Your friendly neighbourhood Stats Guy is still on parental leave for another five weeks.

Instead of my weekly data-driven column I am going to share some of my all-time favourite maps with you.

Globally 2024 is a big year for elections. This interactive global election tracker allows us to see what nations will vote in new leaders this year. The US and India are probably the most important ones.

Elections always bring a lot of data, charts, and maps with them. So please let me leave you with a quick cartographic bit of wisdom: Land doesn’t vote, people vote.

Graphics and maps used in election coverage can be a bit confusing and I am very glad about the recent trend to publish these types of maps more widely.

Demographer Simon Kuestenmacher is a co-founder of The Demographics Group. His columns, media commentary and public speaking focus on current socio-demographic trends and how these impact Australia. Follow Simon on Twitter or LinkedIn for daily data insights.