Canada looks like a country of snow and endless winter on the map, yet its six biggest cities land at the same latitude as London, Paris and even Florence.
Read more: Canada Is Much Further South Than Most Maps Suggest
23 states don’t require a front license plate, and the list keeps growing. Utah joined most recently in January 2025, and a bill to make Virginia the next one died in the legislature earlier this year.
Read more: Which US States Require a Front License Plate
The oldest gambling dice are over 5,000 years old. The global gambling market hit $650 billion in 2026. Whether a bet is legal where you are is a completely different question. Five world maps break down casino gambling, online casinos, sports betting and online betting for all 195 countries, plus a Gambling Friendliness score for each.
Read more: Gambling Laws Around the World
Most of the world writes its official languages in alphabets that arrived from outside, whether Latin from Roman colonialism or Cyrillic from 9th-century Byzantine missionaries. Only about 44 of 195 countries use a script that grew from within their own tradition.
Read more: Countries Where the Official Language Uses a Native Writing Script
About one million species are currently sliding toward extinction, and most of what remains is concentrated in a surprisingly small slice of the planet. This map traces 33 of the regions carrying that weight, from California’s redwood groves to the volcanic forests of Chile and the islands of Wallacea.
Read more: Earth’s Biodiversity Hotspots, Mapped
A single map tracking the world around 7500 BCE lines up eighteen sites tied to the origins of farming, from Göbekli Tepe in Turkey to Jericho in the West Bank. Only one of them still has people living on it today.
Read more: The Fertile Crescent Around 7500 BCE
A palm has no bark, no growth rings, and only one growing point for its whole life, yet roughly 2,600 species have found ways to survive everywhere from rainforest floors to Mediterranean cliffs.
Read more: The Native Range of Palm Trees Around the World
Taiwan is a mountainous island about the size of Belgium off the coast of mainland China, and for most of its history nearly all of it belonged to indigenous Formosan peoples. By 1895 that had reversed almost completely.
Read more: How Much Taiwan’s Population Shifted in 337 Years
Every few years, the Pacific reshuffles the world’s rainfall. Some regions flood. Others dry out. A WMO map tracks exactly where El Niño and La Niña shift precipitation patterns season by season — and right now El Niño is back and potentially heading toward record strength.
Read more: How El Niño Flips the World’s Rainfall Map
Ask ten geographers where Central Europe ends, and you may get ten different answers. This map combines 16 definitions into a single heatmap and shows which countries are almost always included.
Read more: Where Does Central Europe Begin and End? A Heatmap of 16 Definitions
Paris, Milan and a curved arc from England to northern Italy account for a disproportionate share of Europe’s population.
Read more: Europe’s Most Populated Regions
Three ethnic groups account for more than a quarter of everyone alive today.
Read more: The World’s Three Largest Ethnic Groups and Where They Live
Researchers at Purdue University found there’s a specific income level where more money stops improving how you feel about your life. That threshold is very different depending on where you live: $163,579 in Iceland, $134,827 across the U.S., and just $10,176 in Ethiopia. Only one country’s average wages actually cover the cost.
Read more: The Price of Happiness by Country