The Most Densely Populated Areas in Europe

The most densely populated square kilometer in Europe is in the center of Barcelona. This square kilometer in the Sants-Montjuïc district of Barcelona is home to 53,119 people.

Dan Cookson's Hyper Density in EU maps every square kilometer in Europe with a population of over 10,000 people. Kilometer squares with a population over 10,000 are colored on the map to show their population density. Each of the colored square also has a label which shows the exact population living there according to the European Commission.

If you want to know which areas are the most densely populated in each European country then you can refer to Alasdair Rae's article on The Most Densely Populated Square Kilometre in 39 European Countries. In this post Alasdair shows a satellite view of the the most densely populated kilometer square in each European country. Each satellite image also includes a small inset map showing you where that most densely populated area is

If you are interested in areas which aren't so densely populated then you should also check out Dan's previous European population map. The EU Population 2011 by 1km Grid visualizes the number of people living in each square kilometer of the whole EU.

The Autocomplete Map of the USA

A few years ago autocomplete maps were very popular. Then they went away for a while. Now they are back!

Autocomplete maps show you the most searched for phrases on Google for different locations. For example if you type into Google 'why is Alaska ..' Google will list a number of auto-complete suggestions based on how most people use that question stem when searching on Google.

On Google most people use the 'why is Alaska ...' form of question to ask 'why is Alaska so cold'. Conversely the question stem 'why is Arizona ..' is most often used on Google to ask 'why is Arizona so hot'. You can find out the autocomplete suggestions for other states on The United State of Wonder interactive map.

The map shows the autocomplete suggestions for each US state for the question stems:

'Why is ... ?'
'When will ...?'
'Can ...?'


You can make your own global autocomplete maps using Map Channels' Autocomplete Maps. This tool, released in 2014, lets you enter your own question stems to create an interactive map showing the autocomplete suggestions for that question for locations around the world.

Russia's Attack on the World's Democracies

Russia seems intent on destabilizing democracies around the world. In just the last three years Russia has hacked into the servers of the Democratic Party in the USA, assassinated a person in the UK and, most recently, fired upon Ukrainian ships.

The Alliance for Securing Democracy has been tracking where and how Russia has been interfering in more than 40 countries around the world. You can explore these discoveries on the Authoritarian Interference Tracker. Click on an individual country on the Authoritarian Interference Tracker interactive map and you can view all the recorded incidents where Russia has interfered in that country's democratic process.

The Alliance for Securing Democracy categorizes Russia's interference in democracies into a number of different areas, including cyberattacks and political & social subversion. The map uses pie charts as markers to show the scale of these different categories of attacks by Russia on individual countries. The size of the pie charts are proportional to the scale of Russia's attacks on that country. If you select a country on the map you can read more about each individual incident, as listed below the map.

Building on Britain

Just under 6% of the UK is built on. More than half the land is farmland and around a third of all land is natural (heath, moorland etc). You can discover how much of your local area is built on using the BBC's new interactive map.

How Much of Your Area is Built On uses new data on UK land use, which was derived from analyzing satellite imagery. Enter your location into the BBC's interactive and you can find out how much of your local area is natural, farmland, green urban or built on. A map of your area shows which parts fall into each of these four categories of land use. You are also shown the total percentage of land in your area which is given over to each of the four categories and how that compares to the national average.

While 6% of the UK is built upon only 3.6% of America is dedicated to urban areas. You can find out about American land use in Bloomberg's Here's How America Uses its Land.


If you live outside of the UK or the USA then you can use the OSM Landuse Landcover map to get an idea of the different percentages of land use on your area. This map uses OpenStreetMap data to map land-use and show the percentage of different types of land-use around the globe.

The OSM Landuse Landcover map uses contrasting colors to show how areas have been tagged in OpenStreetMap for land-use and land-cover. If you zoom in on a location on the map you can see how different areas have been tagged for land use and land cover. A dynamic pie chart also provides an overview of the percentages of different types of land use in the current map view.

Obviously the data on the map is only as accurate and complete as the data in OpenStreetMap.

Discover Your 2018 Climate Twin

In the year 2080 London will experience weather which resembles the climate in Lima today. Frankfurt in Germany will be as hot as Malawi and living in Berlin will be like living in Lesotho in southern Africa.

You can find your 2080 climate twin using The Summer of 2080 Will Be This Warm interactive map. If you enter your location or click on your location on the map you can view the town or city in the world which has a climate now which is similar to the climate you can expect in your location in the year 2080. The map uses two different climate models. This allows you to find your climate twin for a global warming scenario of 4.2 degrees or 1.8 degrees.

