Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time
The map above shows where people do and don’t pronounce the ‘R’ sound in the word Arm.
In the 1950s it was very common for people in the South West and North East of England to pronounce it, but by 2016 that pronunciation had almost entirely vanished.
The map above shows how people refer to the period between summer and winter in the UK.
Now almost everyone calls it Autumn, but go back to 1950 the term Backend was more commonly used throughout Northern England, with Autumn mainly being a Southern term.
The map above shows what people in various parts of the UK and Ireland call a small piece of wood under the skin.
Today, almost everyone calls it a splinter, except a few holdouts in North-East England who still call it spelk.
However, rewind to 1950 and there were a many regional differences including:
The map above shows a potential American Road trip you can do without ever having to leave the UK. Here are the size comparisons between the various stops:
The map above created by Starkey Comics shows just how many different dialects you can find in the UK. And even then, I’m sure there are many people who will disagree with them.
The map above was created by BusinessFinancing.co.uk and shows the oldest companies in each UK region.
* Note the data for Northern Ireland is wrong, reader Stephen pointed out: “The News Letter in Belfast however predates this [Derry Journal] as it was founded in 1737 and is still in operation today. (Among its many achievements, The News Letter was the first newspaper in the world to publish the American Declaration Of Independence!)”
Below you can find data for the oldest city in 58 different UK cities.
The map above shows all the English counties that end in Shire. In alphabetical order they are:
The map above is a not entirely serious look at what would happen to the UK & Ireland if sea levels rose 1,250 meters (4,100 ft). The reason it’s not entirely serious is that sea levels is because:
Australia is by far the highest at 76%.
Interestingly, this is marginally higher than the share of people in England & Wales who identified as White British (74.4%) at the last census. Although, it should be noted that the Australian number looks at people with any British ancestry, not exclusively British ancestry.
Here’s a breakdown of what it shows: