January 17, 2007

An illuminating map

Econobrowser posts a map created by Jeffrey Sachs and two other economists of world gross domestic product density (GDP per capita times population density). In the U.S., this is quite proportional to population density, with the largest swath of maximum GDP density found the mid-Atlantic megaloplex from Boston to D.C., and the lowest in Alaska and the Great Basin.

Elsewhere, the map is more interesting, with Java and the Nile Delta surprisingly standing out for high GDP density, due to extremely intensive farming. India looks to be about the same average color as the U.S., if you include Alaska, which indicates about the same median (although not mean) GDP density per square mile. (Of course, Manhattan alone probably has the same total GDP as a sizable Indian state, but that won't show up well on the map.)

Still, what jumps out at you is that there really are still just two parts of the world where there are huge swaths of high GDP density: Northeast Asia (Japan, South Korea, and the lower Yellow River basin of China) and Central Western Europe (from Italy running northwestward through England, centering around the Rhine).

This really hasn't changed in a long time -- back in the late 1940s, an early Cold War strategist (George Kennan, I believe) argued that these were the two areas in the world that really mattered (along with Persian Gulf oil). The Central Western European axis of accomplishment also shows up in Charles Murray's "Human Accomplishment," where a tremendous fraction of the eminent artists and scientists in history lived fairly close to a line running from Naples to Edinburgh.


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

6 comments:

TomV said...

I don't find it all that illuminating. The most striking contrast we see, as Steve noted, is a reflection of population density.

Yes, India is deep orange and Germany is brown, but it doesn't feel that much different with so much cream and yellow around. Meanwhile, rural France and rural Thailand are the same color! How does that happen? The two countries have similar population, but perhaps Thailand's stats fails to keep tabs on migration to urban areas.

Anonymous said...

The site also has that well-known composite photo showing the world at night as seen from space. I may be thinking of something else, but as far as I recall that photo has been shown to be a hoax, or at least modified beyond recognition.

Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights

Ted Heistman said...

its not a map that mostly just shows population density. I don't agree.

Anonymous said...

140 million people on Java, it's insanely overcrowded.

Anonymous said...

Peter, the "lights at night" map is based on satellite imagery and is a composite. See Bright Lights, Big City article from NASA for details.

Kai Carver said...

How could Charles Murray overlook the obvious link between hog farming and human accomplishment? (sorry :-)