A cartogram is a map in which a thematic variable replaces land area or distance. This often distorts the area or size of the map. The variable can be anything like income, population, gross national product, etc.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBs13qkq08cYaN_dkZZ3hwUdJxrSnQyPJQq_J7x09YcQ4FgZI7WwWLDpHtjAaX7SJTP_PllL_2HDULBpBcRxVsesU19C0AviJ4Hfs9Ac2JjgRGcak7-_xvyRzHS-FzvGnSLYdfXQjgC0h/s320/File%253ACartlinearlarge.png)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cartlinearlarge.png
This cartogram has the counties of the country rescaled to depict population, and it also shows the popular vote during the 2004 elections.