Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time
The map above shows the most streamed English speaking artists in each country where Spotify publishes data in 2025. And fun fact 3 of the 7 are from my home province of Ontario!
Also for the UK, no British artists made the top 10, all were either Canadian or American.
Here is the most popular song based on YouTube views for each artist:
The map above shows the odds of a random baby being born on each continent in 2026. The data comes from Our World In Data, and is actually based on the share of birth in 2023.
Here are the total number of births and share by continent:
The maps shown here all show the biggest and/or most popular brands from countries around the world based either on where they are founded or headquartered today.
The map above shows how the richest, middle and poorest income countries have changed from 1950 until today.
And to be clear, the maps are not showing what was regarded as the First, Second & Third Worlds during the Cold War but instead split countries purely based on income.
Data, maps and explanation below:
Ok maybe the UK isn’t necessarily “obsessed,” but their plug-and-socket system is unusually robust, safe, and deeply embedded in the national psyche, which makes it look like an obsession from the outside.
Here’s why they’re so proud of them:
The map above shows the global change in world population between 1500 and 1600AD. Overall, world population increased by 13 million people (+3%) from 503 million to 516 million people. However, where those people lived radically changed.
The data comes from the HYDE database, which you learn more about from this post.
Here’s why:
This meme is a satirical commentary on how Western media (mainly in North America and Western Europe) is perceived to respond unevenly to tragedies around the world.
Here’s what the map and colours mean:
The map above shows a very rough estimate of the population of each continent in 10,000 BC.
The numbers come form Our World In Data, which uses HYDE version 3.3.
Here is list of estimated populations for people living within the borders of modern day states in 10,000 BC.
The above is a fun where would you choose to live scenario. Here’s a bit more about each choice:
The map above shows the number of births per year in Nigeria vs Europe in 2023 according to Our World In Data.
In that year Europe (including all of Russia) recorded 6.3 million births vs Nigeria with 7.5 million.
Below we look at births and overall population trends from 1900 to 2100. (Note data up to 2023 is historically accurate, while that from 2024 to 2100 is the UN’s medium population estimate).