The Ridgeline Map of European Population Density is an interactive map that provides a multi-resolution visualization of Europe's population density in the form of a joy-plot.
Joy-plots, also known as ridgeline plots, draw their inspiration from one of pop culture’s most iconic visuals: the album cover of Unknown Pleasures by Joy Division. Designed by Peter Saville in the 1970s, the cover features a mesmerizing depiction of radio waves emitted by a pulsar (the image was originally published in the Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Astronomy). Over time, this striking design has transcended its musical roots to become a cultural and artistic symbol. In the world of data science, visualizations that echo this pulsar-inspired aesthetic are affectionately dubbed “joy-plots,” paying homage to the legendary album and its enduring influence.
This interactive joy-plot map of European population density was made using Gridviz. Gridviz is 'a JavaScript library for visualizing gridded data ... using a large variety of cartographic styles and techniques.' The resulting joy-plot map leverages the Eurostat GISCO Population distribution dataset to represent population density as horizontal ridgelines, where vertical peaks convey the density of the population across different areas of the continent.
Gridviz even offers three unique joy-plot styles for exploring European population density data: the basic joyplot, the shaded joyplot, and the random colored joyplot. As users zoom in on these maps, higher-resolution joy-plot lines appear, revealing finer details about population density at more localized levels. Additional place-name labels are also displayed, making it easier to navigate and understand the data at different scales.
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