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This is a fun visualization but it seems to me it achieves the opposite of what it hopes to - it hides much of the population from view. Vast regions of the wor
by astazangasta 8y ago
This is a fun visualization but it seems to me it achieves the opposite of what it hopes to - it hides much of the population from view. Vast regions of the world with low population density appear empty - but they aren't empty, they simply have low population density. In aggregate these regions might have more population than the cities, but this visualization highlights dense regions. An individual pixel with a height of 60 in a city might be surrounded by 800 pixels with a height of 1. This is visually indistinguishable from 800 pixels with a height of 0, eliding an obvious difference in meaning.
- dredmorbius 8y agoOver half the world's population is now urban. http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-urbanization-prospects-2014.html http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/news/population/world-... Cartgrams represent this fairly well. United States: https://sites.google.com/site/xiangyilin1309/_/rsrc/1472768169130/cartogram/USPop2007_Cartogram.png https://sites.google.com/site/xiangyilin1309/_/rsrc/14727681... Australia: https://i.imgur.com/qIojvsU.png https://i.imgur.com/qIojvsU.png China: https://i0.wp.com/www.p-wood.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Cartogram-Provinces.jpg?resize=1%2C1&ssl=1 https://i0.wp.com/www.p-wood.co/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/C... World -- population & gdp: http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/TheWorldIn2016.png http://www.viewsoftheworld.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Th...
- burlesona 8y agoNot sure I agree with this. The background color is still indicative, for example you can see how much more populated the rural areas in the eastern US are compared to the west, by the shades of white to brown over large areas.