r/MapPorn May 03 '19

Almost nobody lives here in The Netherlands

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5.8k Upvotes

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u/potverdorie May 03 '19

I think it's tongue-in-cheek and mocking a recent trend of online maps showing "Almost nobody lives here" for various places. Even in a densely populated country like the Netherlands you can make a map showing "almost nobody lives here" if you set your parameters properly.

But maybe it's unironic in which case idk

27

u/verylobsterlike May 03 '19

I dunno, it's made by the University of Groningen Geodienst (GIS?) department. OP's account looks to be an official account of the university, and there seems to be no evidence of other memes or tongue-in-cheek data on their site.

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u/potverdorie May 03 '19

That's true. But they're pretty active on Reddit and are definitely social media savvy. Plus, this is the exact kind of subtle jab at popular trends you can expect from academics, as opposed to outright memes.

Still a toss-up for me lol

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u/Qwerty2511 May 03 '19

Due to privacy concerns the Dutch central bureau of statistics only provides data down to less than 5 people per 500m x 500m.

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u/otakusteve May 03 '19

It was made by a government agency, so I doubt they'd create something like that anytime other than April 1st

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u/potverdorie May 03 '19

Not a government agency, it's a university department. And this is the exact type of joke you can expect from academics - the type where they can pretend it was all very serious indeed, wink wink nudge nudge.

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u/madrid987 May 03 '19

I think this is the right word.