When you search for your climate twin the map displays some details of the kind of weather experienced by your twin now (and which you can expect to experience in the year 2080). This includes the annual rainfall and the number of extreme hot and cold days.

The Flood Risk Map of England

The UK government's Long Term Flood Risk Map for England provides an overview of the chances that any location in the country will flood in any year. It shows you the chances that locations will flood in any given year from either surface water, groundwater or from rivers or the sea.

Locations are colored on the Flood Risk Map to indicate the chances that they will flood in a year. You can also click on a location on the map to view the local chances of flooding. An area that is shown as having a high risk of flooding has more than a 3.3% chance of flooding in any given year. A medium risk indicates a 1-3.3% chance of flooding and a low risk has 0.1-1% chance of flooding in any year.

The UK government can also provide a flood risk assessment for any individual property in the UK. If you enter an address into the Long Term Flood Risk Assessment you can find out the property's risk level from rivers or the sea, from surface water or the risk from groundwater flooding.

Comparing Countries by Size

Jason Davies has arranged the world's countries in order of land area. Russia, the largest country in the world, is the first country to appear on Jason's Countries by Area visualization. Luxembourg, the smallest country in the list, comes last.

The map of every country in this visualization is reproduced to scale. This means that the countries at the bottom of the visualization are very small when compared to Russia. This is presumably why Countries by Area stops at Luxembourg. Each of the countries are colored by continent. You can mouse-over the individual countries to view its size in square kilometers and its ranking in the list of countries by size.


You can make a direct comparison of the size of any two countries using the True size of interactive map. This map allows you to overlay any country in the world on top of the outline of any other country.

The True size of interactive map doesn't limit you to just two countries. Why not see how many of the smaller countries in Jason Davies list you can fit inside the outline of Russia?

Transmarine Dream

Come and explore the strange transmarine dream of Andy Woodruff's Beyond the Sea.

Back in 2016 in Beyond the Sea Andy Woodruff answered the question of what lies beyond the sea for locations around the world. He created a series of maps which showed where each continent could be seen from (if you ignore the curvature of the Earth and our imperfect eyesight) from every other continent. His maps show what lies directly across the ocean if you take into account the direction of the coastline at any given point.

Andy has now created an animated interactive map which visualizes all the locations which lie directly across the sea on one integrated map. Click on a country on the Interactive Beyond the Sea map and you can see colorful lines shoot out to show the worldwide locations that can be 'seen' if you look directly out from any point on the selected country's coastline.

The colors of the lines represent the different destination continents. The result is that if you click on a country you can watch a colorful 'firework display' of animated lines shooting out around the world. If you select the 'start fireworks' option you can actually watch the world's coastlines exploding in one global transmarine dream.

Flooding Models for the Netherlands

The University of Gronigen has released an interactive map which shows which areas of Friesland are vulnerable to storm water flooding. The Wolk Viewer map models how rain water flows through the streets after a heavy rain storm. It simulates both the flow paths of the rainwater and where standing water would accumulate. The map covers most of the Friesland area of the Netherlands.

The Wolk Viewer simulated flooding model is based on 60mm of precipitation an hour. The model is intended only for the analysis of flooding in built-up areas, which means the model only provides a reliable picture in urban areas. The map has two buttons which allow you to view the flow paths and standing water separately on the map or to view both layers together.

The flooding model shown on the map is based on a WOLK model originally developed by the Tauw engineering firm. A WOLK (CLOUDS) model is a simple flooding model which uses a digital elevation model to show how water moves from higher levels to lower levels, while filling up lower levels with water. It provides a reasonable guide to which areas are vulnerable to flooding during a heavy rain storm.

I Know Where You Were Last Summer

If you are German the Berliner Morgenpost knows what you did last summer. At least they have a rough idea about where you spent your vacation. The newspaper has used anonymized roaming data to find out where Germans like to travel.

In Mobile Data Reveals Where Germans Were Last Summer the Berliner Morgenpost has mapped the most popular destination for German holiday makers. The most popular country for German tourists as a whole is Italy, closely followed by Austria. The map also allows you to view the most popular destinations for residents of each of Germany's states.

Proximity seems to play a large part in the popularity of different countries in the different German states. For example in Brandenberg the most popular country to visit is Poland. In Schleswig-Holstein the most visited country was Denmark. In Niedersachsen the most popular country was the Netherlands. In Rheinland-Pfalz it was Luxembourg and in Saarland it was France.