Without a doubt, 2011 was the year of big data – and HTML5 is driving that growth by supporting the latest multimedia.

For a look at some of the coolest data graphics of the year, Flowing Data recently published this round-up of the year’s best data visualizations – from online dating data to show the uniqueness of cities in America to The New York Times’ “Whose Size 8 Are You Wearing?”

The “Best Data Visualization Projects of 2011” round-up also adds Planetary, an iPad app that visualizes your iTunes music as a solar system, to the list, “bringing your data into a more playful and exploratory context. The solar system is your music collection, stars are artists, and planets are songs. Planetary was a hit at launch, and it’s only a small sample of things to come I am sure,” the report said.

Flowing Data also points out how D3 hit its stride in 2011.

“With Flash becoming less prevalent and HTML5 becoming more so, the lightweight JavaScript library is becoming many developers’ choice when it comes to visualization on the Web,” according to Flowing Data.

HTML5, an umbrella term describing a set of HTML, CSS and JavaScript specifications, consists of more than 100 specifications that relate to the next generation of Internet technologies. It has improved markup, richer style capabilities, and a new JavaScript API to help make the most of web development. For more on using HTML5 and some things to think about, click here.