California's Population in 2007

For this assignment I decided to construct three different maps displaying California's populationi in three different ways. For my first map I organized and displayed population according to zip codes. I decided to omit border outlines for each zip code for two main reasons. The first reason was that in densely populated areas with many zip codes having small areas, such as in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, it made it difficult to read the map for the boarder lines were too close together and took away from the overall color of the zipcode representing population size and thus was hard to read. The second reason was that it made the map feel very rigid with strict boundaries which isn't the case with zipcodes. Thus by omitting zipcode boundary lines there is a flow to the map showing the distribution of California's population. This map clearly demonstrates that California's largest populations are concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley, and along Southern California's coast from Santa Barbara to San Diego.
My second map displays population by county. This map shows population density to a degree, however, the map displaying population by zipcode does a better job of showing areas with higher populations. Nonetheless this second map is consistent with displaying areas with larger populations such as in the Bay Area and Southern California. My last map displays California cities which have the largest populations. This map allows for comparison between the different city sizes and their populations relative to one another. I think that alone this last map is not the best representation of California's population, however, used in addition to the map of population by county, it add more detail and insight into the distribution of population in California.