USA Economic Cartograms Quiz
GDP, income, production distortion (10 questions).
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USA Economic Cartograms Quiz: Quick Study Notes
Economic cartograms offer a powerful visual tool to understand the distribution of wealth, production, and income across the United States. Unlike traditional maps that show physical area, these distorted maps scale states based on specific economic indicators like Gross Domestic Product (GDP), median household income, or industrial output. This quiz tests your understanding of how different economic metrics redefine the perceived ‘size’ of US states.
Key Concepts
Visualize total economic output, highlighting states with the largest overall economies.
Show wealth or income distribution, often revealing significant disparities per capita or household.
Scale states based on output from specific sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, or energy.
The intentional area distortion emphasizes economic importance over geographic size, offering unique perspectives.
Key Takeaways
- Cartograms distort geographic area based on a chosen statistical variable, not physical landmass.
- GDP cartograms typically make states like California, Texas, and New York appear significantly larger due to their vast economic output.
- Income-based cartograms reveal disparities, often expanding states with high per capita or median household income (e.g., Maryland, Massachusetts) and shrinking those with lower incomes (e.g., Mississippi, West Virginia).
- Production-based cartograms highlight states dominant in specific industries, such as Iowa for agriculture or Texas/North Dakota for energy.
- The ‘size’ of a state on an economic cartogram directly reflects its economic weight or performance in the chosen metric.
- Major economic hubs and states with diversified, high-value industries consistently appear more prominent.
- Understanding these distortions provides critical insights into regional economic strengths and weaknesses across the USA.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an economic cartogram?
An economic cartogram is a map that distorts the geographic size of regions (like US states) to be proportional to a specific economic variable, such as GDP, income, or production value, rather than their actual physical area. This visual distortion helps emphasize the economic significance of different regions.
How does a GDP cartogram differ from a regular map?
A GDP cartogram scales states according to their Gross Domestic Product (total economic output). States with high GDPs (like California or New York) will appear much larger than their actual land area, while states with smaller GDPs will shrink, providing a visual representation of economic contribution rather than geographic size.
Why do some states appear much larger in an income cartogram?
In an income cartogram (e.g., based on median household income or per capita income), states with higher average incomes will be enlarged, while those with lower incomes will appear smaller. This highlights concentrations of wealth and income disparities across the nation.
What does ‘production distortion’ mean in the context of cartograms?
‘Production distortion’ refers to how a cartogram adjusts state sizes based on their output in specific economic sectors, such as agricultural production, manufacturing output, or energy extraction. For example, a state like Iowa might be greatly expanded in an agricultural production cartogram due to its significant farming output, regardless of its geographic size.
Which US states typically dominate economic cartograms?
States with large populations, diverse economies, and high economic output, such as California, Texas, New York, Florida, and often industrial powerhouses like Pennsylvania or Illinois, tend to appear significantly larger in general economic cartograms (like those based on overall GDP or total income).
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