For every Internet commenter who enters online arguments about the USA with facts they got from their butt, there's a map that presents hard data bare and allows the viewers to make their own interpretations.
From light pollution and tree coverage to out-of-service railways and streets and highways, maps may not immediately look as exciting as a viral cat video -- which might explain why we often overlook them when -- but that doesn't mean that are boring. To prove that, we put together a selection of maps that explain the United States better then most textbooks and if broadening your worldview isn't thrilling, I don't know what is.
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Most Commonly Spoken Language In The Us After English And Spanish
There’s often overlapping features between maps. For example, a topographic map could be utilized to show the distribution of a local orchid, making it both a topographic and thematic map. It could also be used to show well-known features of specific interest to travelers making this topographic, general reference, and thematic maps all in one.
The most widely used maps are “Political maps”. They are the ones that are usually mounted on the walls of classrooms throughout the world. They show the geographic boundaries between governmental units such as countries, states, and counties. They show roads, cities, and major water features such as oceans, rivers, and lakes.
The United States Of America: Alaskan Perspective
Political maps are really good at helping people to understand the geography of the world. They are usually the first type of map that students are introduced to in school, too. They are often called “reference maps” because people refer to them again and again when they have questions.
According to Geology.com, thousands of different political reference maps have been prepared to explain the United States. There are maps of the entire nation, maps for each of the 50 states, and even maps of the 3142 counties (parishes in Louisiana, and boroughs in Alaska) that make up the states. Most counties, boroughs, and parishes are further subdivided into even smaller political units. An incredible number of political maps have been prepared just to display the geography of the United States alone.
How I, A Brit, See The United States (Sorry If It Offends Anyone)
Patrick McGranaghan, who is a land surveyor in Colorado, USA, and the creator of one of the biggest online cartography communities, r/MapPorn, did an analysis on its most popular posts on Twitter. McGranaghan collected the 10 best-performing posts from the previous 18 months -- about 200 maps in total -- and went through each of them individually, tagging them based on the content, style, and subject matter. He then sorted the tags to see which ones were the most common.
States With A Smaller Population Than Los Angeles County
"The most popular subject was history," McGranaghan told Bored Panda. "In this category, the most popular maps were about World War II." Maps about other wars were also well liked, as well as those about the ancient Romans and historic trade routes.
"Another popular category was natural science. Especially popular are maps about wildlife, such as those that use tracking data to show animal migration patterns. Other topics included geology and astronomic maps."
Interestingly, quite a few viral maps focused on language. These include etymology, dialect and various pronunciation maps.
US Watersheds
"Another topic that I grouped together are 'political re-alignments'. These are maps that deal with boundaries. Subjects like separatist movements, re-drawing borders, and user-created idealizations. Many of these are satirical and funny," McGranaghan explained.
McGranaghan, however, wouldn't say that all of these maps are scientific. "I think the data is a bit noisy, but it's interesting nonetheless. Users sometimes want a magic formula to make their maps go viral and I don't think there is one. The tastes of the masses are fickle and change over time."
Red And Orange Areas Have Equal Populations
This is not at all surprising, since nearly half the population in this country lives within 30 miles of the coast.
When it comes to maps that best describe a country, McGranaghan thinks that it depends on the goal of the mapmaker. "All maps are generalizations, some good, some bad. They are not true representations and a good 'reader' should know that. I think good data visualization will take disparate datasets and find meaningful connections that weren't known before. It sounds simple but it is not so straightforward. A good mapmaker should be familiar with many matrices of knowledge and should be able to sift through them and make new connections."
McGranaghan created r/MapPorn in May 2011 while living in Taiwan, and it currently has over 995K members. He thinks the reason why the community is becoming so big is the same one why people like maps so much: they are easily digestible. So go ahead folks, continue scrolling and enjoy the rest of the post. Bon appétit!
United States Population Lines
The Most Efficient Route Between Every Springfield In The United States
Tree Cover Map Of The US
How Much Snow Does It Usually Take To Cancel Schools?
