A Standard 2008 Election Map (Upper), and a Cartogram skewed by Population (Lower)

Cartograms, or visualizations of an area skewed by some variable, are a powerful tool to control for disparities over a large area, especially with respect to politics.

A relatively large but sparsely populated area will dominate a standard projection, whereas a cartogram allows populated areas to be warped to show their true influence (See sidebar).

Applications of Cartograms:

Socio-economic data is the most obvious use case for cartograms, particularly data from the United Nations and National Elections.

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Whether it’s a campaign speech by a presidential contender, or a 300 page bestselling novel, large bodies of text are among the most requested topics for condensing into an infographic.

The purpose can vary from highlighting specific relations to contrasting points or use of language, but all of the following methods focus on distilling a volume of text down to a visualization.

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