The Super Bowl attracts more gambling dollars than any other single event, and in 2023 more Americans than ever before had the opportunity to bet on the Super Bowl via online gaming sites. This map shows the legal status of of sports betting in the U.S. www.americangaming.org/research/state-gaming-map/

Megacities are generally defined as metropolitan areas of at least 10 million people. There are currently 33-35 megacities, depending on who is counting and who is being counted. This map looks at cities expected to reach megacity status by 2050: bucket.mlcdn.com/a/2764/2764870/images/0d7ca37bc55b1c8101a1a5e77cb243aae75162b2.jpeg

A new ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons came into effect in Illinois earlier this month, resulting in this map of states that have laws on the books for these: cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/18924.jpeg

This graphic from Statista, based on data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, shows the changing composition of undocumented migrants apprehended at the southern U.S. border over the last 20+ years, from largely Mexican citizens to largely people from countries other than Mexico. Over the last year, more than two-thirds of the non-Mexican migrants were NOT from Central America.  www.statista.com/chart/20326/mexicans-non-mexcians-apprehended-at-southern-us-border

This interactive map from the Census Bureau shows which U.S. states have the largest proportions of senior citizens (the greener the state, the larger the proportion of the population age 65 or older): www.census.gov/library/visualizations/interactive/population-65-and-older-2021.html

For more than 7 years, Egypt has been planning and building a new capital city 40 miles east of Cairo. New Administrative Capital, as the city is called, is not yet complete, but civil servants are being asked to move to the new capital beginning this month, in the hope that other Egyptians will follow: www.wsj.com/articles/egypt-is-spending-billions-on-a-new-capital-that-egyptians-may-not-visit-11671838772

Synthetic opioids, of which fentanyl is the most prominent, have become the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. This series of maps shows the growing rate of fentanyl deaths, by county, in the U.S.  (Maps from  www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2022/fentanyl-poisoning-colorado/.)

Which countries have the largest share of their populations living abroad? It turns out island nations -- nearly one out of three Polynesians is living outside of their home country, for example -- and, not surprisingly, countries with stagnant economies and/or conflict are high on the list. This geo-graphic from Statista looks at the top 8 countries (min. population size 750,000) and a sampling of others:   www.statista.com/chart/4237/the-countries-with-the-most-people-living-overseas

Hurricanes have become costlier in the U.S., not just because of the storms themselves but because of an increasing number of expensive structures built in their paths. A case in point: these maps compare housing density on Florida's southern Gulf coast in 1980 and in 2020.  (Map from  www.nytimes.com/2022/12/02/briefing/why-hurricanes-cost-more.html. The article includes similar maps for the Houston metro area.)

Nuclear power is generated in 32 countries. This geo-graphic from Statista shows the number of nuclear power plants in a sampling of these countries along with the average age of the plants: www.statista.com/chart/28805/mean-age-of-nuclear-reactor-fleets-in-selected-countries

Although nine states have more cattle than people -- South Dakota, for example, has 4x as many cattle as people -- 94% of Americans live in counties in which humans outnumber cattle. The Washington Post's data visualization team produced this map to help answer the question why so many Americans have never seen a cow :-).  (Map from www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/28/congress-college-majors-economics/.)

This topological map from Visual Capitalist shows the number and percentage of each country's population deemed to be at high risk from once-in-a-century flooding, like the floods that inundated more than one-third of Pakistan earlier this fall, killing more than 1,700 people, destroying buildings and crops, and creating lasting crises in food security, education, and waterborne disease. www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-highest-flood-risk/ 

When young adults move away from home in the U.S., where do they go? It turns out that the top destinations vary by ethnicity and parental income.  New York City attracts the richest quintile of young adults, for example, but Black young adults are most likely to move to Atlanta regardless of income level. Los Angeles is the most popular destination for all but the top income quintile of White and Asian young adults and for Hispanic young adults regardless of parental income. Hispanic young adults are most likely to move to cities in the Southwest (e.g., Phoenix, San Antonio) whereas Asian young adults are most likely to move to cities in California (e.g., San Francisco, San Diego). Affluent White young adults are the only group to include Chicago among the their top five destinations. www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/14/states-teachers-paddle/

One of my geography classes recently explored family ancestry and the related issues of immigration patterns and language dispersal. This set of maps from The Washington Post illustrates the concentration of Nordic ancestry in the Upper Midwest.   (Map from www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/10/07/midwest-orchestras-conservatories-airbnb/.)

