Census Dot Map Documents 341 Million North Americans
Geographic Time Lapse Map Documents Unemployment
Staff Report
Humboldt Sentinel
If you ever wondered what a dot map of the U.S. and Canada would look like, with every census-recorded person represented by a black pinpoint, this is it.
341,897,095 pinpoint dots to be exact. That’s a helluva lot of dots. And you’re one of them.
Click here for this amazing link leading you to the illustration of the country’s population that was painstakingly pieced together by MIT cartographer and urban planner Brandon Martin-Anderson using the 2010 and 2011 US and Canada Censuses.
From a distance it may look like smudges. To truly appreciate the painstaking work he did, zoom in way close down to the neighborhood level to find the individual dots and folks folks residing there. It help to press the upper box in the right hand corner entitled ‘Show Labels’ to give some orientation of places and street names.
We found our hinterland neighbors from SoHum to Kneeland to Weitchpec. We also found millions more concentrated and confined to the urban jungles of the south and east. It’s a little less invasive than Google’s street view, but no less awesome being the first of its kind. No one has ever done it before. Mr. Martin-Anderson will have print maps of his dots available for sale soon.
And while we’re on the subject of maps, here’s another unique one– a time lapse– of the “Geography of a Recession.” According to the 2011 U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were more than 28 million people currently unemployed — including those involuntarily working part-time and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one.
In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting. “The Decline: The Geography of a Recession,” was created by labor writer LaToya Egwuekwe and serves as a vivid representation of just how much economic ground we lost.
You can graphically watch the deteriorating transformation of the U.S. economy from January 2007, approximately one year before the start of the recession, to the unemployment data available in 2011– seen in 43 seconds.
Then there’s Texas. More than a state, Texas is a unique state of mind. It’s just best not to mess with it.
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(Posted by Skippy Massey)
