Global Chocolate Consumption per Capita (2018)

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I Should Cocoa… Ugh. I’ve had too much chocolate. I’m writing this on Easter Sunday, surrounded by temptation in the form of several variations and combinations of chocolate, as is customary in the Western world at this time of year. It turns out you can have too much of a good thing – real ‘first world problems’. Talking of #firstworldproblems, chocolate addiction really is an issue for the developed world, where chocolate consumption is at its highest in this part of world – maps bear this out. So given this time of  year, I thought it would be fitting to look into the geographical patternsRead More →

Map of knowledge of Celtic language

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Croeso! Fáilte! Degemer mat! Failt ort! Dynnargh dhis! If you managed to work out the languages in the above greetings without Google, congratulations! For those who needed to Google (including myself), will know for the record that the above all means ‘Welcome’ in Welsh, Irish Gaelic/Scots Gaelic, Breton, Manx and Cornish respectively. However, despite being ‘native’ languages to their respective regions of the British Isles and Northern France with long histories, they are minority languages compared to English and French respectively, with differing fortunes and histories. In a previous article exploring the geography of Wales, we have seen how the Welsh language is a historical link to pre Angl0-SaxonRead More →

Dull Twinned with Boring

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Welcome to ‘Twin City’ Enter most towns, cities or villages in not just the UK, but in Europe and beyond, and you will likely find a ‘Welcome to [insert place name]’ and underneath ‘Twinned with [insert twin cities]’. Perhaps it is easy ignore these twin cities and linkages, or dismiss them as nothing more than symbolic, but what is the story behind twin or sister cities and what does it mean today? For those unaware a twin or sister city partnership is where there is a ‘friendship’ and legal/social agreement between one town or city (or even a region) to another , usually in a different country.Read More →

Conflict_EventType_Mali

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In new series, ‘Map Nation’, I choose a country at random, and use this a topic to create maps related to this country. First, out of the hat – Mali Tim Marshall in his excellent book, ‘Prisoners of Geography’, underlines the importance and much overlooked influence of geography on the history of the world and modern geopolitics. Among many great examples, include Russia and it’s need for a warm sea port, or Europe, where terrain, climate and rivers created the multitude of countries and cultures in a relatively small land mass. Another example of historical and geography’s persisting impact today is perhaps no greater than inRead More →

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It’s been a while since I’ve added to this feature for various reasons, but thanks to the ‘The Pudding‘, a superb infographics and ‘visual essay’ based site, there is a excellent and important entry for Map of the Day. The Shape of Slavery evidences historical and modern day racism, by providing geographical representations of the areas of United States of America where proportion of African-Americans have been over time, the numbers of slaves up until it was outlawed, and the number of (black) incarcerations per state. This is a well designed and thought out web map, which utlises topojson.js and other Javascript libraries, to tie inRead More →

Cartogram of Female Workforce

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Another day, and another ‘international [insert here] day’. However, unlike ‘International Toast Day’ (15th July for those interested), today, 8th March, was one that actually had great significance – International Women’s Day. Despite being a guy,  I recognise that while progress has been made, we are still some way of gender equality. Given that 50% of the world’s population is female, and there is no logical reason why income, job, social, educational opportunities and choices shouldn’t be the same as men – this situation isn’t good enough. However I don’t feel I should go on further, as I don’t think I can do the topic ofRead More →

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While this site lives a digital world of geographical information, there is nothing quite like going to visit a real life, physical ‘map den’, and for those who are able to, I’d highly recommend going to visit The British Library in Central London. Their map room has one of largest collections of geographical information, with approximately 4.5 million entities. This alone should be a pull factor to have a ‘map’ day in London. However, up until March 1st 2017, there is a further reason to venture down, and this is because of the fantastic “Maps and the 20th Century: Drawing the Line” exhibition which isRead More →

Urban Population Change 2010-2015

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One of the things I’ve enjoyed so far in creating The Map Den, is being able to share some of the latest and interesting pieces of work and tips coming out of the GIS and mapping industry. The ‘science of where‘ community is alive and strong. However, it’s time I did some original mapping content myself. Today I’m starting simple, but nonetheless importantly, looking at global urban and rural population increases. Created through static maps created in ArcGIS and joining with population data from United Nations between 2010-2015, these maps investigate the continuing phenomenon of global population increase and the urban to rural shift. WeRead More →

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Today’s map of the day touches on the thorny issue of…politics, though I’m not going to get into a political discussion; if you want to, please got the usual channels, i.e. YouTube comments section. This map from the Economist Intelligent Unit’s (EIU) Democracy Index is a simple, clear, but informative map (click here for full interactive version here).Read More →