In the latest issue of The Lancet magazine my article is published - a curious map and a small explanation to it. I decided to tell about it on Habré, because there is a hope that the implemented method of data visualization can be useful to someone else.

Kashnitsky , I., & Schöley , J. (2018). Regional population structures at a glance. The Lancet , 392 (10143), 209–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(8) 311194-2

Actually, here is a map in high resolution (clickable).

The card can be reproduced to a tee in a few minutes, the code on the githaba .

Data creates colors

This map is a “snapshot” of regional population age structures in modern Europe. The ratios of children, adults and the elderly to the population of each of the regions are color coded - the data "create colors themselves." The age structure of the population of Europe corresponds to the gray color, which is obtained by mixing in equal proportions of pink, blue and yellow. The more the age structure of the population of the region differs from the average European one, the more one of the three colors dominates: yellow - if the population is dominated by the elderly, pink - by children, blue - by people of working age.

One card can tell us an infinite number of demographic stories. Kurdistan, the southeastern part of Turkey, has not yet completed the demographic transition, Eastern Europe is experiencing the last years of the demographic dividend, while Western Europe is rapidly aging. The metropolitan regions are burdening the working-age population, the impoverished regions are young families with children, and the elderly remain in the provinces. Zoom in on the map and you will see a clear border between Belgium and Flanders - Wallonia. Do you know what a bright purple spot is in Finland? It turns out that the Ladians live there., extremely traditional Protestants, who prefer the pious position “how much God will send” in family planning issues, Finnish demographers told me at the European Conference on Population Research. And look at Spain, the coastal regions of which, together with the capital region, received an incredible influx of international migration in zero years, in contrast to the country's inner periphery.

tricolore

Colors are created using our R package tricolore. This package, we hope, will allow researchers from different fields of science to easily display the ternary data compositions in color. To “feel” the capabilities of the method, you can play around with the built-in interactive example, the shiny application.

install.packages("tricolore")
library(tricolore)
DemoTricolore()

All github code

UPD 2018-07-24: Placed yesterday a map on reddit ( r / dataisbeautiful ). Per day 450K + views, 11.5K + rating, 365 comments. And the discussion, at times, is very sensible. [ link to post ]