Maps - Chart Porn

Maps Archive:

7 Nov 2012

By the talented Robert J Vanderbei

And here’s 2012 as calculated today:

(2) Comments

Map Resized by 2008 Election Spending

In: Maps Politics Uncategorized

4 Nov 2012

Nice work by NPR – though I generally prefer non-contiguous cartograms.

Thanks to Fez for sending in the link!

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Federal Debt (1790-2037)

In: Maps Politics US Economy

1 Nov 2012

From the generally impartial Pew Center:

Increase in federal support to states during recession:

Where the federal grant money went as percent of state revenue:

(1) Comment

Election Projections

In: Interactive Maps Politics Source: Washington Post

2 Oct 2012

Some fantastically clear interactive maps from the Washington Post, identifying tossups in each race (Presidential, Senate, House, Governor).

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Who Pays Income Tax?

In: Maps Politics Source: Economist

18 Sep 2012

I’m a little surprised by the increase in non-payers over the years.

Non payers by state. I’m not sure I agree with using ordinal coloring – especially when so many states fall into the 30-40% range.

(5) Comments

How Google Builds its Maps

In: Graphic Design (general) Maps

11 Sep 2012

Awesome article in The Atlantic about the science and process that goes into Google’s maps and directions.

The maps you see represent the combination of many different sources of information. For example, the map below includes street signs captured by Street View cars driving around.

If you didn’t know, you can add your own local knowledge to Google maps with their Map Maker:

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Global Facebook Friendships

In: Graphic Design (bad) Interactive Internet/tech Maps

11 Sep 2012

Ok, maybe I’m just in a bad mood because I’m back at work after a nice long vacation – but I think this visualization sucks. All it does is ordinally identify the top five linked countries for each country. There is no scale. What does the bubble size indicate? No matter what country you click on, the top five all grow to about the same size. Is the 4th relationship really almost as strong as the 2nd? Who knows? The methodology states “Rankings between countries are based on the number of Facebook friendships between countries and the total number of Facebook friendships within each country.” Ummm… how, exactly? Is it a ratio? Is the total number used as a weight? Thankfully they color coded it based on the continents – because everyone has trouble identifying those, right? Oh, and Seychelles will be happy to know it’s now in Asia. Totally useless.

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Chinese Investment in Africa

In: Emerging Markets Global Economy Maps Source: Ritholtz

13 Aug 2012

China has been heavily investing in Africa the past few years.

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4 New Typographic Maps

In: Maps

10 Aug 2012

I can’t imagine the patience it takes to make these. I have one on my wall at home next to my door to explain to people how to get out of the city. Now available for London, Philadelphia, Seattle, Minneapolis, DC, Boston, NYC, SF, Madison (?), and Chicago.

(1) Comment

Restaurant Density

In: Food Maps

6 Aug 2012

They adjusted for population, which is appropriate. Nom.

compare it to bar density:

(2) Comments

Summer Olympics (1896-2012)

In: History Interactive Maps Sports

30 Jul 2012

I guess today is the day of map posts! Here is one from the Economist that shows which countries participated in each summer Olympics since 1896. You can see the stupid 1980/84 boycotts by east and west, for example.