'I'm always looking for the Hows and the Whys and the Whats,' said Muskrat, 'That is why I speak as I do. You've heard of Muskrat's Much-in-Little, of course?'
'No,' said the child. 'What is it?'
- The Mouse and his Child. Russell Hoban.

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Tuesday 12 April 2011

Population


Thinking about the population of our world... (click to enlarge)

11 comments:

  1. Very interesting. It certainly highlights the difference between the UK and New Zealand. In reality these two countries have similar land masses but when shown as factors of their populations the difference in size (as in population) is enormous.

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  2. Fascinating! I am a sucker for (a) maps, (b) population, and (c) any combination of the two.

    I had no idea the Mediterranean Sea was so large.

    For some reason I can't put my figure on, this map reminds me of the one the Siamese children used before Deborah Kerr got there in The King and I.

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  3. What a lot of us!

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  4. Geeb - yep. And compare Aussie with India...

    Robert - I love maps too. My parents tell me the first recognisable drawing I ever did was not (as is usual) a person, but a map of my village roundabout with the six roads going off it.
    Re. the Med - it is a bit out of scale to accommodate the odd shape of the countries, I think.

    Hello Dad! Nice to see your 'face'. Must come over and visit you soon.

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  5. The two biggest surprises to me were Brazil and Russia.

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  6. Yes Judy. Look how big Singapore is too.

    Each square represents one million.

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  7. And how small Canada is. I keep re-visiting this with fascination.

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  8. Interesting,
    can I also recommend a book I do not have but have read about, The Atlas of the Real World, where they publish world maps with size based on a variety of factors; newspapers sold, cars imported, tourism etc.
    Here's the newspaper feature I read...

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/3109042/The-Atlas-of-the-Real-World.html?image=2

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  9. Brian - THank you - that link was fascinating. I was smugly pleased to see that there's not a lot of difference between the number of tourists NZ gets cf Aussie... But look at the skew towards the northern hemisphere... The equator is all droopy! Stands to reason I guess. There's more of you up there. And greater land area too.

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  10. One of the things the map proves is that there are far too many people in the UK. I think we should ship a few ocean liners full of unwanted people to New Zealand. You haven't got your fair share.

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  11. YP, I think you are correct. We need more people. Then we could have a better transport infrastructure, cultural appreciation of the arts, and there might even be more interest and money for the work done by the Department of Conservation.

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