Visualizing Your Personal Space Around the World

Boing Boing guest blogger Charles Platt posted an interesting story comparing various countries’ psychological ‘elbow-room’ space. Like French artist Guy Limone, Platt is interested in bringing numbers to life through image. Using data from the CIA Factbook, Platt divided each country’s land area by its population.  The results are displayed in the image above.  Despite Australians appearing to have to most room to breathe (four million square feet each to be exact), the country’s large desertification should largely reduce their psychological space; however Platt does mention a strong free-to-move feeling when he last visited in comparison to the ‘tightly-packed Hong Kong’:

I did feel intuitively aware that [Australia] was, so to speak, empty. As soon as I drove out of an urban area, the emptiness was right there. Conversely, in Hong Kong, where citizens have barely more than 1,600 square feet each, everyone is intensely aware of being crammed into a very crowded place.

[via boingboing]