Nice. I always get a kick out of the places that close school for an inch of snow. You don't even need to wear a coat for 1" of snow.
Most Common Surname In The United States By State
Every State's Least Favorite State
I live in Florida and I approve this message
Load More Replies...This map makes me giggle. Especially Alaska hating Texas. Because Texas is like "Everything is bigger in Texas" and Alaska replies "Hold my beer."
Alaska and Texas have a rivalry bigger than any other two states in the country. That Includes Michigan and Ohio, and living in Ohio I can tell you that is a major rivalry. (Friendly rivalry, but VERY major. It's mostly a sports rivalry, but extends elsewhere.)
Load More Replies...We don't hate Pennsylvania though because Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and Freedom! But I am from So. Jersey.
Load More Replies...I think there is a perception among more conservative states that Californians flee their state because it's too expensive, government makes it onerous to do business there, etc., but they bring their liberal politics with them.
Load More Replies...I've lived in Virginia my entire life and had no idea that I hated West Virginia. It's almost heaven for Pete's sake.
People hate their neighboring states because all the people who loved their neighboring states already moved there.
Load More Replies...Alaska doesn't hate Texas. Alaska pities Texas. Poor little former republic.
I thought Alaska hated Texas because Texas always claims to be the biggest.
Load More Replies...As a Texan, I don't know of anyone who feels animosity toward Oklahoma. California has always been the butt of jokes.
Are you a fan of UT football? Red River Shootout? Do you live near Oklahoma? I'm thinking Texans from Houston or El Paso probably think very little about Oklahoma.
Load More Replies...As a non-American, this one is very hard to read. For one thing, too many items to be trying to cross-reference, but also I don't know all the states by name. North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana... California, Florida, Texas... Alaska and Hawaii... Washington... I feel like I'm doing pretty good to know that many. But where is Kentucky? Wisconsin? You're asking a lot from us! I wonder if they couldn't manage it with some coloured arrows or the like.
I'm pretty sure south carolina couldn't give two sh*ts about Ohio. That should either read "Hates Georgia" "Hates North Carolina" or "Hates New York".
Agreed - this is the only one that doesn't make ANY sense. I'd love for a South Carolinian to explain.
Load More Replies...I'm originally from SC, and now live in NC. And I've never heard one disparaging word about our neighbor to the South. And why are we supposed to be hating each other peoples states? Each state is unique, and has its good points.
Except for NJ - no good points whatsoever! I grew up across the Delaware from NJ - was a 'dump' back then, still is today!
Load More Replies...It's kind of cute how Kansas and Missouri hate each other and nobody else. And no other state has any beef with either of them.
There is a history there going back to the years just before Civil War when groups of Missouri and Kansas regulators would cross the boarder and attack each other's settlements. The fight was between pro and anti slave groups fighting over Kansas joining the union as a free or slave state, but the raids and murders lead to deep animosity. Now it is mostly about football.
Load More Replies...Having lived in both Illinois and Indiana, I am surprised by these results. I would have thought both states hated Kentucky equally. Of course, if they taught people in Kentucky manners or basic driving skills, there wouldn't be a problem.
That is exactly how Northern Indiana feels about Illinois!! 😂😂
Load More Replies...I cheer for the Vikings and whoever is against the Packers.
Load More Replies...I'd say New York also hates itself and this is one of the reasons. Those of that live in upstate NY have nothing against Jersey, but hate NYC for speaking for the rest of us.
LOL, I have lived all over New England and I don't think there is hatred toward Massachusetts... though they are aggressive drivers... that being said CT and RI have some bad habits too.
Around Boston Massachusetts is the most God-awful place in the world that I have ever driven!
Load More Replies...I don't hate florida. We just got back from Destin. This south looks more like college football rivals. Ole miss hates Alabama crimson tide. Crimson tide hated Florida gators
Everyone hates Alabama Football unless one is from Alabama.
Load More Replies...I have seen a few maps like this, and all of my friends from Washington agree that California is actually pretty cool. Inaccurate.
