40 Unusual And Fascinating Maps That Might Change Your Perspective On The World (New Pics)
If you’re a visual learner like we are, a good image helps you bring data to life. But if you ever stumbled across a great one, you know it can genuinely change how you see the world. And maps have that power. They are a surprisingly effective tool for understanding the world and giving us a peek into its secrets. By allowing us to explore novel places from the comfort of our own homes, they can even unlock our inner adventurer that’s been deep in winter’s sleep.
Today, we invite you on a journey through this informative corner of Reddit where cartography fans delve into the intriguing treasure trove of territories, statistics, and history. With over 1.9 million devoted members, this online community uncovers some of the freshest and finest maps in a bid to expand our mental horizons.
So let’s appreciate their efforts by scrolling down and devouring ourselves into the newest collection of captivating visualizations. Trust us, they won’t be anything like the ones you saw at school! Be sure to upvote your favorite ones and let us know if you enjoyed learning new things about places you may not have even known about before. For even more informational goodness, check out Bored Panda's earlier posts on this feature right here, here, and here.
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Nature Map
Map Lovers, I Recently Stopped For 30 Min In A Bookshop Checking Out This Maps Book. Love The Way Visual Information Sticks In Mind!
World Map Cantered On Antarctica
The map-loving subreddit has been around for quite some time now, celebrating its 11th birthday just last month. This online group continues to be one of the strongest and biggest cartography powerhouses on the platform that amazes thousands of people every day by sharing high-quality images of exciting and novel maps, plans, and geographic illustrations. And sure, it may seem that some of the visuals posted there are pretty nerdy, but that doesn’t make them any less fascinating.
The creator of this online group, Patrick McGranaghan, described himself in a previous interview as a "Denver-based techno-geek with a focus on all things geospatial and cartographic and a coding hobbyist with an emphasis in geospatial applications." He is a land surveyor and a member of #maptime Denver, Rocky Mountain Map Society, NACIS, PLSC, Charles Close Society, and Open Street Map Foundation, just to name a few. He decided to share his passion with the world and start the project in May 2011 while living in Taiwan, and he never looked back.
Countries Which Offer Paid Maternity Leave And The Time They Provide For Expecting Mothers
Ahh the US and health care - right up there with Papua New Guinea whose minimum wage is $51 usd
Every Purple Line Is A Bicycle Lane In The Netherlands
It is the cycling heaven here. I admit that the country being flat as a pancake helps :-)
In Case You Didn't Know, Holland & The Netherlands Are Not Interchangeable
I'm Dutch and I can tell you that most people in the Netherlands don't care if you refer to all of it as Holland. In fact I think that Holland sounds a little better than the Netherlands.
Patrick revealed that while the subreddit was pretty stable in the past, everything changed the morning when the devastating news about Ukraine and the unprovoked and unjustified attack happening there broke out. "The subreddit usually has between 2,000 and 4,000 users at a given moment on a normal day. That number spiked to a peak of over 20,000 users looking for current maps of the situation there," he told Bored Panda.
Difference Between Russia's Unfriendly List Last Year And Now
Most Popular Dog By US State...
The Shape Of The World, According To Ancient Maps
When it comes to the way people think about cartography these days, the founder of the subreddit believes it is changing. "The previous generation was accustomed to paper maps that they used to navigate. This required skills in orientation and awareness that are no longer necessary with digital maps on mobile devices. Whilst there are lots of articles that eulogize the loss of these skills, I don't think it's necessarily all bad," he explained.
Patrick pointed out that we’re seeing another shift in response to the digital age. "The digital generation has a heightened awareness of how maps can visualize data. The tools to make maps have been democratized. This has increased interest in finding new and clever ways to see spatial data."
Percentage Of Population “Absolutely Certain” God Exists In Europe vs. Us
Europe Used To Look Like This, Before It United
Russia Density Visualized
The hottest trends in maps right now, according to him, are those that elucidate some sort of political understanding. "These can be maps of elections, voting districts, gerrymandering, political recognition, voting patterns, etc. Social media is engineered to spur controversy and this is most apparent in hot-button political topics. Politically themed content will garner more discussion, controversy, and comments than most other topics."
The Red Areas Contain Half Of The Total Population Of Australia
Kid Friendly Curse Words
North Korean Election Result Of 2019
This is so ridiculous, it's beyond stupid... What a POS that fat, a*s-ugly son of a wh.... is.
The founder of the sub revealed that he developed his burning passion for maps very early and feels extremely grateful to have an activity he loves doing every day. "My family traveled and moved around a lot. My dad taught me how to read maps and I would help him navigate. I used to flip through our Rand McNally atlas to pass hours traveling across the countryside," he told us.
