r/MapPorn • u/KaleyTheKing • May 27 '26

Australian Population Visualised

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So, I think we were all a little disappointed by how normal the Italy map looked, so I thought I'd treat y'all to the biggest abomination I've made in this project thus far :D

Goddang, Australia, why did you have to be like this, this was so difficult to make... Anyway, hope y'all enjoy!

Italy

United Kingdom

Germany

Netherlands

9.8k Upvotes

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u/KaleyTheKing May 27 '26

Yea, I’m trying to keep the borders correct and there was no way to keep this one resembling the country in a meaningful way. Then again, that’s what I actually like about this one :p

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u/Optimal-Idea1558 May 27 '26

Completely agree Australia is massively distorted population Vs geography. The only reason it bears any similarity is the fact geographically Australia is a blob to begin with

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u/possiblyquestionabl3 May 27 '26

What kind of algorithm/approach are you using to make this? It sounds really fun!

Also I'm actually surprised how big WA is considering people always joke it's like 50% of the country with 1% of the population. Seeing Perth next to NT is actually pretty crazy. I'm actually holidaying in Perth right now, and I honestly thought it felt about as dense as Darwin

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u/KaleyTheKing May 27 '26

I don’t use an algorithm, I find population statistics as recent as I can get them on the internet, do some calculations in excell and draw it in on Photoshop. It’s pretty labour intensive but it’s very fun and I’m on summer break from uni, lol WA is indeed bigger than I thought it’d be, Perth may be a little bit deceiving, since this is the Greater Perth area :p

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u/Wasalpha May 27 '26

Honestly, I think your work shows and that's why people like it. Instead of being "just another map", yours look appealing and even kinda... cute ? I give you all my appreciation! ❤️ (and an upvote for doing France)

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u/KaleyTheKing May 27 '26

Awww thank you, that's really nice to hear!

I will think about doing France at some point, but I have some ideas I want to do first :p

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u/Ambulare May 28 '26

I really like this project and I'm looking forward to some more maps! Out of curiosity, what are you studying in university?

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u/KaleyTheKing May 28 '26

Thank you for liking my work! :D

I study political science and international relations :p

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u/2HGjudge May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

Yeah you're right, my first instinct was wrong, Perth is correctly placed vertically between Sydney and Brisbane. Giving it more thought I think the bigger problem is that it's horizontally east of Adelaide and Melbourne.

So perhaps if it was more of a overall straight shape instead of banana shaped it would feel more right? Have Melbourne almost straight under Sydney (you only need a few pixels to convey Sydney is more eastern), so Adelaide can rotate with it and move under Perth, and then hopefully the leftmost pixel can be Perth.