Ohio and Michigan hate each other: TRUE! Especially in college football. Michigan and Michigan State hate each other, but Ohio State is so crazy powerful that we are united in our hate of them! I imagine Hawaii not hating anyone is spot-on. LOL
Massachussets is the only state that hate New York, because they're a bunch of Massholes.
And Texas hates Oklahoma for no reason other than football.
Load More Replies...Yup I’m Californian and people in Idaho were looking at me strange for my hairstyle and slight Valley Girl accent.
...is that a Victor Valley Girl accent? LOLZ. My sister in Spokane sounds different after 30 years, from her roots in Cucamonga. Totally tubular.
Load More Replies...Me too!!! And it is true except we don't hate Pennsylvania because of sports teams.
Load More Replies...From my experience and personal opinion, Texas hates California, well basically the west coast, way way way more than it would hate Oklahoma.
Idahoans tend to “hate” California’s for two reasons. 1: Idahoans, while some are d***s, have a reputation for being really nice and Californians do not. 2: So many people from California are moving to Idaho it makes the housing price go WAY up and there isn’t enough housing in the first place so houses are being crammed in everywhere and ruining some landmarks. So pretty much California’s are making it tough to buy a house and are going to “ruin” our rep. 😂🤦🏻♀️
This map sure looks like football rivalry, which can be a lot more than football...
It is strange that I don't think I have ever met, in any quantity, people in those indicated states (exception is ID) that actually hate CA. I have known lots from all those states (except WY) and a lot of them actually came from CA.....they grew up there.
I have known people from both TN and KY and the legend for both is that "They eat people" on the other side of that river border.
Georgia hates Ohio? They have nothing to do with one another! Wait, is this about football?
Sofaking not true! Half the population of Washington and Oregon is from Southern California.
Yay, my state is only hated by New Jersey, but they hate everyone.
I love trying to explain the Ohio versus Michigan rivalry to an international visitor.
LOL hates everyone. I told my Grandson, if people were al the very same color, then people would find another reason to hate someone. it is how people are build. if they can complain about someone else, they like themselves better.
Utah Hates California? Must not be including disneyland in that poll...
It's funny that the ones that hate other states are bordered by that state...WOW!!!
CA does not hate Texas.... they are moving to TX, NV, and AZ in droves, ruining our once great economies and bringing their attitudes and politics with them. TX really hates CA, more than the other states for this reason. Ca is beautiful, however, it has a lot of problems!
Funny how GA hates FL yet the majority of people who own vacation homes in northern FL are from GA.
NJ reminds me of the last lines of “They're rioting in Africa”: “The french hate the Germans, the Germans hate the Dutch / and I don’t like anybody very much.”
Florida hates itself. Not actually surprising, but if they took this poll during tourist/snowbird season, it would literally show Florida hating the entire country.
I'd say PA (where I live) hates Ohio more than New Jersey. Philadelphia hates Jersey but the whole West side of PA has a huge rivalry with OH. In football alone the Pittsburgh Steelers biggest rivalry is Cleveland and cinncinati and the people hate OH too.
Definitely interesting (although I'd prefer a better source than "@someone's instagram.") So S. Carolina most hates Ohio? That's the weirdest one. I do love that Florida most hates Florida, and New Jersey hates everyone!
I'm from Ohio. We just hate Michigan's State College football team (and visa versa). We love each others states otherwise. We really like playing up the rivalry, though!
Virginia and Maryland hate each other. That’s a historic and colloquial fact. #fuckmarylandeventhoughiliveherenowforwork #virginiatraffic #va4eva
Texans hate CA more than OK...or at least Californians moving to Texas
Illinois hates either Wisconsin or Indiana. I can confirm as a Wisconsinite that we do indeed hate those FIBS. Jk I have family there 😂
As a New Jersian, yes it is correct. We hate everyone with good reason. No we doing say Joisey, I do not live at an exit, your jokes aren't funny.
I love how Tennessee and Kentucky hate each other..... (I live in Tennessee)
Not true. I've lived most of my life in Virginia, and people around here love West Virginia. The leftist Northern and Eastern Seaboard areas, however, are very different. They truly ought to be a separate state.
