At the time of European settlement in North America, primary or virgin forests covered nearly all of the East Coast (1 billion acres or 4 million sq. km.). By the end of the 20th century, virgin forests remained in the South. Nowadays, If we consider all forests, 37% of the United States territory (about 1/3 of the U.S.) is forested.
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The U.S. Foreign Service Institute has spent over 70 years teaching languages to diplomats, making their data about as close to real-world experience as you can get. Their rankings show a dramatic gap: Spanish takes around 24 weeks of intensive study, while Arabic or Mandarin requires 88 weeks.
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Three of China’s national highways share endpoints at exactly three locations, closing into a 27,166-kilometer (16,880 miles) loop around the country. One section crosses the Tibetan Plateau near Mount Kailash. Another passes every major port city on the eastern coast. The third follows the northern border through Inner Mongolia and the Gobi Desert.
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Turning on your tap in Midland, Texas is a different chemical experience than turning it on in Portland, Oregon, even though both cities call it drinking water. The difference comes down to what rock the water traveled through underground.
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London holds 8.8 million people across 607 square miles, but that average covers a range most cities cannot match. Tower Hamlets reaches 15,802 residents per km², Bromley sits at 2,197 per km², and the gap between them is shaped by Victorian housing, wartime rebuilding, and one of the world’s most influential planning policies.
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Europe is one continent, but in development terms it behaves more like several. From Iceland and Norway at the top of global human development rankings to Moldova and war-affected Ukraine at the other end, the differences in living standards, education, and life expectancy are significant. Why does the gap exist, and where is it actually getting smaller?
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Black Protestant churches have long been part of African American life in the United States. This county map shows where that tradition was still strongest in 2020.
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On the morning of November 3, 1921, Tokyo Asahi Shimbun readers found a large bird’s-eye map of the Japanese Empire folded inside their paper – Korea, Taiwan, Sakhalin, every railway in red, compiled by a former Army engineer. Nine days later, Japan’s delegates were in Washington D.C. for the Naval Conference that recognized Japan, for the first time, as one of five world powers.
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Map of countries by tea consumption per capita (kg) Reddit user: onurtasci Turkey, Ireland and the UK are the largest
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America’s mayors, governors, college and university leaders, businesses, and investors are taking action in support of the Paris Climate Change
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