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This interactive dot map produced by Ordnance Survey, Britain's national mapping agency, and compiled using data from the National Records of Scotland graphically illustrates how sparsely populated the country is.

 

 

This astonishing dot map, put together using Ordinance Survey and national data, allows you to hover a microscope over any part of Scotland and take a look at the finest of details, like the distribution of people on individual streets and in individual households.

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NRS / Ordnance Survey / Mapbox / OpenSteetMap

Each tiny dot represents a person. Lots of tiny dots close together indicate heavily-populated areas. 

Take a look at the people living in these households in the country's capital Edinburgh:

via GIPHY

Edinburgh may be Scotland's capital but according to the last census, carried out in in 2011, it is neighbouring city Glasgow which has the largest population with nearly 600,000.

Here's a look at some of Glasgow's residents:

via GIPHY

The entire Scottish population amounts to nearly 5.3 million. However its population is concentrated in major cities like Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee. This leaves huge sections of the country sparsely populated.

For example, look at this shot of the Highlands. There's not many people to look at:

NRS / Ordnance Survey / Mapbox / OpenSteetMap

The disparity between people living in Edinburgh and Glasgow and the rest of the country is really quite spectacular.

Even the combined sum of the country's next most heavily populated places, Aberdeen and Dundee, falls short of the 460,000 plus people living in Edinburgh.

NRS / Ordnance Survey / Mapbox / OpenSteetMap

In the Orkney Islands in the Northern Isles of Scotland, nearly half of the tiny 21,000 plus population is concentrated in the town of Kirkwall, leaving vast amounts of the land virtually untouched.

via GIPHY

Take a look at the full interactive map here.  

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