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February 08, 2010

The Great American "Pizza" Map

Having spent considerable time over the past months analyzing the distribution of a number of strangely juxtaposed social phenomenon (ranging from religion to bars), today's map should come as no surprise to anyone. After all, isn't the comparison between the number of user generated references to "pizza", "guns" or "strip club" an obvious one to make? Perhaps not, but we're doing it anyway.

To our knowledge this is the first time that this particular set of fractures within American society have been mapped. And it is likely to be the last time as well, so don't blink.

The Great American "Pizza" Map


The map reveals that America seems to be largely pro-pizza with the red dots of pizza spreading across the landscape (the Midwest and Northeast seem particularly well endowed) like a rich and robust tomato sauce. Perhaps there is something after all that everyone can agree upon. (Although the unity behind pizza would likely break down over a fight between "New York" and "Chicago" styles.)

Moreover, there are a number of clusters -- represented by green dots – with more references to guns than pizza. We're not quite sure what life there is like (as we live in a particularly large swath of sauce) but it does give one pause for thought. Are these patches of green olives? Peppers? JalapeƱos? Pesto? In any cases, these clusters are predominately rural areas – where apparently there are more guns than pizza.

Lastly one sees a few scattered locations where strip clubs are more popular (we're looking at you Las Vegas) than either guns or pizza. Much like the token scattering of pineapple that one is forced to endure on pizza (there's always one person who suggests it!), strip clubs represents a decidedly marginal activity in the aggregation of human experience illustrated in this map.

In any case, this post has made us hungry so we're off to grab a slice.

35 comments:

  1. It looks like pizza is where the population is dense (lol), guns are where it isn't, and strip clubs are where people gather to gamble.
    Or not...

    I love this stuff...

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  2. This made me crack up! And miss pizza at the same time. I love it. Thanks for the analysis! :)

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  3. apparently pizza isn't on the menu in hawaii

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  4. Why can't textbook examples on statistical analysis be more like these charts?

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  5. Johnny I completely agree.
    This chart is amazing.
    Such a great representation!
    Lol David, maybe spam is? xD

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  6. A correlation between pizza and guns (or lack thereof ;))... this was fascinating : )

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  7. It would be interesting to see the correlation between religions that oppress sexuality with ways that said oppression expresses itself, eg catholicism with pornography purchases, prostitution, human trafficking, divorce rates related to infidelity, etc.... I'd venture a guess that you would find a correlation.

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  8. Maybe the delivery guys are too scared to deliver the pizza in the areas with guns.

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  9. what is it about pizza and the east coast? LOL

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  10. keeping them honest, i like it. well done.

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  11. Splendid blog and pictures..I rate this as one of the best blogs I have ever visited..you have great eyes..thanks for sharing them..If you have time please drop in my blog and share your view..

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  12. Mmm... pizza with pineapples.

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  13. Pray Stone Believer...pizza and the east coast go together because that's where the Italians mostly settled and it's working man's food.

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  14. Talking of Pizza, have you tried making your own, simple but delicious!

    www.nobleexpress.co.uk

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  15. This map is hilarious...the mid-west loves pizza more than guns, and more than strip clubs...

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  16. Just a guess - the areas with high concentration of strip clubs... they wouldn't happen to be near military installations, would they?

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  17. Great idea, but adding population normalization might have told a more compelling story. As is, this is largely a map of population clusters with highlights for strip clubs.

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  18. Hooper, you're right to a certain extent. The strip bars do seem to be clustered around isolated military bases. It's easy to pick out Ft Leavenworth, KS, (although that's close to KC), Ft Huachuca, AZ, and a few others. Bases close to urban areas don't jump out so clearly.

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  19. What's up with Aiken, SC area? Military?

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  20. this is cool. I guess it's little wonder why we as americans have a problem with our weight. All we think about is pizza.

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  21. I think Pizza is the most popular food with children.

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  22. Why does the explanation at the bottom of the image say "e.g. a red circle indicates more references to pizza than guns or churches" when it seems like it's really a reference to more pizza than guns or strip clubs? This is the only reference to churches in the entire post, I think it's a mistake.

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  23. Very interesting - but being red-green colorblind, I can't read most of it.

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  24. Those of us with slight red-green colourblindness will have a nigh-impossible time discerning who exactly likes pizza over guns. Could you rectify this?

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  25. this is the dumbest chart i have ever seen. you do know that there are over 300 million guns in the US don't you? that is more than all the pizza joints and strip clubs combined! this is just stupid!

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  26. "Pizza, Guns and Strippers" could be a song by the late, great Warren Zevon.

    Very funny, if not conclusive...

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  27. I've been married, have guns and enjoy pizza.
    The only negative thing about pizza is that it reminds me of my 1rs wife.
    Both are round and flat.

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  28. I posted a link to this fascinating map on Facebook, where a friend of mine pointed out that the map is almost unreadable to those who are color-blind. If you check your pages with http://colorfilter.wickline.org, you can avoid such problems. Thanks for a fascinating map, and please remember accessibility for the color-blind.

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  29. Wawoo man Americans are big pizza lovers. tnx for the share.. Swabi

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  30. I'm totally that chick who likes pineapple on pizza.

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  31. Would be interested to see this applied to a place like Italy :p

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  32. ElCarmean missed the joke, methinks.

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