Volunteered Geographic Information

I liked Ben Hennig’s population cartogram of the UK under snow, but I thought it could perhaps show something a little more serious than simply where the people are. To do this I went to the UK Census 2001 (I know, an old data source, but the only thing I was aware of that could help me) and downloaded a dataset of counts by area (LSOA) of households without central heating. Using these counts as a base population, I created the cartogram below.

Whilst very similar to Ben’s cartogram, there are some differences, notably Scotland is not as prominant as in Ben’s. Perhaps the higher frequency of harsh winters in Scotland has made central heating a necessity. This also seems to be true in the far north of England. Likewise, Wales shrinks away in all areas aside from Cardiff which is a notable bulge of people without central heating. It is clear, however, that the people most effected by a lack of central heating are those that live in the south and middle of England in large population centres such as London – perhaps complacency to cold weather, plus a stock of substandard housing, or high levels of deprivation have caused this. Needless to say, it is likely to be these people that disproportionately feel the cold this winter.