Below is another problematic map visualization: the top beer choice by state. It doesn’t reveal much about the top beer choice in the US because it doesn’t account for the population of each state. It’s possible that a very small portion of the country lives in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Alaska, Louisiana, Minnesota, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, or New York. So even though we see a lot of the Blue Moon logo, if almost the entire population of the US lives in Oklahoma, it’s possible that the top beer choice of the country overall is actually Coors Light even though it’s only represented in a small area on the map. This map can only speak to the most popular beer in the country if we assume that the population is evenly distributed throughout every state. Similarly, my bubble plots create a distorted representation since they do not take into account the differences in class size.