Yearly Archives: 2010

A population-centric map projection

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Here is some material from a presentation at this year’s  AAG Annual Conference in Washington DC. The presentation People powered maps: A population-centric map projection was given in the session on Topics in GIS, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Analysis and showed some new works on our grid-based cartograms (as presented at GISRUK 2009 and ESRI UC 2009).
The following animation shows the transformation of a topographic map of the United States, ending in a grid-based population cartogram (and then reversing). Please notice that loading the animation takes a while on slower internet connections:

USA Animated Population Cartogram with Topography
(click for larger view)

This is the full presentation given at the AAG Meeting. Please note that the animated parts such as the above animation are not shown in this Slideshare version:

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

Global Debt in 2010

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Following the map of Europe’s external debt, here comes the same data put into global context. This map is a modified version of a work that has been made for the Times newspaper (featured in the printed edition on March, 25) in their coverage of the 2010 budget. As this picture shows, it is not only the Eurozone, but most Western countries in a deep crisis – global inequalities the other way around this time – this is a topic that will be with us for months (and years) to come and still a long way to go on the road to recovery. So, keep this picture in mind:

(click here for large map)

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Brits abroad

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Gordon Brown warned against ‘scaremongering’ over immigration today, but few has been said about those who leave the United Kingdom. For the BBC, the Sasi Research Group had a look at migration into Britain, and there has also been a feature on Brits abroad. These two dimensions assembled together give a quite good view on the patterns of the United Kingdom as a crossroad of migration flows, and questions, what we should be more worried about: Those that are coming, or perhaps those, that are leaving the country. In fact, in equal number to those arriving, Britains move abroad, and the countries linked to these flows are widespread. The following map shows an extract of these flows, that we recently mapped by using new flow mapping techniques (different to the choropleth maps at the BBC features):

Immigration and Emigration flows of the United Kingdom on a globe(view large map)

The following map draft shows the whole picture of these flows which are shown above:
Immigration and Emigration flows of the United Kingdom(view large map)

Please note that the maps are still a work-in-progress. Details on data and techniques, as well as better designed versions will be available when the work on it has been completed. These maps were also featured in a talk given at the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution: “Preparing for “Peak Population”: The United Kingdom within the world’s demographic change” (the full slides for this talk are available on Slideshare).
And also good to know: Ten reasons why migrants are not the problem.
The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

European debt levels in 2010

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Alistair Darling is just about to announce the UK’s budget this Wednesday in the run-up to the forthcoming General Election, while the Eurozone countries stew over the fate of Greece and its implications for the European currency. In the reality of a world economic crisis, it’s everyone for himself, and Europe seems far from being a united community.
The following map compares the total debt of the EU-27 countries and the debt’s share of the GDP – revealing some interesting views: In sheer numbers, the PIGS are not alone (Greece, in fact, almost not counting). Eventually, we’re all in the same boat in the sea of gloom (click map for larger view)…

Map of debt and the debt/gdp ratio in the countries of the European Union 2010

The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.

Vancouver revisited: Paralympics vs Olympics

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The glowing hearts in Vancouver eventually died down with the ending of the Winter Paralympics yesterday. Time for another review and another map: The following map shows the final results of the Paralympics with the countries of the world re-sized according to the total number of medals awarded at the Paralympics (click map for larger view):

This map becomes quite interesting when opposed to the results of the Olympics. The more affluent countries dominate the whole picture again at the Paralympics, but there are some obvious differences. China disappeared, Eastern Europe grew and Canada finally managed to catch up with the United States. Here is the map of the Olympics again:

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Angles, Saxons, Inequality, and Educational Mobility in England and Germany

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Good politics has always seen well-funded, public provision of education as a vital pathway to delivering the Good Society. This article draws on recent evidence from Germany and the UK to show that even in more equal societies, such as Germany, attention still needs to be paid by progressive politicians to education – in particular, the importance of non-elitist, comprehensive education systems for all, regardless of means.

Educational systems in England and Germany affect social inequalities in different ways. Social inequalities are narrower in Germany, but not thanks to German education systems. The English education system is highly discriminatory too, but it would be a mistake to believe that the German model is much better.
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  • Dorling, D. and Hennig, B. D. (2010). Angles, Saxons, Inequality, and Educational Mobility in England and Germany. Social Europe Journal.
    pdf icon Article as PDF ; Article online

    • Inequalities and Educational/Social Mobility

    The content on this page has been created by Benjamin Hennig. Please contact me for further details on the terms of use.