us electoral population density map 2016

Us electoral population density map 2016 tv#

Under the US electoral system, each state in the union contributes a certain number of electors to the electoral college, who vote according to the majority in their state. The presidential election, however, is not actually decided on the basis of the number of people who vote for each candidate but on the basis of the electoral college.

On this map the total areas of red and blue are more similar, although there is still more red than blue overall. Here are the 2016 presidential election results on a population cartogramĪs you can see, the states have been stretched and squashed, some of them substantially, to give them the appropriate sizes, though it's done in such a way as to preserve the general appearance of the map, so far as that's possible. On such a map, for example, the state of Rhode Island, with its 1.1 million inhabitants, would appear about twice the size of Wyoming, which has half a million, even though Wyoming has 60 times the acreage of Rhode Island. That is, states are drawn with size proportional not to their acreage but to the number of their inhabitants, states with more people appearing larger than states with fewer, regardless of their actual area on the ground. We can correct for this by making use of a cartogram, a map in which the sizes of states are rescaled according to their population.

The blue may be small in area, but they represent a large number of voters, which is what matters in an election. It fails to allow for the fact that the population of the red states is on average significantly lower than that of the blue ones. The explanation for this apparent paradox, as pointed out by many people, is that the map fails to take account of the population distribution. There is significantly more red on this map than there is blue, but that is in some ways misleading: the election was much closer than you might think from the balance of colors, and in fact Clinton won slightly more votes than Trump overall. The states are colored red or blue to indicate whether a majority of their voters voted for the Republican candidate, Donald Trump, or the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, respectively. Here is a typicalĬlick on any of the maps for a larger picture Sites use to show the results of presidential elections.

Us electoral population density map 2016 tv#

Most of us are, by now, familiar with the maps the TV channels and web Maps of the 2016 US presidential election results Many of the things people have been asking about are answered in this list of frequently asked questions. I may not be able to reply to everyone, but I much appreciate all the comments and suggestions. Email: Thanks to everyone who wrote in about the maps.