Maps To Change Your Worldview

Everyone loves maps. Unless you’re a man in car who prefers refusing to ask for directions. Jokes aside, maps can show us more than just where to go, and thanks to the internet there are almost no limits on what they can be used to visualize. From population indicators to historic misconceptions, let's discuss some examples of maps that will change your world view.

World Population Density

We know that there are areas of the world that are simply uninhabitable like scorching deserts, arctic tundra’s, and most of Australia. So where exactly do we fit the 8 billion people living on this planet? The map below is a world population density map representing the number of people per kilometer squared.

The lighter areas indicate 0 to 10 people per square kilometer in different states and provinces across the globe. Empty looking areas like Canada, Russia and Chinas Tibet Province come as no surprise thanks to elements like their rugged terrain and harsh weather.

But the most densely populated areas such as the east coast of China, India and parts of Europe contain over 1000 people per kilometer squared. That makes Asia the most densely populated continent with 4.6 billion people living it, followed by Africa with 1.3 billion, Europe at 747 million, Latin America & the Caribbean at 653 million, then North America with a sparse 368 million, and finally Oceania with just 42 million. Suddenly it doesn’t feel so crowded in there!

The US vs The Moon

It’s hard to put into perspective just how vast the United States is, so how about we use the moon for scale? The moon has a constant diameter of 3,474 km, which is only 27% of Earth’s diameter of 12,715 km pole to pole. Using this in the image below, you can get a better picture of just how big the states really is, and that’s without including Alaska or Hawaii!

From point to point in that image, which is from Point Arena California to West Quoddy Head in Maine, The US measures 4654 kilometers across. As it is, that version of the states can take up about 50% of the moon’s circumference.

Earth Sandwich

Ever wanted to make an earth sandwich? It’s when you place two pieces of bread on exact opposite points of the globe. I’m not making that up, that is honestly what kids get up to these days. If the inclination ever arose to try and make that, you’d need an antipode map.

Antipodes on a sphere like Earth are the pair of points furthest away from each other, so if you tried to make that sandwich anywhere in the US, you’d need a friend way out in the middle of the Indian Ocean. There are actually very few places on land with corresponding antipodes. Greenland to Antarctica might be a good bet, Spain and New Zealand could work, or maybe a spicy Argentina and China sandwich.

Wealth Distribution in America

It’s not just state lines that divide America, wealth distribution sets harsh boundaries across rural and urban populations alike. The census taken by ESRI in 2018 highlights household incomes of city regions in four categories: light blue dots on those maps show households earning over $100000 a year, in purple it shows $50000 to $100000, in pink it’s $50000 to $25000 and in orange they earn less than $25000.

A sweep over Los Angeles reveals that low earnings are centralized within the innermost part of the city around the downtown and South Los Angeles area, but the coastal regions of Santa Monica, Torrence and Orange Country are populated almost exclusively by those earning over $100’000.

In contrast, New York has a distinct neighborhood wealth boundary between Manhattan and the Bronx. That isn’t exactly news, but it does show that there is very little in between, with households earning over $25000 pushed much further out into Queens, but then all surrounding areas exclusively populated by those earning $10000 or more.

Zooming out gives you a look at the bigger picture, the distribution over the united states shows a clear distinction between rural and urban areas. Rural states like Mississippi, Kentucky and Georgia are home to the country’s highest concentrations of poverty, with urban cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington providing hubs for insane amounts of wealth.

Mercator Projection

You might think that the map in the image below is an accurate map of the world, but you'd be wrong. That is the commonly known Mercator Projection, a map designed in 1569. It became a standard as it followed a constant linear scale, making it easier for sailors to navigate the world.

As a side effect of that, the map inflates the sizes of objects away from the equator making them seem much bigger when in reality they’re only a fraction of the size. If you want the real sizes, take a look at this animation below, made in 2018 which corrects the Mercator projection to reflect the relative size of each country.

So, in the original Greenland appeared the same size as Africa, but its mass could actually fit inside Africa 14 times over. Russia appeared to be about 4 times the size of America, but is only about twice the size, so more comparable to South America. And Alaska takes up as much area on the map as Brazil, when if anything Brazil is almost 5 times larger than Alaska. You may have gone to school, but you still got learning to do!

Poles of Inaccessibility

Do you hate people? Then I have the perfect map for you. The map in the image below is the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. It shows the place on earth where you would be the furthest away from any land mass. It lies in the South Pacific Ocean, about 2688 kilometers from the nearest point of land. It’s so remote that the closest human beings to it sometimes are the astronauts that pass overhead in the international space station!

On the other end of that spectrum, there’s a map for people who have an unadulterated hatred for water. Or rabies. That is the most extreme continental pole of inaccessibility, the point where you are furthest away from any ocean. It’s located in north western China, close to the Kazakhstan boarder, and is thought to be almost 2645 kilometers from the nearest coastline. It’s a Thalassophobic’s paradise!

Light Pollution

Light pollution around the world gives a clear indicator of the most populated and developed areas by kicking huge amounts of light into the atmosphere from man-made sources. The map in the image below uses a Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite to measure the zenith sky brightness.

Polluted Rivers Map

Sadly, pollution comes in many forms, and it’s gotten so bad we can now accurately estimate where a lot of pollutants like plastic are being pumped into our oceans. The company OceanCleanUp have created this probabilistic map in the video below, showing hotspots of plastic pollution around the world.

