It is no secret that population growth has been rapidly increasing throughout the past few decades and will cause serious problems to demographics and the environment if nothing changes. In the few seconds it took me to write this sentence, approximately 45 people were born and 10 people died. You can watch the world’s population grow every second by clicking here.
Geographers and scientists who study population express concerns about the drastic impact it is having on our world and all of the problems it is causing. Some population websites have trackers on their website that show the population changing and the “net growth” since you got on the site as seen here. While researching, I came across the website Population Institute which discusses some of the problems that come out of a growing population, for example: hunger. If the world continues to grow, more and more people will go hungry. According to the site, “over one billion people go to bed hungry every night” (Population Institute). Statistics like this one appeal to me very easily and I am alarmed at the current state of our population.
Another way to display population is through maps. Through geography, we can examine and interpret maps. The map (left) I chose depicts the current population of the world in 2015. This map is very interesting to me because it shows the population per country as the size of a country. The higher the population, the bigger the country appears. I really enjoyed looking at this map, especially because I am a visual learner. The map is colorful, informative, and easy to understand. The World Population Cartogram from 2015 clearly depicts the status of population in the world and makes it easy for the reader to understand and interpret. Not only does the map shed light on population size per country but molding the shape of each individual country allows readers to grasp how drastic some of the differences are.
Knox and Marston use a world map that also showed population, however that map presented the data in a different way and conveyed a different message. By putting all of the countries in similar color tones and only shading based on population, the intensity of population is not immediately conveyed especially in comparison to the cartogram I used for this post. You can view the map showing population density here. Something I did appreciate about this map was the table that was below it detailing what each continent’s population was and how much of the total population it contributes to. However, I still believe the cartogram was a more effective way to display the data.
Part of the intentions of the map was to overwhelm the reader and persuade them to think of the current population as a bad thing. If the map creators wanted to convey the message that the current population is normal and not threatening, they would have chosen a map like the one in Knox and Marston. Countries like India and China take up a significant portion of the map and because of their size, position on the map, and color, the reader’s eye is instantly drawn to them and that was very intentional.
In the same sense they would alarm and inform people about population, maps like the cartogram above could also be used to promote efforts for family planning in hopes of slowing down the rapid population growth. As the article “Population Campaigns” discusses, many countries have created campaigns to prevent their countries population from increasing even more. In China, where the population rate is very high, the government implemented a “One Child Policy” for a few decades in attempts to decrease population in the country.
There are a lot of different aspects of maps that can help a reader understand more of the underlying intentions behind a map, and that there can be more than 7 continents and oceans drawn on paper. I have been made aware of biases of cartographers and understand what they are trying to persuade you into believing. Maps can also lie. An article titled, “The Most Popular Map Of The World Is Highly Misleading” discusses a few of the misconceptions maps portray. Similar to any article or news source that you utilise for current events, you want to make sure it is giving you accurate information. I believe that the map I chose is. Contrary to other maps, Africa and Asia are centered and therefore there is a lack of a western centric viewpoint.
The stories maps tell can be incredibly influential to our everyday opinions and lifestyles. While it might not seem like it at first, after analyzing and examining maps, we begin to notice trends in how our world is shown to us and after taking a step back might realize how it has shaped the way we think about our everyday life. Maps like the one used to display world population can garner a reader’s attention almost instantly because of the way it is displayed. These characteristics not only display the data in interesting ways but they also can control what data a reader sees almost instantly. When discussing and examining maps it is valuable to know what story is being told to the reader and how it is being portrayed to understand the data and biases and be an informed reader.
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