I'm surprised no one hates Georgia (except for New Jersey). I definitely thought we were one of the most hated states, haha.
And I'm from New Jersey and we do really hate everyone. LOL
Load More Replies...I'm surprised no state hates Georgia (except for New Jersey). I always thought we were one of the most hated ones, haha.
I'm from Calif and I've been to Vegas 7 or 8 times and nobody was at all hostile to me (and no, I didn't lie about where i was from)
Load More Replies...North Carolina is too busy hating at least one of the trio of major college teams (Duke University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, or NC State).
WV hates Virginia because everyone thinks that we are part of VA. We were the only State formed during the Civil War and everyone forgets that, see map # 18.
Because that is the nature of New Jersey. An 'us against them' mentality. I think it is rooted in the large immigrant populations of NJ. They had to be harder and tougher to survive. That legacy lives on.
Load More Replies...I am from Arkansas, and I can verify that at least half of the people I am acquainted with do not like Alabama.
SC here. I've never heard of anyone here hating on the Buckeyes!?!
Load More Replies...Yes, yes it does. I moved to Florida once and everyone that I met there asked me if I was crazy. It's all prisons, tourism and retirees.
Load More Replies...I love how california is the most hated state. didn't expect that
Its Very Interesting
More People Live Inside The Red Area Than The Grey Area
... and this is the downfall of the American election system called the electoral college.
Drug Overdose Deaths In The United States Per 100,000 Persons For 1999 And 2014
US States Scaled Proportionally To Population Density
The Loudest And Quietest Spots In The Continental US
my house is in the border of very loud and very quiet. I can hear trains, a freeway, coyote howls, and owls hooting.
Out Of Service Railways
The U.S. Mapped By Residents’ Desire To Move To A Different State
Use Of The Word "Dang" Across The Continental US
How America Utilizes Its Land
Percentage Of People Born Outside The U.S. In Each State
Regions Of The U.S. That Don't Officially Celebrate Christopher Columbus Day
Popular Coffee Shop Chains By Number Of Locations
Map Of Lowest Recorded Temperature In Each Us State (Fahrenheit)
This is Hilarious to me, my ex-husband was raised in Alaska from 7 year's old until 22 year's old & heard a ton of weather stories 😅 😄 😂 😆 🙃 🤣 😅 😄 I've been there 4 time's but alway's in summer though!
Light Pollution In The United States
Air Traffic Control Zones In The USA
U.S. Education Spending Map
Explains why so many US citizens show a heartbreaking ignorance and why a guy like Trump could become president.
Map Of The United States' 8 Million Miles Of Roads, Streets And Highways
USA Tree Diversity
Garbage Can vs. Trash Can In The United States
Portion Of Each State That Is Federal Land
All U.S. Counties With In-N-Out Burger As Of May 2020
A Tastier Map
Date Of Creation Of All 3,142 U.S. Counties
US Governors By Eye Color
Voters Who Didn't Vote For Hillary Or Trump
Average Size Of US Apartments By Region
Results Of The 1984 United States Presidential Election By County. The Most Lopsided Election In History, The Only State Reagan Failed To Win Was His Opponent’s, Minnesota
In reverse, this must be the outcome of the 2020 election. Trump is setting up the "corrupt election" playbook so that when he loses, he can claim the election was fraudulent. We need to do the same thing Reagan did and OVERWHELMINGLY vote the morbidly obese pathological lying vindictive narcissistic imbecile with the emotional maturity of a toddler (AKA tRump) out of office.
US Counties With Gdp Over $100b
USA Country Map Divided By 1/3rds Of Covid Deaths
As an American, I would be really interested in seeing maps like these for the UK and Europe.
Ooooh, id love to see that. You could use adoption data. You could also do one by most spent on vet bills and most food and toys purchased.
