Explore your world with maps

We know many of you are map-lovers, so we’ve collected a selection of online maps to provoke thought and spark exploration. We’ll regularly feature a recent map of particular interest. We have included a set of maps featuring the Charlotte region, from the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute’s three websites. Below those are links to intriguing maps we found online.

Featured map

Our maps

Maps we like

  • The cultural generation gap mapped - Diversity in America

  • Where There Are More Single Men Than Women

    Staff - Feb 23, 2015
    There is an interesting spatial distribution of single men and women across the United States.  What makes this even more interesting is the difference when age groups are calculated.  In almost every major metro area in the country, between the ages of 18 and 34, single men outnumber single women.  However, in the age group of 45 to 64, single women tend to outnumber single men in most of the country's cities.

  • America's quietest places

    Staff - Feb 18, 2015
    Looking for a quiet place? This map from the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows the noise levels across the country on an average summer day.

  • The most common job in every state 1978-2014

    Staff - Feb 16, 2015
    What jobs are most common in each state? How does that compare with 1978? And what happened to all the secretaries?

Articles

  • Photo by Nancy Pierce

    Regional transit gets another ‘symbolic’ boost near Charlotte

    Ely Portillo - Jun 2, 2019
    Three counties outside Mecklenburg have now expressed formal - though nonbinding - support for bringing a regional rail system of some kind across the border. That would be a first for Charlotte, where rail-based mass transit has so far been confined to within the city limits.
  • A pedestrian at John Kirk Drive and University City Drive, or NC 49, near UNC Charlotte.

    Is this road design a better way to move, or an outdated solution for traffic?

    Ely Portillo - May 28, 2019
    As Charlotte grows denser and more urban, parts of the city built decades ago on an auto-centric, suburban framework are struggling to both absorb more traffic and adapt to new beliefs about how people should get around. A one-mile stretch of congested road in fast-growing University City illustrates the tensions between balancing the needs of cars and pedestrians, as well as local residents and commuters, in an area where the distinction between urban and suburban is starting to blur.

  • As development booms, Charlotte still wrestles with density

    Ely Portillo - May 21, 2019
    With Charlotte’s population growing by more than 60 people a day, planners, politicians and many residents agree that denser development is inevitable in the city’s future. But just how dense - and where to build that extra density - remain thorny questions, especially when denser developments are proposed in single-family neighborhoods. 

  • Charlotte is backing off its goal of 50 percent tree canopy by 2050

    Ely Portillo - May 20, 2019
    Eight years ago, Charlotte set a goal for itself: 50 percent tree canopy coverage across the city by 2050. But because of rapid development and an aging tree population, the city likely won’t reach that goal, officials said last week. Instead, they’re refocusing on smaller, neighborhood-level targets and other “fifty-themed” tree promotion efforts.