Map 67

Click here for a full-size version of this week’s map.

This map is a choropleth of the counties of the United States. (Do you need a refresher on what a choropleth is? Visit our “Basics” page for a quick primer.) On this map, each county is shaded in accordance with a particular statistic; darker shades indicate higher values of the statistic in question. This map has an exaggerated scale, so the counties that have been shaded darkest have significantly higher values than other countries. As always, your job is to figure out what this choropleth represents.

Stumped? Check back Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday for hints about where to focus your investigation. The answer will be posted on Monday, December 4. Good luck!

Tuesday’s hint: Our U.S. county maps just show the counties, with nothing around them. Sometimes, that isn’t very helpful. For this map, you may want to figure out what’s over the border from some of the darker areas.

Wednesday’s hint: Yesterday’s hint mentioned that you should consider what is over the border. If you go north (or, in some cases, east) from the darkest counties in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, you would come to the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick or Quebec. What do these two provinces have in common?

Thursday’s hint: While this map certainly draws your eye to places in Louisiana and New England, you can also find some purple elsewhere if you look closely. One of the medium-purple counties on the map (it’s a bit hard to see!) is New York County, New York—that is to say, the island of Manhattan. About 2.4% of the population of Manhattan, or some 36,000 people, have something special in common. One important thing to know about Manhattan is that it’s home to Petit Senégal, a neighborhood within Harlem that has one of the largest West African immigrant communities in the U.S., with an especially large number of residents hailing from Senegal.

Friday’s hint: In all but seven states, Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language (after English, of course). Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana are exceptions. Which other language is more commonly spoken in those states?

Answer: Click here to see an explanation of the answer to this week’s map question.

Next map: Click here to try out our newest map question.