How The Ocean Cleanup Mapped the World's Rivers | Research | The Ocean Cleanup by The Ocean Cleanup

Areas such as Manila Bay in the Philippines are indicated to contain rivers which carry a combined 316’000 tons of plastic into the sea every single year. The Klang River of Kuala Lumpar alone carries over 15’000 tons into the ocean, and the Ulhas River of Mumbai drags along 16’600 tons.

The contrast of river pollutants from Asia to America is staggering and highlights how current international business practices and use of cheap materials from those export countries is really taking its toll on our oceans. That leads to the death of a lot of marine wildlife, as well as increased water toxicity around the world. Remember, you are what you drink!

Seas of Plastic

But plastic entering the sea is just the beginning. Its estimated there are over 5 trillion plastic pieces with a combined weight of 268940 tons currently washing around in our oceans, and the map in the image below from dumpark shows the current distribution of those pieces!

Just because America didn’t look like it was dumping plastic doesn’t mean it isn’t affected, the North Atlantic Ocean contains approximate 930 billion plastic pieces, many of which are gathering along the countries east coast and having a severe effect on coastal environments and the fishing industry. But countries in the North Pacific Ocean should be quaking in their boots, with 1.9 trillion pieces of plastic at a weight of 96 thousand tons clogging up their shorelines. So, when buying and disposing of plastic from now on, just think: what would Greta Thunberg do?

Pollution Death Map

But pollution like that isn’t just about saving the world, its about saving people as well. In this map from the Global Alliance on Health and Pollution below, data has been gathered on the human effects of modern pollution; that’s pollution stemming from industrial activities like air, chemical, and soil contamination.

That shows how many deaths per million have been caused by pollution, and where it hit worst in the world. The highest area effected is Somalia, which is estimated to have 3,261 deaths per million caused by pollution. In the US, that shrinks to 483 deaths per million.

Surprisingly, the lowest deaths on the map are recorded by Brunei with 95 per million. That tiny country actually has the third cleanest air of all measured countries and is rated by many international agencies as one of the most livable places in the world. But that is also a place where swearing carries the death penalty, so I’d take that acclaim with a pinch of salt.

Map By Most Valuable Brands

If you were to take the top 500 Brands from around the the world, and represent each country with their top performing brand in that list, what would that look like? The results below were taken from the 2020 valuation of the Brand Directory’s top 500 Brand Valued companies.

Its obvious that Amazon would be the top dog of America, but it only rose to number one in June 2019 overtaking both Google and Apple with a huge $220 billion valuation. Other tech savvy top earners are South Koreas Samsung with a staggering $94.4 billion! In the banking sector, Chinas ICBC boasts the highest brand value with over $80.7 billion, along with Sberbank in Russia at $12.8 billion.

Despite climate protests, oil & gas giants Shell are still the most valuable Netherlands brand at $47.5 billion, and Saudi Arabia’s new company Saudi Aramaco is hot on Shells heels at $47 billion. Brands synonymous with their countries such as Germanys Mercedes, Japan’s Toyota, India’s TATA, Sweden’s IKEA and even Italy’s Gucci are the top of their respective country brands.

But there are several countries that you’d expect to see represented in that top 500 which aren’t on the shelves. Eastern Europe may look dark, but after it’s lengthy and costly time under Soviet Rule they’re just now entering a golden economic era; an economic flux that’s also reflected in the growing, post-soviet economies of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.

Central Africa on the other hand has suffered from poor infrastructure, a limited tax base, scarce private investment, and adverse external conditions making any big brand growth a hard thing to cultivate. New Zealand also surprisingly didn’t make the cut, but to be fair their economy has only been converted to a comprehensive industrialized base in the last 40 years. All in all, that a brand-new way of looking at the world!

Merchandise Imports and Exports Map

There are a couple of maps that might challenge what you previously thought about world trade. The World Trade Organization released its 2019 trade profile on each country earlier this year, detailing which countries conduct the most merchandise trade with one another, so trade excluding all commercial services. When we visualize that using flags to represent each country’s primary import partner, this is what the map looks like:

China unsurprisingly dominates the import market of a lot of the world’s superpowers thanks to crucial exports like electrical equipment, machinery and computers. But China itself is heavily reliant on trade from the combined power of the European Union for things like agricultural products, mining and fuels.

In a twist of perspective, key power players like Russia, India, Israel and Saudi Arabia also listed the European Union as their biggest trade partner for imported goods. As the Union contains oil & gas supergiant’s like the Netherlands and manufacturer masters such as Germany and considering China’s economy is actually showing signs of slowing down, that makes a lot more sense.

But if we flip on its head and show the export market of all those countries, now we can see superpowers like the USA begin to play a big role. Both China and Europe export most of their goods to the USA which imports a lot of produce like alcohol, coffee and bread and non-agricultural products like cars, oils and computers.

Russia, the United States and Israel export most of their goods back to Europe whose top imported products are oil, mobile phone tools, computers and agricultural produce like coffee, soya beans, palm oil and cocoa beans! And as you’d expect, China pretty much dominates most South East country exports like South Korea, Japan and Australia. But you’ve got to admit, without context that map makes it look like the European Union and China are plotting to take over the world!

If you were amazed at these maps to change your worldview, you might want to read about why all world maps are wrong. Thanks for reading.