Category: mapping

Mapped: The World’s Countries Compared by 20 Key Metrics


This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist


Mapped: The World’s Countries Compared by 20 Key Metrics

Which countries have the largest populations? What about the rural versus urban population divide? And which countries have the highest Gross Domestic Product (GDP), military expenditures, or tech exports?

Instead of comparing countries by one metric, this animation and series of graphics by Anders Sundell uses 20 different categories of World Bank data to compare countries. The data was sourced in July 2022 and contains the latest available data for each country.

Below, we provide some context on eight of the 20 categories, and share some facts on the top ranking countries for each category.

Top 10 Countries Worldwide by GDP

this map compares countries by GDP

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With a GDP of nearly $23 trillion in 2021, the United States has the largest economic output of any country in the world. While China is currently second on the list, some projections have China’s nominal GDP surpassing America’s as early as 2030.

And even more evident on this map is the weight of economic power to Western countries and just a few Asian countries. Africa, South America, and the rest of Asia are tiny in contrast.

Top 10 Countries Worldwide by Population

this map compares countries by total population

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China ranks first as the world’s most populated country, with a population of 1.4 billion. China has been the world’s most populated country for more than 300 years, but this could change in the near future.

According to the UN’s latest population prospects, India’s population is (Read more...)

Mapping Airways: The World’s Flight Paths and Airports


This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist


Click to view a larger version of the graphic.

Map of the world's flight paths and busiest air routes

Mapping Airways: World’s Flight Paths and Airports

There are up to 8,755 commercial flights in the air at any given time of day. These flights transport thousands of people (and millions of dollars worth of goods) around the world.

But where are these people and goods headed? This map from Adam Symington uses historical data from OpenFlights to visualize the world’s flight paths.

The graphic shows a comprehensive data set encompassing 67,663 different routes that connect 10,000 different airports across the globe.

A Note On the Data

The map uses an OpenFlights database provided by the third-party source that hasn’t been updated since June 2014.

Because of this, the data used for the graphic is of historical value only. However, this detailed map sparked our curiosity and got us wondering—what are some of the busiest aviation hubs around the world right now?

We did some digging, and here’s what we found.

Busiest Airports by Passengers

There are several ways to gauge an airport’s popularity. One way is to measure total passenger traffic throughout the year.

According to Airports Council International (ACI), eight of the top 10 busiest airports for passenger traffic in 2021 were in America. Here’s a look at the top 10 list, as of April 11, 2022:

RankAirportCountryPassenger Traffic (2021)
1Atlanta GA (ATL)🇺🇸 US75,704,760
2Dallas/Fort Worth TX (DFW)🇺🇸 US62,465,756
3Denver CO (DEN)🇺🇸 US58,828,552
4Chicago IL (ORD)🇺🇸 US54,020,399
5 (Read more...)