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Alphabetical Cartogram

Title text: Poor Weeoming.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: Created by a SUSPICIOUSLY SMALLER-THAN-USUAL BOT - Please change this comment when editing this page. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.

This comic shows a map of the United States, with every state resized based on where it appears in an alphabetical list of states. Hence Alabama is the largest state, Wyoming is the smallest.

Wyoming shrank the most, while Delaware grew the largest proportionally in geographical size. In the ranking of US states by area, Texas's position dropped the most, while Delaware and Connecticut's positions rose the most.

This coincides with a recent study from the University of Michigan showing that the alphabetical order of surnames leads to differences in grading.

The title text creates a portmanteau of the words “wee,” which means “little,” and “Wyoming,” making fun of how small it is on this map, since "W" appears at the end of the alphabet.

Bias resulting from alphabetical order was also the topic of 2789: Making Plans.

Table of states

	Real Life			Alphabetical
State	Area (total mi²)	%age US	Area #	Alpha #	Rank dif.
Alaska	665,384	17.53%	1	2	1 ▼
Texas	268,596	7.07%	2	43	41 ▼
California	163,695	4.31%	3	5	2 ▼
Montana	147,040	3.87%	4	26	22 ▼
New Mexico	121,590	3.20%	5	31	26 ▼
Arizona	113,990	3.00%	6	3	3 ▲
Nevada	110,572	2.91%	7	28	21 ▼
Colorado	104,094	2.74%	8	6	2 ▲
Oregon	98,379	2.59%	9	37	28 ▼
Wyoming	97,813	2.58%	10	50	40 ▼
Michigan	96,714	2.55%	11	22	11 ▼
Minnesota	86,936	2.29%	12	23	11 ▼
Utah	84,897	2.24%	13	44	31 ▼
Idaho	83,569	2.20%	14	12	2 ▲
Kansas	82,278	2.17%	15	16	1 ▼
Nebraska	77,348	2.04%	16	27	11 ▼
South Dakota	77,116	2.03%	17	41	24 ▼
Washington	71,298	1.88%	18	47	29 ▼
North Dakota	70,698	1.86%	19	34	15 ▼
Oklahoma	69,899	1.841%	20	36	16 ▼
Missouri	69,707	1.836%	21	25	4 ▼
Florida	65,758	1.732%	22	9	13 ▲
Wisconsin	65,496	1.725%	23	49	26 ▼
Georgia	59,425	1.565%	24	10	14 ▲
Illinois	57,914	1.525%	25	13	12 ▲
Iowa	56,273	1.482%	26	15	11 ▲
New York	54,555	1.437%	27	32	5 ▼
North Carolina	53,819	1.418%	28	33	5 ▼
Arkansas	53,179	1.401%	29	4	25 ▲
Alabama	52,420	1.381%	30	1	29 ▲
Louisiana	52,378	1.380%	31	18	13 ▲
Mississippi	48,432	1.276%	32	24	8 ▲
Pennsylvania	46,054	1.213%	33	38	5 ▼
Ohio	44,826	1.181%	34	35	1 ▼
Virginia	42,775	1.127%	35	46	11 ▼
Tennessee	42,144	1.110%	36	42	6 ▼
Kentucky	40,408	1.064%	37	17	20 ▲
Indiana	36,420	0.959%	38	14	24 ▲
Maine	35,380	0.932%	39	19	20 ▲
South Carolina	32,020	0.843%	40	40	0 ◀
West Virginia	24,230	0.638%	41	48	7 ▼
Maryland	12,406	0.327%	42	20	22 ▲
Hawaii	10,932	0.288%	43	11	32 ▲
Massachusetts	10,554	0.278%	44	21	23 ▲
Vermont	9,616	0.253%	45	45	0 ◀
New Hampshire	9,349	0.246%	46	29	17 ▲
New Jersey	8,723	0.230%	47	30	17 ▲
Connecticut	5,543	0.146%	48	7	41 ▲
Delaware	2,489	0.066%	49	8	41 ▲
Rhode Island	1,545	0.041%	50	39	11 ▲

Transcript

This transcript is incomplete. Please help editing it! Thanks.

A More Fair Map

Instead of giving more area to larger states, this map improves fairness by sizing the states alphabetically.

[A labeled map of the United States where states are resized based on their alphabetical order]

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