Exploring world demography on line: a new freely accessible online tool for interactive mapping of population and demographic indicators

Hélène Mathian, UMR 8504 Géographie-cités, CNRS
Gilles Pison, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Christine Plumejeaud, UMR 5217 LIG, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble
Jérôme Gensel, UMR 5217 LIG, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble

The French National Institute for Demographic Studies (INED) designed a tool for interactive mapping of population and demographic indicators freely accessible online at the INED web site (http://www.ined.fr/en/everything_about_population/interactive_maps/). Data are drawn from the World Population Prospects of the United Nations Population Division and comprise a set of annual measured or estimated demographic indicators for the years 1950 to 2050 at the country level. The target audience is broad, and this application is specially designed to be used by teachers and their students. The novelty is the combination of both spatial and time dimensions. The aim is to show and explain demographic trends on a planetary scale. The application interface consists of an interactive cartographic atlas, offering a range of different representations of a chosen indicator. It is a learning tool that is both pedagogic and attractive. Like in a classic visual exploratory approach, these views combine maps and charts in order to explore and look different demographic trajectories of each part of the world, at various geographical levels. The originality lies here in the screenwriting of the spatio-temporal dynamics to address a large audience and the way the spatial relations are highlighted Through this thought-provoking tool, we seek to educate users about concepts such as changes to the whole and its parts, the diversity of trajectories of change, or the relative location through the contextualization of a country on different types of neighborhood. Developed using Flash, the application is both visually attractive and user friendly.