These marvelous spike maps mark out a 3D representation of the population density on each two-kilometer-square pixel of Earth's surface. There are no outlines for countries, yet for the most part we can still see where the land meets the sea.
Credit goes to Alistair Rae, formerly a professor of urban studies and planning at the University of Sheffield. He used the EU's population density data with the mapping tool Aerialod to create these glorious 3D maps.
And the map shouts "India".
© Visual Capitalist
Australia and New Zealand are barely there. We can see how isolated Perth Australia is (where I live).
© Visual Capitalist
Most maps originally came from Alastair Rae on Twitter in 2020 and later from the Visual Capitalist team which explains:
The height of each bar represents the number of people living in that specific square, with the global map displaying 2km x 2km squares and subsequent maps displaying 1km x 1km squares.
The USA
Fifty million people live in the zone that stretches from Washington to Boston.
© Visual Capitalist
60 million people live in the conglomerate spikes of Ghangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong.
Otherwise most people in China live in the river basins of the Yellow river and the Yangzte, and the central Sichuan basin.
© Visual Capitalist
The incredible Indo-Gangetic Plain is in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the Indus and Ganges flow. So much of human life is determined by the geography of nutrients and water flow. In the foreground is Bangladesh on the Ganges river delta and in the background is the population of Pakistan nearly entirely clustered on the Indus River
© Visual Capitalist
The people of the United Kingdom
© Visual Capitalist
The people of Europe
From some angles the population appears more evenly spread — perhaps due to the age of the civilization.
© Visual Capitalist
In a sense the map of human population is an anti-map of mountains. We live where the rivers flow.
© Visual Capitalist
Unlike previous maps the land areas below are shown under the spikes. Respectively, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia have 26 million, 5 million and 280 million people. The Philippines has 109 million. Japan, 126 million. And China looms in the top left with possibly 1,400 million.
© Visual Capitalist
As for the messages in the data - will the cabal, who intend to rule over all of us, want tropical or temperate? They will want fresh water, of course. Will they want mountains or valleys or plains? And what will they do with those of us already living in their preferred zones? Hmm....