What if the largest states of Australia had the biggest populations?

Saturday, 04 December 2010 | 2 Comments

You might have seen this map featured around the place recently:

So I wondered, what if the largest countries had the biggest populations?

The map is interesting, and I wondered how we could complete an activity like this in class. So, a more achievable activity is to map a similar map for Australia. That is, What if the largest states of Australia had the biggest populations?

Conveniently, Wikipedia has the data required in one easy spot: States and territories of Australia.
Geoscience Australia has a Outline map of Australia.

The worksheet below provides a scaffold for students to complete the activity.

Here’s the answer:

State	Area (km²)	Population	State
Western Australia	2529875	6967200	New South Wales
Queensland	1730648	5297600	Victoria
Northern Territory	1349129	4279400	Queensland
South Australia	983482	2163200	Western Australia
New South Wales	800642	1601800	South Australia
Victoria	227416	500001	Tasmania
Tasmania	68401	344200	Australian Capital Territory
Australian Capital Territory	2358	219900	Northern Territory

Map of Australia with biggest populations moved to biggest states

Update See also some extension ideas from Joshua Harnwell on maths.net.au.

Australia, biggest populations - Worksheet DOC, 119 KB

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License (?).

Posted in • Activity • Lesson Idea • Number • Media • Diagram • Printable • Worksheet | Short URL: http://mths.co/2055

Comments

Liz Hemmings on 04 December 10 at 08:00 AM #

I like this activity simon, one that makes them think and also makes area a little more meaningful. Will try and do this before end of the year - even though I am not doing this topic it could be good as a one of interest lesson in the lab with year 7.

Nordin Zuber on 18 December 10 at 04:52 AM #

What would be great is if we had an easy tool to redraw the internal borders to preserve the positions of the states, but shrink or grow them so their areas are proportionate to their population size. I wonder what tool might do that ... perhaps put them on a grid somehow and have a way to count the squares?

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Simon Job — eleventh year of teaching maths in a public high school in Western Sydney, Australia.
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