This data visualisation is actually simpler than it first appears. Using data from Australia's National Drug Strategy Household Survey, the graphic shows responses to the question "Which substance do you most associate with a drug problem?"

The report itself is extremely detailed, and includes responses to questions broken down by state, age, sex and even marital status. Here though, Matthew Ritchie has looked at how views about substance use differ by socio-economic group.

The outer-bars summarise how responses differ by socio-economic status. In most cases, you can see that the 'higher' a respondent's socio-economic status, the more likely they are to associate a particular substance with a "drug problem".

The difference between class responses is particularly noticeable for heroin and cannabis. But you can also see that not all responses change consistently as socio-economic status increases - for example the most advantaged respondents were the least likely to associate tobacco with a drug problem.

The inner circles summarise the responses across classes and shows change over time. Though these circles can only show relative and not absolute trends in perceptions, they are interesting. They allow you to see for example that amphetamines attracted a smaller portion of of concern in 2004 than they did in 2010.

Do you find this visualisation confusing or clarifying? Share your views by posting a comment below.

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