Types

of Maps

AP Human Geography
 Mental Maps
Maps are not always printed. Everyone has a
mental map- a map in your mind- that has
developed over the years.
They are also known as cogni@ve maps.

 Reference Maps
General purpose maps with a variety of
common features like ci@es, boundaries,
mountains, or roads
Examples- Poli@cal Boundaries Map of the
World, Road map of the City of Chicago



 Thema/c Maps
Types of thema@c maps are:
Dot Map
Choropleth Map
Propor@onal Symbol Map
Cartogram Map
Isoline Map

 Dot Maps
A thema@c map in which a dot is used to represent
some frequency of the mapped variable.
Dot maps depict magnitude by frequency only
the more dots in one loca@on, the higher the frequency
of the variable.
The size of a dot does not maNer
Examples- Popula@on Density, Number of
Technology Users

 Choropleth Maps
A thema@c map in which ranked classes of
some variable are depicted with shading
paNerns or colors for predened zones
Examples could include economic, poli@cal &
popula@on, anything
Pg. 7 Hurricane Katrina maps
 Propor/onal (Symbol) Map
A map that displays the size of symbols
propor@onally to the data value found at that
loca@on.
The size of the symbol represents the quan@ty
and also depicts the specic loca@on of the
variable.
Examples- Unemployment rates in the U.S.,
Popula@on, Gallons of Oil from individual
wells
 Cartogram
A map that combines sta@s@cal informa@on
with geographic loca@on.
Can be considered a special type of
Propor@onal Map
They are unusual because the symbol that is
scaled is the geographic loca@on/area

 Isoline Maps
A map that shows the depth of something by
using curvy lines
Each line represents a dierent depth
Lines that are close together show more
depth, lines further apart represent less depth
Examples- Eleva@on map of ocean oor,
eleva@on map of Pakistan, temperature
change, u infec@ons