COVID cut global life expectancy, but the impact even among relatively affluent countries was highly uneven. Researchers studied life expectancy in 29 countries (mostly European plus the U.S. and Chile) between 2019 and 2021.  In one -- Norway -- life expectancy continued to edge upwards, as had been the long-term trend in all of the countries studied, but in each of the 28 other countries, life expectancy fell by months to years. Between 2020 and 2021, most Western European countries stopped or even reversed the decline in life expectancy, but in the U.S., Chile, and Eastern European countries, life expectancy continued to decline through 2020-2021. U.S. life expectancy declined 2.75 years through the study period, second only to Bulgaria, which saw a decline of 3.5 years. (Study summary at www.statista.com/chart/28487/life-expectancy-change-selected-countries/ includes the link to the Nature Human Behavior article.)

The Darién Gap is the southernmost section of Panama that is part Panamanian rainforest and national park, part indigenous land, and part ungoverned space in which a variety of gangs and smugglers have long held sway. The "gap" refers to a gap in the Pan-American Highway: there is no road through the Darién Gap to connect Panama with Colombia. Over the last few years, the Darién Gap has become a route for Venezuelan and other migrants heading to the U.S. (many of whom fly into Ecuador from around the world to take advantage of Ecuador's liberal visa policy). This article from The New York Times chronicles the hazards of the Darién Gap: www.nytimes.com/2022/10/07/world/americas/venezuelan-migrants-us-border.html

The U.S. has five territories -- American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands -- and all five have been losing population to the mainland.  This recent article from The Washington Post profiles why residents of each territory have been moving and where, on the mainland, they have been moving to: www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/09/23/american-territories-population-loss/

Over the last two decades, China has built a vast ocean fishing fleet that has depleted China's own fishing stocks and now spends most of its time in and near the territorial waters of other countries. This recent article from The New York Times includes a series of maps profiling the journeys of a Chinese-owned refrigerated cargo ship that offloads catches from fishing vessels in South American waters, including in waters adjacent to the protected marine sanctuary of the Galapagos Islands: www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/26/world/asia/china-fishing-south-america.html

The second major named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season has just made its way across Cuba and Florida.  This map, based on the INFORM Risk Index, looks at the risk of hurricane-related humanitarian crises in Latin America and the Caribbean: cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/28317.jpeg

Western Europe is one of the world's most rapidly aging regions. This geo-graphic looks at the anticipated increase in dementia rates by 2050 in a sampling of Western European countries: cdn.statcdn.com/Infographic/images/normal/28310.jpeg

Using data from a recent study published in Nature, this map from VisualCapitalist shows country-by-country population vulnerability to 1-in-100-year coastal and inland flooding events: www.visualcapitalist.com/countries-highest-flood-risk/

Persistent drought has exacerbated wildfire damage in the American Southwest, but more housing continues to be built in areas vulnerable to wildfires. The maps in this article from The New York Times compare housing developments in 1990 and 2020 in the areas around Sacramento, CA, Denver, CO, and San Antonio/Austin, TX. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/09/09/climate/growing-wildfire-risk-homes.html

This map looks at the geography of Chicago shootings in which a parent was killed.  (Map from  www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2022/kids-witness-parents-shot-killed/.)

The Economist (UK) ranked 172 cities around the world for livability, based on more than 30 factors related to stability, education, health care, infrastructure, culture, and environment. In North America, the four most livable cities were all in Canada this year, with Calgary edging out Vancouver. In the U.S., this year's most livable city was Atlanta, followed by Washington, D.C. and Honolulu. www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2022/08/05/the-best-places-to-live-in-north-america

This geo-graphic compares per capita spending on pharmaceuticals in the U.S. to that in a sampling of peer-group (OECD) countries: www.statista.com/chart/3967/which-countries-pay-the-most-for-medicinal-drugs