Interactive maps of obesity in the U.S.
Posted by Lance Gravlee on February 27th, 2009 in In the news | No Comments »
In my teaching, I have often used a series of maps produced by the CDC to illustrate how obesity rates have grown state-by-state over the last few decades. The visual display of the maps always makes a stronger impression on students than would a simple table of numbers.
CDC makes the maps available in several formats on its website, and there are a variety of other visualizations of the data on the web. The best I’ve seen is the new, web-based version of the maps produced by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. RWJF’s version draws on the same CDC data, but the maps are more interactive and visually striking—as you can see in the snapshots above, which show data for 1987 and 2007. Visit the RWJF website to see the animated version in action.
Have you seen other ways of presenting obesity data that you like better? If so, leave a comment below.
