Fascinating: Different Perspectives on Our World

Worldmapper is a collection of world maps, where territories are re-sized on each map according to a very wide variety of subjects. There are now nearly 600 maps, many of which are available as pdf posters.

A few examples...

Women Smoking
Territory size shows the proportion of women who smoke that live there, 1998-2003. The proportion of women who smoke varies from 1% in Azerbaijan to 47% in Guinea. Of the total world female population over the age of 15 years, 10% are smokers (compared to 43% for men). Some girls start to smoke before they reach the age of 15.


Films Watched
Of the 7.6 billion films watched at cinemas, almost 3 billion viewings were recorded in one year in India. The most cinema visits per person were in Iceland, where the average person makes 5 trips to the cinema each year. By contrast, in Malaysia only 1 person in every 100 saw a film at the cinema in an average year.


Prisoners
In 2006 there were an estimated 9.3 million people in prison worldwide at any one time. Half of them were held in just 3 territories: the United States 24%, China 17% and the Russian Federation 9%.