HIV/AIDS Deaths/Population

A Worldmapper cartogram highlights the high cost of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa (top) compared to the continent's size when adjusted according to population (bottom).

In 2002 the region suffered about 80 percent of the 2.6 million deaths attributed to AIDS worldwide. This means that the disease, which goes largely untreated there, killed more than 6,000 Africans a day.

According to Worldmapper, the cartograms are akin to pie charts, except the slices of the pie are shaped into countries.

"I think that looking at a map rather than just the raw data allows you to see the whole picture and makes for easier comparison between the different datasets," Worldmapper's John Pritchard said in an email.

"We have plans for making more use of animations that morph one map to another  I think that this will be another useful tool in understanding the maps."

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