Atlas

This map shows the results of the presidential election in 2008 by political party. Red represents a Republican majority, while blue represents a Democratic majority. I saw a similar map a couple of days ago, and I was really intrigued by the apparent dominance of red, which would make one think that Americans are mainly Republican. In reality, there is no clearly dominant political party. This is because large cities tend to vote Democrat, and more than 80% of Americans live in urban areas! Even though the vast majority of land is red, a good portion of it is very sparsely inhabited areas in the west. This is a good lesson in why maps need to be thoroughly explored rather than taken at face value.