A novel way to convey demographic information

Demographic information is important but rarely accessible to the general populace. At IREI, we have devised a way to convey basic demographic (or other statistical) information using an original approach that is appealing and intriguing to people. The same way graphic devices such as charts and graphs are employed to illustrate raw numerical data, we use photographs. More specifically, we use collage layouts of many individual photographs to convey numerical data sets. Imagine one hundred photographs shown together, so that each photograph represents 1% of the total. Ten photographs illustrating the same or similar subject/topic/category/area/etc would thus have a combined value of 10% and would be proportionally more noticeable to the viewer than a single photograph. The photo-collage thus illustrates relative weight of different categories in the entire dataset by the overall visual impact instead of numerical information. While this method is intended to convey rough statistical relationships rather than exact numbers, its strength is its inherent appeal to people, by which it enhances the overall impact of data and peeks the users' interest in the topic. The reasons why this approach is deemed exceptionally effective in conveying demographic information is because 1) attractive color photographs of people are eye-catching and 2) large amounts of graphical information that can be visually searched for details are fascinating.

Demographic awareness poster (pilot project in the FSM)

Using the above explained approach, we are currently developing a demographic collage poster for the Federated States of Micronesia. The FSM was chosen for our pilot project because of its diverse political/ethnic/demographic structure and small population size. We believe that our photo-collage method will be particularly interesting in island countries with small populations, where people looking at the illustrations are almost guaranteed to recognize some of the persons in the pictures. We hope that in the eyes of many viewers, the allure of abundant portraits will subconsciously translate into basic awareness of population structure and consciously peek their interest in demographics.

Methodology

Demographic data and hundreds of photographs are necessary. Using the most recent FSM Statistical Yearbook, we have identified the following basic information which we want to convey by the photo-collage poster:

1) Population distribution by state
2) Population spread on high (main) vs. low ("outer") islands
3) Population structure by 15-year age groups
4) Population structure by sex

These numbers, calculated as parts per thousand (% * 10), indicate the numbers of portraits from each category that should be present on a poster containing 1000 photographs (25 rows, 40 columns). The photographs will be organized geographically (i.e., portraits from each main island and each outer island group will be placed adjacent) but not by age and sex (photos of different ages and sexes will be randomly distributed). The beauty of this method is that all four of the above data categories are displayed simultaneously and inter-connectedly, so that each category can be perceived individually or cross-referenced to another. A viewer will thus be able to immediately perceive - at a glance - not only the overall proportion of, for example, Yap State residents or males in the FSM, but also the relative number of, for example, young boys in the Outer Islands of Pohnpei or elderly ladies on Yap proper as relative to the entire population of Micronesia.

Progress and final product

Over the past year, we have photographed about 600 people in Yap, Chuuk and Pohnpei states of Micronesia, which puts us roughly half way to our goal. We plan to complete the work by the end of 2006, after which we will design and print the poster and freely distribute it in the FSM. Once complete, this poster will essentially be a unique portrayal of Micronesian population: not only its demographic structure but also its appearance and beauty. With one thousand photos sampled from 115,000 overall population, the poster will represent a truly one-of-a-kind ~1:100 scale snapshot of the Micronesian people.