Politics

This Fascinating World Map was Drawn Based on Country Populations

Published

3 years ago

September 19, 2018

Jeff Desjardins

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This World Map was Drawn Based on Country Populations

To view this map at a higher resolution to see countries and data with detail, click here

It’s likely you’re very familiar with the standard world map.

It’s shown practically everywhere – you’ll see it online, on the news, in books, and even as a part of company logos. In fact, the world map is so ubiquitous that we don’t even really think about it much at all, really.

The economist Max Roser from Our World in Data argues that this familiarity with the world map may lead to complacency in understanding global matters. After all, the typical world map shows us the basic geography of countries and continents, but it doesn’t give any indication of where people actually live!

Introducing: The Cartogram

To get around the challenges of relying on the standard world map, Roser instead has made a population cartogram based on 2018 population figures.

What’s a population cartogram?

A cartogram is a visualization in which statistical information is shown in diagrammatic form. In this case, it’s a population cartogram, where each square in the map represents 500,000 people in a country’s population.

In total there are 15,266 squares, representing all 7.633 billion people on the planet.

Countries like Canada or Russia – which have giant land masses but small relative populations – appear much smaller on this kind of map. Meanwhile, a country like Bangladesh grows much bigger, because it has a large population living within a smaller area.

The Regional View

Let’s zoom in on some continental regions to get a sense of what we can learn from a population cartogram done in this fashion.

Asia and Oceania
Where did Australia go? The continent is completely dwarfed by neighboring Indonesia and the Philippines.

Asia Cartogram

Not surprisingly, India and China are the biggest countries on this cartogram, especially looking oversized in comparison to countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, or the United Arab Emirates.

Europe
Geographically, Russia is a pretty massive country – but when resized based on population, the nation looks closer in size to many other European nations.

Europe Cartogram

The Netherlands and Belgium, two countries with higher population densities than most European nations, also appear more prominent on this style of map.

The Americas
On the map below, Mexico has exploded to almost 4X the size of Canada. That’s because although the Great White North is the world’s second largest country in size, it only has a fraction of the population of Mexico.

Americas Cartogram

Meanwhile, it’s evident that Argentina’s population is lower than the country’s giant landmass leads on.

Africa
Finally, we’ll look at Africa, which is in the middle of a massive population boom.

Africa Cartogram

Countries like Namibia, Botswana, and Chad almost disappear.

Nigeria, which is expected to have the world’s largest city by 2100 with over 88 million residents, is the largest country in Africa using this cartogram method.

Related Topics:china africa india demographics maps population asia cartogram borders

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Business

How Powerful is Your Passport in a Post-Pandemic World?

Ranking the the world’s most powerful passports based on access to visa-free destinations. Where does your country fall on the list?

Published

4 days ago

June 17, 2021

Anshool Deshmukh

How Powerful is Your Passport in a Post-Pandemic World?

With COVID-19 cases falling in many parts of the world and vaccination programs ramping up at warp speed, international travel no longer seems like a distant dream.

The Henley Passport Index, which has been regularly monitoring the world’s most travel-friendly passports since 2006, has released its latest rankings and analysis.

The most recent data provides insight into what travel freedom will look like in a post-pandemic world as countries selectively begin to open their borders to international visitors.

Prominent Countries Still Holding Strong

The rankings are based on the visa-free score of a particular country. A visa-free score refers to the number of countries that a passport holder can visit without a visa, with a visa on arrival, or by obtaining an electronic travel authorization (ETA).

Without considering the constantly changing COVID-19 restrictions, Japan firmly holds its position as the country with the strongest passport for the 4th year in a row.

This positioning is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA)—with Japanese passport holders theoretically able to access a record 193 destinations from around the world visa-free.

The last time Japan didn’t hold the number one position was back in 2017, when it shared the 5th spot with countries like the United States, New Zealand, and Switzerland.

Rank (2021)	Country	Visa-Free Score (2021)	Rank (2011)	Visa-Free Score (2011)
1	🇯🇵 Japan	193	4	170
2	🇸🇬 Singapore	192	9	164
3	🇩🇪 Germany	191	2	172
3	🇰🇷 South Korea	191	10	163
4	🇫🇮 Finland	190	1	173
4	🇮🇹 Italy	190	3	171
4	🇱🇺 Luxembourg	190	3	171
4	🇪🇸 Spain	190	4	170
5	🇦🇹 Austria	189	6	168
5	🇩🇰 Denmark	189	1	173

Singapore remains in 2nd place, with a visa-free score of 192, while Germany and South Korea again share joint-3rd place, each with access to 191 destinations.

Throughout the 16-year history of the Henley Index, EU countries have maintained a dominant position in the passport strength reports. Finland, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain all hold the 4th position while Austria and Denmark round up the top 5 with a visa-free score of 189.

Country	Rank (2011)	Rank (2021)	Difference
🇺🇸 United States	5	7	-2
🇨🇦 Canada	9	9	0
🇲🇽 Mexico	29	23	6
🇬🇧 United Kingdom	3	7	-4
🇧🇷 Brazil	25	17	8

The United States and the United Kingdom jointly share the 7th position with a visa-free score of 187 destinations. Canada, Mexico and Brazil hold the 9th, 23rd and 17th positions respectively, with Brazil experiencing a significant jump of eight places over the last 10 years.