"Maps are invitations to explore and visit new places. They give security in the knowledge that there's a way to get to your destination. If all else fails, a map will be your guide." This feeling that Patrick has carried in his mind throughout his life was what inspired him to create a strong and knowledgeable community where people can share their ideas and excitement about the subject.
The Yuxi Circle: The World’s Most Overpopulated Area
Country’s That Cannot Speak Any Foreign Language
The problem with the UK is the teaching of languages. For decades it was always Latin. But the teaching I had trying to learn French and German always felt like I was juggling chainsaws on fire whilst being harassed by a very indignant goose.
The Most Popular Browsers In Different Countries In 2012 And 2022
I would suspect that this is due to great increase of android phones, tablets that usually come with pre-installed chrome browser in combination to the great change in users' habits (we all use phones to browse rather than pcs). Of course, chrome is very fast in browsing...
"I've noticed, especially as I've gotten older, that you only have so much time on this planet and every day that is wasted is a day that you'll never get back. If you want to get out and explore the world you just have to do it," Patrick added. "Some adventures will cost time and resources, but the real question I ask myself is can I afford not to do some goal I have my heart set on."
He continued: "There are so many opportunities in this world that it may be hard to choose, but if you wait too long those opportunities will be gone forever."
Countries Providing Humanitarian Aid To Ukraine
I Made A 3D Model Based On A 1660 Map Of New Amsterdam / New York
Is It A Crime To Knock On The Door And Run Away? (Source: UK Legislation Website - Metropolitan Police Act Of 1839)
The founder of the sub was kind enough to go in-depth about the wonderful world of maps and shared a few reasons people make them in the first place. "Sometimes for navigation, sometimes for showing statistical phenomena, and sometimes for fantasy," he said. "While artistic skill helps, it is not absolutely necessary. The important thing is to make it easy for users to glean useful information. Most maps should have a thesis or a story it is going to tell and this needs to be told through the map."
Population Density Of Africa!
The State Of Global Democracy In 2022
I think the US should rank a little lower based on how things have been going lat
The Usual Time Of Eating Dinner In Europe
But for those devoted cartography fans who have an infinite number of creative ideas flowing in their minds and want to take their work to another level, he explained that a bit of work and skill is required to make their results look less "hasty and skeletal."
"It is not that they are bad," Partick said. "It's just that they don't know that they can make their maps so much better. I'm talking about things like fonts and information boxes, detail and vicinity maps, adding gradients to water features, thoughtful color choices, shadows behind place markers. The subtleties are what make maps exquisite."
Traffic Fatalities, Eu vs. Us
I live in a lighter green area, and we always have a lot of discussions on how our roads are dangerous. I can't imagine living in the red or grey areas. That is terrible!
I live in a red state and someone was just killed in a car accident a few hundred feet from my house last night. It's not unusual to hear of several traffic related deaths a day in my city. I don't know if it has anything to do with certain areas of the country shunning seatbelt laws, but I still know a few people who don't wear them.
Load More Replies...All the highways where I live in Sweden have a median in between them. And you have to be 18 to get your full license. Also, driving with a minimum blood alcohol level of 0.02 is regarded as a crime, whether the driver is involved in an accident or not. When I moved here from Canada three months ago I noticed a lack of crosses on the sides of the roads. It's because barely anyone dies in road accidents.
And I thought Australia's 0.05 was impressive (though first 3-4 years of being licensed in my state you have to be 0.00)
Load More Replies...1st: Training. Several states do not even have a mandatory driver ed course: South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Wyoming (basically all the dark grey here save 2) and others (most of the red ones), do not even require to attend a course. The states with mandatory and controlled training are all in the yellow-green zone (save for Texas and Florida, because... I mean, of course it's them). The legal driving age is lower, 16 vs 18, and in many states there are only minor limitation to what a 16 years old driver can do (in some states, such as Arkansas, no limitations at all).
4th: enforcement. The USA are BIG, and very, very empty. Outside of main cities it is not uncommon to drive for hours and come across maybe one sheriff patrol car. Speed control is rarely enforced, almost always by means of temporary speed checks or by officers in cars. Automated speed control cameras are allowed in only 24 states. There is a grand total of 6800 speed cameras in the USA in 2022. By comparison, Italy alone has 12.000, with Germany and UK at about 5-6000 each. Automatic cameras for red lights violations are even less widespread.
Load More Replies...And cars per capita. In many parts of Europe, the average rate of car ownership is less than one per household. In the US, the average is more than two.
Load More Replies...It’s so sad seeing the EU map and we’re not there anymore. F*****g Tory bastards.
