Maps

The United States Ranked by the Length of Their Wikipedia Articles

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The Data Is Beautiful Subreddit has long been a favorite stomping ground of the staff here at The Chartistry. In fact, it was beautiful data visualizations that I was introduced to there that first ignited my love for charts. As you might have guessed, today’s visualization comes from this very place. Unlike most visualizations we feature here, this one proves that a good visualization doesn’t need to be beautiful; sometimes they just need to be functional.

Reddit user Gullyn1 has created a simple map that reveals the United States by the length of their Wikipedia articles. You can find the original Reddit post here. Gullyn1 explains in a comment that they used Wikipedia’s API and Python to create the map.

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United States by Wikipedia Article Length

At a glance, it appears that New York and California are the clear front runners. It’s unclear why some articles are longer than others but if I had to guess, I’d wager that it’s the states with the most history and those that have had the most notable events (both positive and negative). According to the raw data, California is the longest at 5,810,441 bytes for its main and sub-articles and New York comes in as a close second place with 5,655,709 bytes.

“This is great and all, but isn’t this map just showing a trend that the states with the highest populations also have the longest Wikipedia articles?” You might be right! That’s why I was especially happy to see that Gullyn1 created an additional map that adjusts for population. See it here:

The United States Ranked by The Length of Their Wikipedia Articles Per Capita (in Bytes)

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US States by Wikipedia Article Length Per Capita

When you look at the data like this, interesting and more meaningful trends begin to emerge. After adjusting for population, Montana, North and South Dakota, Vermont, Rhode Island, Alaska, and Hawaii are the new front runners.

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Charts

Mapping Rates of Drowsy Driving

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This map from NapLab highlights the locations with the highest instances of drowsy driving. This is such an important topic to study and gather data on. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that in 2022, 693 people died in drowsy-driving-related crashes. Many people push their limits behind the wheel when they’re tired. After all, if you’re exhausted while traveling, nothing sounds more appealing than hurrying home to your warm, familiar bed. But maps like this one illustrate just how risky this decision can be.

The team at NapLab studied fatalities in drowsy driving accidents, adjusted rates by population density and then mapped out the locations that had the most accidents. Here are their findings.

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For counties with 150,000-500,000 residents:

  1. Bastrop County, TX: 20.72 fatalities per 100,000
  2. Coconino County, AZ: 13.19 fatalities per 100,000
  3. Midland County, TX: 20 11.63 fatalities per 100,000
  4. Hunt County, TX: 10.16 fatalities per 100,000
  5. Liberty County, TX: 9.80 fatalities per 100,000

For counties with 25,000-150,000 people:

  1. Gillespie, TX: 40.03 per 100,000
  2. Milam, TX: 1039.02 per 100,000
  3. Walker, AL: 2132.64 per 100,000
  4. Cass, TX: 931.54 per 100,000
  5. Sweetwater, WY: 31.44 per 100,000

For counties with populations of 5,000 to 25,000:

  1. Pecos, TX: 190.02 per 100,000
  2. Reeves, TX: 178.23 per 100,000
  3. Madison, TX: 157.23 per 100,000
  4. Refugio, TX: 150.78 per 100,000
  5. Winkler, TX: 150.56 per 100,000

Texas counties topped most of the of the lists, which might be due to dark, quiet rural highways lulling drivers to sleep.

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Maps

Mapping the Drunk Driving Epidemic

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It’s illegal to drive if your blood alcohol content is over .08%. Even so, every year Americans have too much to drink and choose to get behind the wheel anyway causing traffic accidents across the country that can cause injury and even death. Drunk driving is clearly an epidemic. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers and 1 in 4 of those crashes involve an underage drunk driver. The facts are clear. Drunk driving is rampant and can claim lives or grievously someone no matter their age.

The team at van der Veen, Hartshorn, Levin & Lindheim created a map that highlights the severity of the drunk driving problem and examines a specific aspect: location. They used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to calculate which cities had the highest numbers of drunk driving fatalities per 100,000 people. They created a map that shows areas where drunk driving occurs the most and may even help us reach new conclusions about why some places are more at risk of drunk driving and others. Is your city highlighted?

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The map is the best way to look at these trends, but here’s a quick list of their top ten results:

  1. Odessa, TX: 27.46
  2. San Bernardino, CA: 18.15
  3. Pueblo, CO: 17.94
  4. Corona, CA: 15.04
  5. Hartford, CT: 14.91
  6. Midland, TX: 14.13
  7. Dallas, TX: 13.93
  8. Chattanooga, TN: 13.58
  9. Detroit, MI: 13.22
  10. Charleston, SC: 13.01

 

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Charts

The 50 States Ranked by How Appealing They Are for Boating

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Boat lovers have a new way to pick their dream destination with this chart ranking states by how desirable they are for boaters. The SI Yachts team used a detailed scoring system to rank these states. The system considers some of the major factors important to boaters like average temperatures, number of sunny and cloudy days, amount of coastline, lakes, and rivers, hurricane risk, number of boats owned in the state, and the average cost of boater’s insurance. All these factors, averaged together, created the team’s ultimate list of boating states.

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Despite the hurricane risks, Louisiana still comes out on top as the best state for boating. Miles and miles of coastline and waterways, low swampy areas, and a fishing legacy make boating a way of life in the Bayou State. As for the bottom of the list, New York was not the Empire State for boating. Expensive boater’s insurance and few days of ideal weather meant that despite this state’s abundance of lakes, rivers, and coastline, it just wasn’t an ideal place to own a boat.

Every boater has different priorities to guide where they want to set sail, but this chart is a great way to consider where you’ll find a boater’s paradise. There’s a great diversity of regions in the top states on this list so East or West, North or South, you’ll find the perfect boating destination.

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