Load More Replies...Very interesting set of maps. I just wish they had a higher res ones because some of them were really hard to read.
yes and even if you could read them I still didn't understand some of them, like the light pollution one? Maybe I'm alone but whatever I just agree with jamie1707
Load More Replies...Trump wanted the electoral college defunded because he's against all that fancy edjumacation. His magic 8-ball beats any stupid scientists and their technologeez and advanced mints any day!
Load More Replies...more, please! Ma, Mom, Mama, Momma, Mother etc; Dad, Pop, Papa, Pa, Father, etc; education - and types of education; sleep patterns; loneliness; favorite fairy tales . . .
Most of those were interesting. The political ones, not so much. People's remarks just get rabid.
Quite annoying that when I entered a comment, you wanted me to log in. After I did so, I was taken back to the top of the story and when I scrolled down to see my comment, it had been disappeared. If it "works as designed", the designers need another needs analysis session.
I enjoy these maps. When we were looking for job interviews in locations we would like to live, we shaded areas color coded for forest, climate and bear habitat, correlated with job openings. Then we constructed a travel plan to interview in those places. It was remarkably effective strategy, and helped us focus our search. Searching by animal habitat was interesting as well.
The waffle house map doesn't make sense. The numbers are wrong if this is number of individual stores.
Awesome information. How did they find this information and I can’t find specific information shopping on the internet? I ask for “x” and “a,” “b,” “y,” and “z.”
What great way to show people why we have an electoral college, and why we WONT let California or New York elect our president...
Tyranny to the minority is soo MUCH better than tyranny to the majority. /s
Load More Replies...Pro tip; if you want people to take you seriously, learn how to spell
Load More Replies...None of this had anything to do with that. If you're going to take a poke at us, at least make it relevant.
Load More Replies...I don't think you realize how large the United States is. Many of our states are larger than European countries.
Load More Replies...The name of the continent is North America. Even if one accepts the argument that N and S America are a single continent, the accepted demonym for citizens of the USA is "American".
Load More Replies...As an American, I would be really interested in seeing maps like these for the UK and Europe.
Ooooh, id love to see that. You could use adoption data. You could also do one by most spent on vet bills and most food and toys purchased.
Load More Replies...Very interesting set of maps. I just wish they had a higher res ones because some of them were really hard to read.
yes and even if you could read them I still didn't understand some of them, like the light pollution one? Maybe I'm alone but whatever I just agree with jamie1707
Load More Replies...Trump wanted the electoral college defunded because he's against all that fancy edjumacation. His magic 8-ball beats any stupid scientists and their technologeez and advanced mints any day!
Load More Replies...more, please! Ma, Mom, Mama, Momma, Mother etc; Dad, Pop, Papa, Pa, Father, etc; education - and types of education; sleep patterns; loneliness; favorite fairy tales . . .
Most of those were interesting. The political ones, not so much. People's remarks just get rabid.
Quite annoying that when I entered a comment, you wanted me to log in. After I did so, I was taken back to the top of the story and when I scrolled down to see my comment, it had been disappeared. If it "works as designed", the designers need another needs analysis session.
I enjoy these maps. When we were looking for job interviews in locations we would like to live, we shaded areas color coded for forest, climate and bear habitat, correlated with job openings. Then we constructed a travel plan to interview in those places. It was remarkably effective strategy, and helped us focus our search. Searching by animal habitat was interesting as well.
The waffle house map doesn't make sense. The numbers are wrong if this is number of individual stores.
Awesome information. How did they find this information and I can’t find specific information shopping on the internet? I ask for “x” and “a,” “b,” “y,” and “z.”
What great way to show people why we have an electoral college, and why we WONT let California or New York elect our president...
Tyranny to the minority is soo MUCH better than tyranny to the majority. /s
Load More Replies...Pro tip; if you want people to take you seriously, learn how to spell
Load More Replies...None of this had anything to do with that. If you're going to take a poke at us, at least make it relevant.
Load More Replies...I don't think you realize how large the United States is. Many of our states are larger than European countries.
Load More Replies...The name of the continent is North America. Even if one accepts the argument that N and S America are a single continent, the accepted demonym for citizens of the USA is "American".
Load More Replies...