I looked at the map and said where's the UK and then I suddenly understood - Brexit! Yes Tory idiots! and now they are trying to break the Northern Ireland Protocol even more idiocy.
Load More Replies...If you look at places like New York, you begin to see the broader picture. There are more vehicle related deaths because we are more reliant on vehicles, therefore we have more so of course there will be more deaths. New York has a great transit system. Most countries in the EU do as well. Even California isn't as bad as a lot of the rest of the country because they have better transit systems in place. But when you have to have cars to get anywhere, there are naturally going to be more wrecks and casualties.
I think that drunk driving is much more prevalent in the US, am I correct?
We do have a fairly high drunk driving rate, but, until the pandemic, it was on the decline and it is still so much lower than it used to be before we raised the drinking age to 21. The problem here is our dependence on cars and lack of robust public transportation. Drunk people are almost never going to do the responsible thing, especially when their options are so limited.
Load More Replies...I'm American, and we are flooded with cars with no public transportation and the occasional shady bus and infrequent train (that you have to drive to) that's probably why.
I'm not sure how accurate this map is, at least for the US part. For example there's been over 1000 less deaths in tennasee this year than in California
No, but I bet if there was a "people shot while sitting in cars" statistic it would be high. This seems to be a common theme in the police reports in my city.
Load More Replies...Most of the border states are red. Im in Arizona and can affirm majority of our accidents are caused by drivers from across the border or the elderly. There is also a crazy stupid amount of drivers getting on freeways going the wrong way
Ok this is a very biased map. The issue is it's per million people and not miles driven. Americans drive way more miles per person and we have a higher % of drivers. So while this is still likely high the difference to other places probably isn't as extreme as it seems. We have horrible public transport and most people live far from city centers and their jobs.
great .... another thing that NM is at the top of the list for. I'm starting to think our state doesn't understand how this works.... *facepalm*
Arizona doesn't surprise me. We got a lot of crazy drivers. Most are imports from Cali though lol
I see map entries like this, and I really wish they'd include Canada. Sigh.
I love statistical maps like this, because they make places like Wyoming look like a horrible deathscape. The reality is, Wyoming has a tiny population compared to other states (less than 600k people) and would only take a couple of bad winter highway pileups to raise the number of deaths per million really badly. In fact, that 254 they show is really deceptive, since as a "deaths per million" and there aren't even a million people in Wyoming, it's really like 152 deaths total.
You can still calculate what it would be per million. Mathematics. Also, winter tires exist.
Load More Replies...Where did the UK go?! Oh yeah, we Brexited so don't even get included on random internet maps any more. 🙄
Right?! Also Montana...how? No wonder there's practically no population.
Load More Replies...I live in Montana, our roads are terrible and the drivers are worse. STAY AWAY!!!
"Death" could mean a lot of things... people who died instantly during the crash, or died later from their injuries, or maybe it contributed negatively to their health for a long time after the crash. Maybe people were paralyzed from the incident... (I'm from South Carolina)
Latitude Of World Cities Compared To Europe
I Love How Africa's Third Longest River Takes Such A Long Route To Get To The Sea From The Source In Southern Guinea
"The best way to learn how to do these things is to look at lots of maps and see how other cartographers solve these problems. Imitate the masters. Read a few books on cartography and design. Some of the books that influenced me are Info We Trust by RJ Andrews, Cartography by Kenneth Field, and Things Maps Don't Tell Us by Armin Lobeck. If you can integrate the ideas in these books you'll be a league above the average amateur cartographer," he concluded.
Europe Mapped By Trees Per Kilometre Squared (Tree Density)
World Map Of Billionaires
The Old Borders Of The German Empire Can Still Be Seen In Present-Day Polish Election Results
If Only 100 People Lived In Eu
Wine Consumption In Europe
Will You Be Offered Food When You Are A Guest
Hm, in Germany you are usually offered food. Was just thinking about how it is up north of Germany, can't really say but in middle and south you are offered!
Coffee Consumption In Europe
What War Is Currently Being Fought Near You?
Punishment Of Breaking Blasphemy Law Around The World
Europe's Most Popular Last Names
Average Male Height In Europe 2022 (In Cm)
Tell me about those giant Dutch people roaming the aisles of my local supermarket in summer... yes I'm quite far below the average height in my country in case you wonder.
Price Of Full Tank Of Gasoline (60 L) As A Percentage Of Average Monthly Net Salary Across The World
Where Europeans Lay Claim To Their Neighboring Countries
Note: this post originally had 128 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
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well! such an amazing and fresh content you drop here. its good to see this kind of content after a long time. TOP 5 skills hotel manager must have..