CARTOGRAM

A cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable – such as travel time or Gross National Product – is substituted for land area. The geometry or space of the map is distorted in order to convey the information of this alternate variable. There are two main types of cartograms: area and distance cartograms.

This is an image of the World economy cartogram. To highlight the distribution of wealth and power in the world of today, this cartogram sizes the countries according to their relative financial status, here presented through gross domestic product (gdp) per capita, offering an alternative world view to a regular map. Countries such as China and India become much smaller, next to giants in Western Europe, North America and Japan. Africa represents a minor speck, while South and Central America lands somewhere in between.