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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 and Wyoming is the smallest.

Wyoming shrank the most, while Delaware grew the most proportionally in geographical size. Compared to a ranking of US states by area, Texas dropped the most (41 places), while Delaware and Connecticut rose the most (also 41 places).

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 Wyoming appears last on the alphabetical list of states.

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

It should be noted that the resizing is not done perfectly in the drawing. For example, Vermont appears slightly larger than Texas, and Idaho appears smaller than Missouri. The map strikes a balance between actually making the sizes of the states correspond to their alphabetical order, keeping the shapes of the states correct, and making the "lower 48" states fit together contiguously. The shapes of many states are significantly warped, such as Maryland, Delaware, and New York (which is lacking Long Island).

The table below ranks the states according to their actual size, their alphabetical order, and their approximate size as they are drawn in the comic.

Table of states

State	Real Life				Listings		Actual Sizes in the Comic
	Total Area		% of the US	Area ranking	Alphabetic ranking	Ranking adjustment	Area (pixels)	% of total	Comic ranking
	sq mi	km2
Alaska	665,384	1,723,337	17.53%	1	2	1 ▼	27329	4.26%	5
Texas	268,596	695,662	7.07%	2	43	41 ▼	3122	0.487%	44
California	163,695	423,970	4.31%	3	5	2 ▼	25285	3.94%	6
Montana	147,040	380,800	3.87%	4	26	22 ▼	13781	2.15%	24
New Mexico	121,590	314,915	3.20%	5	31	26 ▼	9768	1.52%	29
Arizona	113,990	295,254	3.00%	6	3	3 ▲	29710	4.63%	3
Nevada	110,572	286,382	2.91%	7	28	21 ▼	10754	1.68%	26
Colorado	104,094	269,601	2.74%	8	6	2 ▲	27929	4.35%	4
Oregon	98,379	254,806	2.59%	9	37	28 ▼	6959	1.09%	36
Wyoming	97,813	253,335	2.58%	10	50	40 ▼	383	0.0597%	50
Michigan	96,714	250,493	2.55%	11	22	11 ▼	10150	1.58%	27
Minnesota	86,936	225,163	2.29%	12	23	11 ▼	15491	2.42%	20
Utah	84,897	219,882	2.24%	13	44	31 ▼	5035	0.785%	38
Idaho	83,569	216,443	2.20%	14	12	2 ▲	11253	1.75%	25
Kansas	82,278	213,100	2.17%	15	16	1 ▼	14515	2.26%	22
Nebraska	77,348	200,330	2.04%	16	27	11 ▼	9632	1.50%	30
South Dakota	77,116	199,729	2.03%	17	41	24 ▼	4087	0.637%	42
Washington	71,298	184,661	1.88%	18	47	29 ▼	1687	0.263%	47
North Dakota	70,698	183,108	1.86%	19	34	15 ▼	9797	1.53%	28
Oklahoma	69,899	181,037	1.841%	20	36	16 ▼	7493	1.17%	32
Missouri	69,707	180,540	1.836%	21	25	4 ▼	16016	2.50%	17
Florida	65,758	170,312	1.732%	22	9	13 ▲	22794	3.55%	8
Wisconsin	65,496	169,635	1.725%	23	49	26 ▼	1098	0.171%	49
Georgia	59,425	153,910	1.565%	24	10	14 ▲	20650	3.22%	9
Illinois	57,914	149,995	1.525%	25	13	12 ▲	19537	3.05%	10
Iowa	56,273	145,746	1.482%	26	15	11 ▲	16925	2.64%	15
New York	54,555	141,297	1.437%	27	32	5 ▼	7402	1.15%	34
North Carolina	53,819	139,391	1.418%	28	33	5 ▼	6982	1.09%	35
Arkansas	53,179	137,732	1.401%	29	4	25 ▲	31942	4.98%	2
Alabama	52,420	135,767	1.381%	30	1	29 ▲	34207	5.33%	1
Louisiana	52,378	135,659	1.380%	31	18	13 ▲	15720	2.45%	18
Mississippi	48,432	125,438	1.276%	32	24	8 ▲	16412	2.56%	16
Pennsylvania	46,054	119,280	1.213%	33	38	5 ▼	6025	0.939%	37
Ohio	44,826	116,098	1.181%	34	35	1 ▼	4865	0.759%	39
Virginia	42,775	110,787	1.127%	35	46	11 ▼	1863	0.290%	46
Tennessee	42,144	109,153	1.110%	36	42	6 ▼	4588	0.715%	40
Kentucky	40,408	104,656	1.064%	37	17	20 ▲	18557	2.89%	12
Indiana	36,420	94,326	0.959%	38	14	24 ▲	15719	2.45%	19
Maine	35,380	91,633	0.932%	39	19	20 ▲	16950	2.64%	14
South Carolina	32,020	82,933	0.843%	40	40	0 ◀	4482	0.699%	41
West Virginia	24,230	62,756	0.638%	41	48	7 ▼	1136	0.177%	48
Maryland	12,406	32,131	0.327%	42	20	22 ▲	13811	2.15%	23
Hawaii	10,932	28,313	0.288%	43	11	32 ▲	15000	2.34%	21
Massachusetts	10,554	27,336	0.278%	44	21	23 ▲	17734	2.77%	13
Vermont	9,616	24,906	0.253%	45	45	0 ◀	2554	0.398%	45
New Hampshire	9,349	24,214	0.246%	46	29	17 ▲	8994	1.40%	31
New Jersey	8,723	22,591	0.230%	47	30	17 ▲	7432	1.16%	33
Connecticut	5,543	14,357	0.146%	48	7	41 ▲	24549	3.83%	7
Delaware	2,489	6,446	0.066%	49	8	41 ▲	19332	3.01%	11
Rhode Island	1,545	4,001	0.041%	50	39	11 ▲	3950	0.616%	43

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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