A New Vision Of International Demographics

"WE LOVE our maps. At first glance, people are shocked by them: the shapes look familiar, yet everything is absurdly distorted. Without even thinking, they have learned something about the world they live in.

Most of our data comes from sources such as United Nations reports and is often tucked away in appendices. No one wants to look at those figures, and it would be hard to provoke any excitement by confronting someone with spreadsheets filled with numbers. But you just can't help looking at these pictures. After all, a new view of the world, rather like the famous Earthrise photo taken by Apollo astronauts, is a compelling sight.

Perhaps it is the sheer audacious distortion that draws the eye. Distortion is not a new thing in maps, of course: some kind of distortion in area, shape, direction or distance is inevitable in mapping."

[Editor's note: The full version of this article is only available to subscribers to New Scientist magazine.]

Thanks to Jon Cecil, AICP