Language
Pick the language for the map.
Map
Smaller tiles show more detail and need more memory.
Units
Distances, areas, heights and temperature.
Explore the world
Opens with population density on. Switch layers, click any tile for its numbers.
Make a map
Opens with the brush in your hand. Paint, run borders, drop symbols, export.
Language, map size and units are chosen in the three steps above and remembered. Without JavaScript, open the map directly with metric or US customary units.
Start in 30 seconds
- Open a map. Detailed is the balanced one — 16 MB on your first visit, then it stays in your browser.
- Pick something to look at. From the BASE MAP menu choose Population or Köppen climate. The legend says what the colours mean and where the numbers came from.
- Click a tile. A card shows that tile's country, elevation, climate, population and area — with the source for each.
- Paint and export. Press 2 for the brush, drag across the map, then File › 🖨 Layout to save a print-size image.
You do not need the guide to start — 66 unit symbols, borders, charts, the magnet and the attribute table are all in there when you want them.
What you can see
PeoplePopulation · Urban and rural · Migration · GDP per person
EarthElevation and depth · Köppen climate · Land cover · Temperature · Rainfall
FoodCrops · Livestock · Fisheries · Land quality
BuiltCities · Built-up area · Roads · Railways · Sea lanes · Air routes
IndustryPower plants · Mines · Factories · Ports · Pipelines
KnowledgeUniversities · Research institutes · Cable routes · Exchanges
Every layer names its own source and its limits in the legend and on the data sources page. A finer hexagon does not mean finer data — we say so where it matters.
What you can make
Paint tiles and fill whole countries or regions. Run centre lines and borders that snap to rivers and frontiers. Place military and civil unit symbols, event marks, icons, labels and charts. Save your work as a file, or render a print-size image up to 16,384 px per side. The guide has the full list.
Move through time
1901today2099
Slide the year and the map replays. Population, GDP, built-up area and degree of urbanisation run 1975–2030; land cover 2001–2024; estimated migration flows 1990–2020; and Köppen climate in six periods from 1901 to 2099 — four observed (1901–2020) and two projected under SSP2-4.5 (2041–2070, 2071–2099). Projected periods are model output, not measurement, and the map says so.
Which map size?
- World — 163,842 tiles — 60 km per tile · 12 MB on first visit · phones and first visits
- Detailed — 1,024,002 tiles — 24 km per tile · 16 MB on first visit · best for most maps · recommended
- Fine — 5,898,242 tiles — 10 km per tile · 28 MB on first visit · desktop
- Ultra — 10,485,762 tiles — 7.5 km per tile · 41 MB on first visit · strong desktop, over 2 GB of memory
All four share the same tools. Data is downloaded once and then kept in your browser. If you are unsure, take Detailed.
Privacy
No account. What you draw stays in your browser and is never uploaded. The message board below each map is the one exception: its posts and photos are stored on a server — unlike everything else here. See privacy for the full text.