Tag: world maps
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Where the world’s music comes from
I mapped the birthplaces of 283,424 musicians and the home towns of 29,489 bands in Wikidata: New York, London, Paris and Vienna lead, every genre has a home town from Kingston to Seoul, Finland has the most metal bands per head, and women went from 8% of musicians born before 1800 to 42% of those…
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The world’s strangest borders: enclaves, exclaves, tripoints and a front door in two countries
I mapped every enclave, exclave and border oddity in Wikipedia’s lists and every tripoint on Natural Earth’s map. There are 42 true enclaves in 85 pieces, most too small for the map to see.
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Up and down: every rocket launch since Sputnik, and where it all comes back
I mapped all 7,416 orbital launch attempts since Sputnik from Jonathan McDowell’s catalogue. The world launched a record 329 in 2025, more than half by SpaceX, and half of everything ever catalogued has already fallen back.
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Holy islands: monks, hermits and the edge of the world
Skellig Michael, Iona, Lindisfarne, Bardsey: I checked 20,228 monasteries, abbeys and hermitages across Europe against a detailed shoreline. Before 800, 4.3% of dated houses stood on islands; after 1100, about one in a hundred.
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Shipwrecks of the world, and how many over time
Wikipedia lists 243,071 shipwrecks since 1700. I counted them year by year: three of the five worst years are war years, with 1944 the worst. The huge 1800s plateau owes a lot to British newspapers.
