since 1966, explored the links between gun deaths and gun ownership, and compared gun violence to all other causes of death. New data point: gun sellers in the United States.

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3. Earthquakes and tsunamis

We created our popular real-time map of earthquakes in June. Then came July's New Yorker piece imagining the Northwest's Big One. We showed projected tsunami high-water levels, simulating the submersion of Coos Bay and Reedsport. We mapped vulnerable Portland-area buildings and charted every major quake since 7845 B.C.

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2. Wildfires

This summer's fires destroyed hundreds of homes in California and Oregon and killed three firefighters in Washington. Our real-time wildfire tracker provided continuous updates. We charted the buildup in fire staffing, and we used satellite data to create an animation of how the Oregon's Canyon Creek fire exploded.

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1. Recipes

A late arrival on the scene, our newly revamped, searchable recipes database launched in early November and quickly proved irresistibly savory for hundreds of thousands of readers drawn to Grant Butler's holiday offerings. Recipe Box is our most popular new interactive for 2015.

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Steve Suo | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Longstanding favorites

It's worth noting that some of the most popular Oregonian data interactives have been with us a long time and, arguably, are some of our least sexy. They routinely draw more readers than most members of the Top 10 list we just counted down.

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4. Public employee pensions

The Oregonian/OregonLive has made its searchable PERS database available for years, after winning a public records fight for the list of PERS recipients and their state pension costs. The topic made news in 2015 after the Supreme Court rejected reforms intended to close the state's unfunded liability.

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3. Academic Achievers 2015

Academic Achievers focuses each spring on standout students graduating from Portland area high schools. Our database is a quick way to marvel at their achievements collectively and individually.

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2. Oregon school ratings

Another hugely popular schools feature, our comprehensive guide provides parents and others with performance data for every school in Oregon.

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1. Legislation tracker

This searchable database drew ogling interest in a year when Oregon's governor resigned and lawmakers wrangled for six months with bills addressing voter registration, criminal histories of job applicants, and much much more.

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Steve Suo | The Oregonian/OregonLive

Data work for 2015 comes courtesy of our Data Team: Carli Brosseau, Dave Cansler, Mark Friesen, Mark Graves, Betsy Hammond, Lynne Palombo, and Fedor Zarkhin. Many thanks to all our critical, skeptical and supportive readers for engaging with us. More to come!