Top 14+ World Maps That Show Interesting Perspectives

Language Family Map

A language family is a grouping of languages that descend from a common ancestral or parent language. The ‘sibling’ languages aren’t exactly alike, but when you break down the entomology, you can see the common origins. According to some sources, there are a total of 7,151 living human languages in the world, that’s an insane amount considering there are less than 200 countries in the world.

Though there are thousands of languages, there aren’t nearly as many language families. Interestingly sources tend to disagree on the exact amount. While some researchers might lump more dialects together, others are more discriminatory. There are also dead or extinct languages that aren’t spoken anymore like Sanskrit or Latin.

The Richest Countries In The World

Just like there are wealth gaps within countries, there are also wealth gaps in the world. Since the planet is a global economy, trade happens on a grand scale. And some countries have nicer things to offer. When you go from a rich country to a poorer one or vice versa, you’ll be shocked to see the changes in quality of life. Some things you might take for granted don’t exist in other nations.

Certain appliances, home layouts, and even public resources that are commonplace in your country might be rare in others. While people in the United States might assume a house without a washer and dryer is unheard of, someone in Venezuela might find it over the top and posh.

The World According To US Travel Advisories

When choosing your vacation destination, there are many things you have to take into account. Not only do you need to book flights, find hotels, and check the weather, but you also need to do research on the safety of the area. In some cases that means getting extra vaccinations, and in others that means you shouldn’t walk alone at night.

This map is the United States government’s recommendations for traveling. Red is a no-go zone and green is a-okay. Mexico is brown because each individual state has its own parameters. It would be interesting to know why places like Greece and Italy warrant more caution than Australia. There aren’t any spiders the size of your head in Europe!

Most Polluted Cities In The World

You can see smog hovering over buildings year-round in some cities. The pollution is so thick that it never blows away. The blurry color over the oceans shows how certain places’ smog blows around to affect nearby areas. Thankfully there’s a lot more green than red on this map, otherwise, people’s lungs would be in trouble.

The unhealthiest places are all centered in South East Asia, Eastern China, and Northern Africa. The bad air quality comes from vehicular pollution, industrial emissions, power plants, construction dust, and people using sources of fuel like wood and cow dung. The results are a rising number of citizens with lung cancer and other respiratory problems.

Metric Versus Imperial

Americans have always complained that they’re virtually alone in their use of the Imperial system, but Liberia and Myanmar also fell prey to feet, inches, and Fahrenheit. But no matter where you are, once you walk into chemistry class, you’re using the metric system. For the sake of uniformity, science rejected the use of the Imperial system.

The Imperial system has its roots in British imperialism. Way back when things were measured in relation to objects. A builder used a rod to measure his church and make it proportional. But if you went to a different building site, you might find a rod at a slightly different length. Eventually, most people got sick of these arbitrary benchmarks and moved on to the more uniform metric system.

Eating Utensils Around The World

Since cuisines around the world are so unique, it’s no surprise that the tools used to eat them are also specialized. After all, You don’t need a fork and knife to eat sushi. However, this map shows more variations than you may not have expected. Who knew that some countries encourage only eating with the right hand?

It’s clear that the most popular eating utensils are the fork and knife. The only food those utensils can’t conquer is soup. But the most unique tool is probably found in Ethiopia. With every Ethiopian dish, you get a plate full of injera. This side is a spongy, pancake-like flatbread that’s made out of teff flour. Ethiopians will use this bread to scoop up their food like an edible spoon.

The State Of Military Conscription Around The World

Some people argue that the requirement to serve in your nation’s military increases patriotism and morale. Unsurprisingly the majority of countries that require conscription are in the Middle East. This is obviously a result of the constant fighting in that area. When you’re always at war, you need loyal troops on standby at all times.

A hundred years ago, this map would have looked very different. Many countries only abolished their conscription rules recently. For example, the United States and Australia had active conscription until 1973. The Vietnam War was the last event of mandatory drafting. Thankfully there isn’t a current need for required military service in most nations. Hopefully the peace will hold for years to come.

Paid Leave Maternity Leave

It’s no surprise most countries in the world give women paid maternity leave. After carrying them for nine months, it’s only natural to give new mothers time with their newborns. Doing so is a sign of a developed country. This is because it acknowledges women as equals to men, and they clearly want to honor postpartum recovery.

So it’s quite interesting to see one of the biggest developed countries in the world doesn’t support this idea. You’d think that America would be up there with Canada and Europe, giving their women 24 weeks or more. Instead, we see they don’t get any paid maternity leave at all. Hopefully, this will change in the near future.

Population’s Certainty In God’s Existence

In 1630 many Puritans came to America and made it their new home. Unlike the pilgrims who came before them and were trying to escape religious persecution. Instead, Puritans wanted to reform the church of England in the new world, without the fear of being called heretics. With the bible by their side, they laid the foundation for what we know today as America.

So it’s not surprising an overwhelming majority of people in the USA are absolutely certain God exists. What does surprise us is how Vatican City doesn’t shine like a blue star in Italy’s boot. Considering their state religion is Roman Catholicism and the pope himself lives there this is hard to believe.

Billionaires Around The World

When you think about billionaires, a handful of people come to mind. This makes us think being one isn’t common or easy. After all, getting a billion dollars is a very big accomplishment. But this map completely shatters everything we thought we knew about how many of them actually exist.

It does make sense that the majority of them would live in countries like China and America where there are a lot of financial opportunities. There are a lot of billionaires in Europe and Asia, and some in Africa, living in Zimbabwe and one in Tanzania. Did any of these results surprise you?

Best World Cup Results

There are soccer fanatics all around the world. Some fans are so invested they’ll follow their favorite team wherever they go to see every match in person. Some of these results are unsurprising like Brazil and Argentina making it to a championship. But others you would’ve never guessed like Canada and China only make it to the 1st round.

Interestingly, we don’t see a lot of countries go to the championship. This is because some teams have won more than once. Over the past 21 world cup games, Brazil has won five times while Italy and Germany have won four. We can see some teams are clearly dominating the scene and leaving everyone else behind.

How The World Population Is Dispersed

This map is quite shocking. The thought of 8 billion people living on our planet is quite overwhelming to some. It’s so big we can’t even imagine it. What’s even more surreal is that almost half of the population lives in two countries. The first one is China, which is pretty big and hosts 1.4 billion people.

But what’s even more shocking is India which is almost three times smaller than China but has nearly the same population of 1.3 billion. These numbers don’t mean much to us until we see them with our own eyes. One way you’ll see this is through movies when they decide to show someone walking through the streets of New Delhi.

Half of The World’s GDP Comes From 3.6 % of Land Area

We hear the term GDP get tossed around but do we really know what it means? In Layman’s terms GDP is the sum of all the goods and services produced by a country during a period of time. Meaning in one year, every country in the world collectively generates 96.1 trillion USD. Talk about a lot of cash.

So this map shows half of the money comes from a handful of countries. It’s no wonder China and Japan are highlighted. After all, most of the things we buy in our local stores are made in China. Ranging from toys to electronics. Japan on the other hand is a big exporter of motor vehicles, accessories, and all kinds of machinery.

Coffee Around The World

For some people, coffee is needed to start any day. The morning can’t begin or they can’t fully function without a cup of joe. We can all agree coffee is one of the few commodities which has conquered the world. Based on this map we can see almost every country in the world has the same name for the beloved beverage.

But where did the word come from? It can be traced back to Arabic where it’s named qahwah. As the drink made its way through more cultures, they gave it a name derived from the previous culture they got it from. This is why you can go to any country in the world, say the word coffee and you’ll be greeted with a warm cup full!