Someone Revised The World Map & It's Awesome

There are more than seven billion people living on Earth, but of course, the population isn't evenly spread out across the world. If you ever wondered how the world's population would be accurately reflected on a map, look no further: Reddit user Chase Mohrman has redesigned the average world map so countries are resized by their populations. In this version, the United States and Russia shrink as India and China grow, and then some.

According to Mohrmon, each square on the map represents 500,000 people, which is how some countries significantly expand while others shrink or, in some cases, stay the same. Aside from India and China, some of the most obvious enlargements are Japan, which has 127 million people; South Korea, home to more than 50 million; Indonesia, at 255 million; and Nigeria, which is the largest African country, population-wise, at 183.5 million people.

Meanwhile, the world's largest country, Russia, gets squished between China and Eastern Europe when shrunk based on its 146.3 million citizens. Canada, the world's second-largest country, almost disappears into the Arctic Ocean. And Australia, the sixth-largest country that's also its own continent? It's dwarfed by Indonesia and becomes even smaller than Thailand, Burma and Vietnam.

Mohrman wrote that he was "inspired" to create this map after seeing one made 10 years ago by cartographer Paul Breding. The two are quite similar, those there have been increases in the world population over the last 10 years.

Here's an image of the map, which you can see in full here.

So, what are some of the major takeaways from this new-fashioned map? Well, it's stunning to see how some of the world's leaders — not just in politics, but in geographical size — make up such small components of the world's population. For instance, can we ever imagine Mother Russia to be that wimpy in both size and influence? Or how about the United States, leader of the free world yet accounting for less than five percent of the world population?

India's population increase, too, is astounding. At nearly 1.3 billion people, the nation has almost caught up to China, which continues to have the largest population at roughly 1.4 billion inhabitants. But perhaps the biggest takeaway is seeing the Anglophone and Western European nations diminished, even though they continue to lead the globe in diplomacy, wealth and industrialization.

Image: Chase Mohrman