Editor’s note: Visit the Henley Passport Index site for a full list and ranking of all countries around the world.

The Countries With The Least Travel Freedom

Afghanistan continues to be the country with the least amount of travel freedom, coming in last place (110th rank) with a visa-free score of 26 destinations. Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Yemen have access to slightly more visa-free travel, but still linger at the bottom of the overall ranking.

Rank (2021)	Country	Visa-Free Score (2021)	Rank (2011)	Visa-Free Score (2011)
110	🇦🇫 Afghanistan	26	101	24
109	🇮🇶 Iraq	28	100	28
108	🇸🇾 Syria	29	93	37
107	🇵🇰 Pakistan	32	99	31
106	🇾🇪 Yemen	33	91	39

The latest report indicates that the gap in travel freedom is now at its largest since the index began in 2006. Japanese passport holders can access 167 more destinations than citizens of Afghanistan, who can visit only 26.

The Biggest Gainers In a Decade

Over time, small annual moves in the Henley Passport Index can make a big impact—and in the last decade, countries like China and the UAE have been the biggest movers:

China has risen by 22 places in the ranking since 2011 by going from a visa-free/visa-on-arrival score of 40 destinations to now 77.

The most remarkable turnaround story on the index by far, however, is the UAE. In 2011, the UAE was ranked 65th with a visa-free score of 67 destinations. Today, thanks to the Emirates’ ongoing efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties with countries across the globe, it is now ranked 15th with a remarkable visa-free score of 174 destinations.

Politics

Mapped: The World’s Top Countries for Military Spending

Global military spending is now at a 32-year high. We show countries’ military spending by dollars and as a portion of GDP.

Published

1 month ago

May 15, 2021

Aran Ali

Mapped: The World’s Top Countries for Military Spending

By practically any measure, the world today is more peaceful and less war-torn on a global scale, relative to the past.

For instance, declarations of war between nations and soldier casualties have both dropped drastically since the 20th century. Yet, military spending has not followed this trend.

The Top 10 Military Spenders

According to SIPRI, global military spend reached almost $2 trillion in 2020. The top 10 countries represent roughly 75% of this figure, and have increased their spending by $51 billion since the year prior.

Here’s how the worlds top 10 military spenders compare to each other:

Rank	Country	Military Spend 2020 ($B)	% Change	Military Spend 2019 ($B)
#1	🇺🇸 United States	$778.0	+6.2%	$732.0
#2	🇨🇳 China	$252.0	-3.4%	$261.0
#3	🇮🇳 India	$72.9	+2.5%	$71.1
#4	🇷🇺 Russia	$61.7	-5.2%	$65.1
#5	🇬🇧 United Kingdom	$59.2	+21.5%	$48.7
#6	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	$57.5	-7.1%	$61.9
#7	🇩🇪 Germany	$52.8	+7.1%	$61.9
#8	🇫🇷 France	$52.7	+5.1%	$50.1
#9	🇯🇵 Japan	$49.1	+3.1%	$47.6
#10	🇰🇷 South Korea	$45.7	+4.1%	$43.9
	Total	$1,481.6	+3.5%	$1,430.7

The U.S. isn’t labeled as a global superpower for nothing. The country is by far the largest military spender, and its $778 billion budget trumps the remainder of the list’s collective $703.6 billion. On its own, the U.S. represents just under 40% of global military spending.

This year, Saudi Arabia has lost out on a top five seat to the UK, after a 7.1% decline in spending compared to a 21.5% increase for the UK.

Military Spend as a Percentage of GDP

Military expenditures as a percentage of GDP can be used to compare military spending relative to the size of a country’s economy.

Click here to view a high-resolution version of this image.

When looking at things this way, many of the top spenders above do not appear. This may be an indication of their economic prowess or a demonstration that the money might be used for other vital areas such as education, healthcare, or infrastructure.

Rank	Country	Region	Spend as a % of GDP (2020)
#1	🇴🇲 Oman	Middle East	11.0%
#2	🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia	Middle East	8.4%
#3	🇩🇿 Algeria	North Africa	6.7%
#4	🇰🇼 Kuwait	Middle East	6.5%
#5	🇮🇱 Israel	Middle East	5.6%
#6	🇷🇺 Russia	Europe/Asia	4.3%
#7	🇲🇦 Morocco	North Africa	4.3%
#8	🇮🇶 Iraq	Middle East	4.1%
#9	🇺🇦 Ukraine	Europe	4.1%
#10	🇵🇰 Pakistan	South Asia	4.0%

It’s pretty rare for countries to reach double digits for military spending as a percentage of GDP. In this case, Oman is an outlier, as the Middle Eastern country’s spending relative to GDP grew from 8.8% last year, to 11% in 2020.

Many of the countries with the highest military spending to GDP are located in the Middle East—a reflection of the escalating conflicts that have persisted in the region for well over two decades.

It’s worth noting that some data for the Middle Eastern region are estimates, due to the aforementioned regional instability.