Friday, December 18, 2020

Land vs. population

I like population-adjusted US maps. When presenting vote totals, showing realistic land maps give a distorted picture of the numbers. I particularly enjoy the map artists's decisions on how to mimic each state's shape. The limited pixel count adds an extra challenge. 

Minnesota comes off pretty well. Some other states leave a lot to the imagination. 

Daughter Number Three on Facebook suggested that Vermont and New Hampshire are poorly-served by these representations. I agree, but those states should just up their population, so the map artist has more pixels to work with.

I redrew the New York Times map and included the underlying grid. (I changed a few little bits in Florida and Texas, I changed Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine to vertical, and I moved Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and South Dakota.)


Top maps from the New York Times website. I redrew the highlighted enlarged states.