Mapping the world

A bunch of researchers, mostly from the University of Sheffield, have started a pretty awesome project. As it says on their website,

"Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, using equal area cartograms where territories are re-sized on each map according to a particular variable."

So if you are looking at the most familiar variable, land area, you get a familiar-looking world map like this:

But if you start to look at other variables, things can change dramatically. Take, for example, GDP wealth:

Or, going the other way, how about mortality of 1 to 4 year olds?

Pretty dramatic difference, isn't it? Check out their website for almost 400 maps tracking all kinds of variables. Very interesting stuff.

One more thing. . .
This project reminded me of another one, Gapminder, that tries to bring data to life in a unique way. These are not cartograms, but the end result is perhaps even more compelling. Co-founder Hans Rosling does an amazing job bringing seemingly boring data to life in this excellent TEDTalk: