LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- As familiar and reassuring as the map of the world is , there is only so much that physical geography can tell us about the state of the planet . Forest loss : This cartogram shows areas where the worst deforestation occured from 1990 to 2000 . A new book , The Atlas of the Real World , has redrawn the map giving vivid new insights and bringing economic , social and environmental data to life . Not since the German meteorologist , Alfred Wegener , sketched out the first detailed theories of continental drift has the world appeared so misshapen , so otherworldly . The 366 cartograms ( statistical maps ) which make up the book twist , shrink and distend countries and continents into all sorts of shapes and sizes . The book and the accompanying Web site were devised by Daniel Dorling , professor of human geography at the UK 's University of Sheffield , Anna Barford , a research associate at Sheffield and Mark Newman , a professor of physics at the University of Michigan . Work on the project began in earnest in 2006 when Dorling teamed up with Newman , who had co-created a new software technique for creating equal area cartograms the year before . With the software in place , the painstaking task of assembling the data began . The information was drawn from a variety of organizations including the United Nations , the World Health Organization and the World Bank . For ease of visual comparison , territories are split into 12 geographical regions -- e.g . blue for North America , brown for Northern Africa -- and shading marks out specific countries . The range of subjects is impressive , from greenhouse gas emissions , wealth and disease to more obscure data about numbers of dentists and working tractors . John Pritchard , research assistant at University of Sheffield and part of the team working on the project , told CNN : `` I think the maps of disease are particularly shocking and bring home the scale of the problem in Africa better than a table of statistics does . '' Indeed , the map of malaria deaths is striking : 94 percent of deaths from malaria occur in Africa , making the continent appear like a vast bloated blob . The rest of the world is reduced to a disparate series of veiny streaks . There are other sobering statistics to consider . In June 2008 , Principal Voices spoke to Head of Research at Oxfam GB Duncan Green about strategies to eradicate poverty . Green talked about the education being crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty , particularly for girls . The new atlas 's Girls not at Primary School cartogram graphically illustrates the lack of female education in many parts of the developing world . Team members are currently working on a map of languages and soon hope to be producing animated maps . `` We have a series of maps that show deaths at various stages , which would be particularly suited to an animation , and we now have a PhD student looking at extending the Web site , including ways of mapping flow . '' Pritchard said .
The Atlas of the Real World brings economic , social and environmental data to life . 366 cartograms include vivid data on disease , wealth , poverty and the environment . Team are extending the collection with maps of language and developing animations .