The Maps of the Week

There is a more than a bit of a German flavor to this week's maps of the week. By far my favorite map of the last seven days was the Berliner Morgenpost's interactive version of the BBSR Map of European Population Change.

The German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs, and Spatial Development released a static map of population change in Europe between 2001 and 2011. The Berliner Morgenpost used the data to create a beautiful interactive map showing Where the Population of Europe is Growing – and Where it’s Declining.

The map shows population growth in 119,406 municipalities from 43 European countries (including Turkey). It includes a number of snapshot analyses of interesting trends in the data. You can access these snapshots using the links beneath the map. You can also zoom in on the map and click on any of the 119,406 municipalities to view the percentage population change between 2001 and 2011 at the selected location.


I was also really impressed this week with a wonderful data driven investigation into the popularity of Airbnb in Berlin and the possible effect it is having on affordable housing in the city.

Among the interactive maps used to illustrate the investigation is Airbnb Streets. The map highlights the streets in Berlin with more than 20 Airbnb offers and reveals that many of the properties listed on Airbnb are in popular tourist areas. In particular there is a high concentration of properties in areas that are popular with young travelers.

Another interactive map in the article visualizes the number of Airbnb listings by neighborhood. This choropleth map shows in which areas of the city more flats and rooms are offered on Airbnb. The Reuterkiez area in Neukölln is the most active neighborhood on Airbnb with 476 rooms and flats listed within only a few blocks.


My least favorite map of the week was the GeoHipster Map. However the readers of Maps Mania apparently disagreed with me and visited this map in droves. Making it the most read post of the week.

Let me tell you why I hate that map. It took me five months to grow that bloody beard and the bastards still left me off the map. In protest I've now shaved off all my hair and given up mapping for good.

For those of you still interested in maps - the GeoHipster Map shows the locations of the followers of the GeoHipster Twitter account. GeoHipster is a geo-blog with a special focus on open source and open data. The blog features regular interviews with leading participants in the field of  interactive mapping.

To be honest you really should add it to your browser's 'bookmarks' folder.