Making Sense Of The World, One Map At A Time
But it splits the Republic of Croatia into two parts, mainly the area around the city of Dubrovnik in the south from the rest of Croatia proper in the north.
Neum itself has a tiny population of just under 5,000 people, 97.64% of whom are Croats.
So why does it exist?
The 1587 Flat Earth Map of the World by Urbano Monte is a fascinating historical document that reflects the geographical knowledge and worldview of its time. And you can even buy a copy here on Amazon.
Although not explicitly a “flat earth map” in the sense of modern flat-earth theories, it is an early and ambitious attempt to create a comprehensive world map using an azimuthal equidistant projection.
The map above is titled: Gleason’s New Standard Map Of The World and is a silly, but great example of a flat earth map. You can even buy a copy on Amazon here.
The map above shows one of the world’s craziest population disparities. Bangladesh which is 148,460 km2 (57,320 sq miles), roughly the size of Illinois, has a population of 172 million now 176 million!
This is 28 million 32 million more people than Russia, by far the world’s largest country (17,098,246 km2; 6,601,670 sq miles), which only has 144 million.
To put this another way, Russia has 8 people per km2 (21 per sq mile) vs Bangladesh which has 1,165 per km2 (3,020 per sq mile).
Below are the current numbers in both share of the population and absolute numbers:
Here’s a breakdown of what it shows:
The map uses three colors to represent areas:
The TFR represents the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime, a key indicator of population growth.
In terms of numbers, India had 1.079 billion people in 2001 with a TFR of 3.3 giving it an annual growth rate of 1.8%.
By 2021, India’s growth rate had fallen to just 0.8% with a TFR of just 2.03 (slightly below replacement level) but it’s population had risen to 1.408 billion, adding an almost US number of people in 20 years.
The map draws parallels between the breakup of the Soviet Union into independent republics and a hypothetical disintegration of the U.S. into regional states.