Worldmapper

Everyone likes riding on a train

UPDATE: The maps are back up! Woot!

I was planning a blog post on this for a while but a hat tip from TDAXP pushed me to do it today.

Worldmapper has released fifty-four cartograms for free. The cartograms cover a wide range from normal styles population, births, and immigration to the more original tourist destinations, rail passengers, oil tankers, and lots more.

I have some thoughts on some of the maps

The Population changes from A.D. 1, 1500, today, 2050, and 2300 showed an interesting evolution of planetary population. China and India have always been the 800-pound guerilla in population and will continue to be. Europe will go from another China in 1500 to about the same size of the United States. Japan is on its way out and Africa is getting big.

Europeans really like tourism as they dominate both incoming and outgoing countries. I wonder what will happen if economic reforms continue and the four to six weeks of vacation are taken away or decreased.

Zheng He would be very, very, very proud.

The United States and Japan like their vices while Europe and Mexico are the kings of exports of alcohol and cigarettes. I wish that they would separate alcohol and cigarettes so we can see Europe's love of tobacco and if the Muslim world is cheating with alcohol.

Category: Atlas, GeoInfo, Maps