Cartogram

A cartogram is a map in which some thematic mapping variable – such as travel time or Gross National Product – is substituted for land area or distance.  This means that is it is value by area map.  These not only show travel time or gross national product, but also population or distance.  The above cartogram looks as though it could be in an art museum, which is why I love it.  However, this above map is a cartogram with each county rescaled in proportion to its population. Then the map goes even deeper and the colors refer to the results of the 2004 United States presidential election popular vote.  As you can see south Florida is shown much larger than it actually is due to its large population.

The map URL is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartogram