Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time
The United States has been the world’s largest economy for well over a century.
However, if you go all the way back to 1820, the US economy was only ranked as the 8th largest in the world.
Using the Maddison Project Database for 1820 and the IMF data for 2025, we look at the size of the US economy relative to the other 7 economies which were larger in 1820 and what happened over the course of 200 years.
The maps below all show countries that were richer than the United States in inflation adjusts GDP per capita terms in 1980 based on the IMF’s Gross domestic product (GDP), Constant prices, Per capita, purchasing power parity (PPP) international dollar, ICP benchmark 2021.
More about it at the bottom of the page.
The year was rather unique due to the 1979-80 oil crisis.
This temporarily increased inflation adjusted GDP per capita in some countries such as the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Libya to levels higher than they are today.
Overall, in 1980 there were 15 countries that were richer than the US in $PPP inflation adjusted terms and today there are only 10.
The map above shows which states have more Jews than Muslims living in them and vice versa.
But, it should be noted that in absolute terms New York state has the most Jews and the most Muslims living there.
In total, 7.7 million Jews live in the United States (more than in Israel) compared to just 4.5 million Muslims (slightly less than in Palestine).
Below are the numbers for each state, the % of the state population that is Jewish or Muslim as well as the difference in numbers.
It shows long-term “normal” precipitation totals, measured in inches per year.
More about it:
The map above shows the location of Oklahoma which at one point was part of the Republic of Texas, before Texas joined the United States in 1845.
The story of the Oklahoma Panhandle, that narrow, rectangular strip of land at the state’s far west, is one of the quirkiest tales in American geography.
Its evolution from being part of Texas, to becoming “No Man’s Land,” and finally part of Oklahoma involves a mix of statehood law, slavery politics, and settlement patterns.
Here’s how it happened:
See this map:
Here’s the story behind the two Kansas Cities: one in Kansas and the bigger, older one in Missouri:
The map above shows which countries the US has lost wars or other military conflicts to. However, defining what is a loss is very tricky.
The map above shows what the US might look like if it all 50 states radiated out from the centre of the country. From the map author:
Manhattan today has over 600,000 fewer people living on it than it did before the advent of the majority of the skyscrapers that define its iconic skyline today.
