A cartogram is a map where, rather than being projected by land area and size, is distorted by the weight of a thematic variable. I utilized a cartogram, distorted by Hispanic population, though coloured by skin cancer mortality, in order to see if there was a direct correlation between growing Hispanic populations and changes in the mortality rate.
Unfortunately, while this animation does little to suggest any correlation, the technique of cartograms is still highly useful. An ideal application would be focusing in on an urban area and distorting the area perhaps by race or educational level to see what the correlation is with HIV contraction. The ability to visually and objectively prove a correlation between low/undereducated regions with HIV would give health organizations greater weight when asking for governmental funding in sex education and distribution of contraceptives.