Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time
In 1973, American geographer George Etzel Pearcy proposed a significant reorganization of the United States’ state boundaries, aiming to reduce the number of states from 50 to 38.
His plan sought to address issues arising from outdated borders that no longer reflected the nation’s demographic and economic realities.
Key Aspects of Pearcy’s Proposal:
The map above shows that fertility rates (the number of children and woman can expect to have in her lifetime) have declined in all US states between 2005 and 2022.
From a tiny 0.3% decline in Louisiana to a massive 33.9% decline in Utah.
Here is the full data set (from biggest to smallest decline)
You can get a better look below:
And if you want to know read the full text see below (provided by Explain XKCD):
The map above shows what time the sunsets across Europe on the longest day of the year aka the Summer Solstice (21st of June) based on local time.
Go far enough north and you’ve got 24 hours of daylight.
Now if you only read the right wing press or listen to right-wing politicians you’d be forgiven for believing that all of London is some sort of crime-ridden hell-hole.
The map above comes Open Street Maps Cycle layer and shows how much denser the cycling network is in The Netherlands and Belgium compared to France, Germany or the UK.
