There are 3,144 counties in the United States, but the population is far from evenly distributed among them. In fact, half of the U.S. population lives in just 144 counties, while the other half is spread across the remaining 3,000 counties.
This imbalance is neatly visualized in an interactive map created by Kyle Walker. County Population Share uses data from the 2024 U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates to generate an animated map that adds counties in order from most to least populated. As the animation unfolds, it's fascinating to watch the densely populated East and West Coasts fill in first, while the less populated counties of the Midwest appear only towards the end of the animation.
There is potential for this map to evolve into a more comprehensive visualization of U.S. population density. One obvious enhancement would be to provide users with access to the underlying data. Currently, hovering over a county reveals its name. It would be a simple yet valuable improvement to display additional information when a county is clicked - for example, its total population and the percentage of the U.S. population that resides there.
It could also be beneficial to enable users to create their own visualizations by interacting with the map. While this would require more development work, it should be possible to allow users to select and deselect counties to see the cumulative percentage of the U.S. population represented. For instance, users could select all the counties in a specific state to reveal the percentage of the national population living in that state.
No comments:
Post a Comment