Sarah Griffiths in The Daily Mail on 22.10.2013 shows a map that reveals what countries are best known for.
From making babies to being struck by lightning, a new map has revealed the surprising things that countries are best at. The map is based on statistics gathered from across the internet – ranging from sources as diverse as the World Bank to the Guinness World Records.
Created by online comic and website DogHouse Diaries, the map shows what each country leads the rest of the world in and the words picked – which are written across the country’s geographical territory – are in many cases surprising.
However, we were astonished to see a very important fact missing from this impressive and often humorous mapollage (yes, an innovative new word): India is best known only for movies? We beg to differ and simply had to remedy that…
See a larger version of this map
While Peru might evoke images of Inca monuments and panpipes, according to the map, the country leads the world in sandboarding, a sport that involves surfing mounds of sand.
However, some statistics confirmed stereotypes such as New Zealand being the best at sheep farming and rugby.
The map, created by three friends based in Washington DC, also shows the Netherlands has the tallest people on average (it’s all that milk, see), Canada leads the way in the production of maple syrup and asteroid collisions and the U.S. eats the most hotdogs (why are we not surprised?).
Spain is listed for its cocaine use and Latvia for having the most women per man in the population. Moreover, the UK leads the world in fascist movements, yet people living in Ireland have the best quality of life.
Honduras is the murder capital of the world and people in Chile are best at staying married. It also shows that Costa Rica leads the way in happiness. Ah yes, Brazil was the best at Fifa World Cup titles.
Unbeknownst to most, Algeria leads the way in middle-Paleolithic flake tool techniques while people in Chad are the most efficient at not wasting electricity. Cameroon has the deadliest lakes in the world.
Turkmenistan is a world leader in corruption, while – as mentioned above – we’ve upgraded India to be best known for meditation rather than Bollywood!
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