Are people in the U.S. more prone to socio-political unrest in certain periods of the year? Or are certain years more prone to demonstrations than others? Let's have a look!
First of all, we are only looking at Wikepdia data for marches on Washington, D.C. I am not sure if ALL the demonstrations/marches are recorded here, or perhaps only the ones that received major media attention.
It would seem that there are more marches/demonstrations since 2000 than ever before, and before 1963 either there are fewer demonstrations recorded or people didn't march into Washington, D.C. as often. Perhaps the protests of the 1960s leading up to 1970 (the most number of protests until 2000) set a precedent and a social trend?
The most demonstrations in any given month until now (1 Feb 2014) was July 2008. Was there anything important happening at that time?
It would seem the summer months see less protesting (with the exception of February and December). Perhaps Valentine's Day, Christmas and summer vacation play a role in when people decide to march into Washington, D.C.?
As of now, October would seem the likely candidate for "national protest month." Does this perhaps correlate to any particular holiday? Perhaps people get back to work after their summer vacations and get restless around October?
These charts are somewhat logical, but also very incomplete. Further study is required:
How does this graph correlate to the US population growth? Perhaps people aren't protesting any more, but the same percentage of people will always protest.
Which people are protesting, and for what purpose? How many protests are re-hashing old topics (meaning acceptable change hasn't been made or the protest groups have new needs or they just like protesting) and how many protests are for newer topics?
