playground
Data
population visualisation
SHOW HN2026
How HN took it
9 positive, 21 neutral or asking, 1 mixed, 11 critical, out of 42 comments about the project. Thread score +0.05.
Idea: 6 for, 5 againstExecution: 0 for, 5 againstDesign: 3 for, 0 againstDocs: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Cool and fun visualization of how empty parts of the US are
From 3 comments
That is a cool visualization. Punched in my grandparents' town and a bunch of the slices stretched 1500km over three states away. A lot of the US is big and empty.
dmoy on HNPretty cool, took me a few minutes to figure it out, there was a nice stretch of Florida that had no rays, clear cut wilderness
johndear223 on HNFun! If you click in the center of Nebraska, US - there are some angles for which you will never find 100k people.
dwa3592 on HN
Useful idea, drive-time version requested
From 1 comment
This is cool and useful. I would love to see the drive time version.
paulkrush on HN
Objections
Results are wrong or inconsistent in places, e.g. full circles inside LA county exceed its population
From 2 comments
I must be slightly confused about what claims this visualization is making. Are these 5 degree rays supposed to be indicating non-overlapping triangles where each triangle…
tshaddox on HNYeah, this can't possibly be right. Los Angeles, the city, has less than 4 million people, and there are complete "circles" of presumably 7.2 million people entirely within its…
tomjakubowski on HN
Does not cover Canada, so northern rays are skewed
From 3 comments
It's rough not having Canada's population in here. There's way more than 100k people in all directions north from Buffalo and it doesn't feel accurate.
qrush on HNIndeed, it doesn't seem to think that the fairly large cities of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and Thunder Bay have a population of approximately zero. Anywhere…
yabones on HNAnywhere that far north seems to be skewed by lack of data from Canada. For example, I clicked NE of Seattle (on Bothell specifically) and got a 1200 mi ray that passes right…
joe5150 on HN
Unclear what the visualization measures
From 3 comments
What does “distance to 100k people mean”?
pastel8739 on HNI must be slightly confused about what claims this visualization is making. Are these 5 degree rays supposed to be indicating non-overlapping triangles where each triangle…
tshaddox on HNI don't fully understand what this is supposed to visualize, but at least for my location it tells me I'd have to run considerably far into golden gate park, which I imagine is…
whimsicalism on HN
Requests
Support countries outside the US
From 3 comments
Doesn't work outside the US sadly.
jstanley on HNThis is very cool - I really want to see it in other places outside of the US - I imagine the centre of Australia only has like 4 potential lines. Do you plan on expanding it…
JohnJohnson123 on HNWaiting for rest of the world
nee_oo_ru on HN
Include Canadian census data
From 2 comments
Indeed, it doesn't seem to think that the fairly large cities of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, and Thunder Bay have a population of approximately zero. Anywhere…
yabones on HNIt's rough not having Canada's population in here. There's way more than 100k people in all directions north from Buffalo and it doesn't feel accurate.
qrush on HN
Adjustable petal width or angle
From 1 comment
Would be cool to be able to change the width/angle of the petal
teling on HN
Questions
Is the population resident or ambient?
From 1 comment
Is this resident population or ambient? I've been building a UK-wide 24-hour population dataset lately, and it's really opened my eyes to how much population data is…
mootothemax on HN
What does distance to 100k people mean?
From 1 comment
What does “distance to 100k people mean”?
pastel8739 on HN
Alternatives named
LandScan global population density data
From 1 comment
Global population density estimates are available at the ~100 m^2 level from the LandScan project at Oak Ridge National Labs. https://landscan.ornl.gov/about
bmurray7jhu on HN