Non-contiguous Cartograms

 

http://www.ncgia.ucsb.edu/projects/Cartogram_Central/types.html

A non-contigous cartogram is the simplest and easiest type of cartogram to make. The geographic objects don't have to maintain connectivity with their adjacent objects (called topology). The objects being separated from their adjacent objects allows them to grow or shrink in size but still maintain their shape. The above cartogram is an example of two non-contiguous cartograms of California's population in its counties. The cartogram on the left has maintained the objects centroid (the weighted center point of an area object); some of the objects will being to overlap when the objects grow or shrink because the objects center is staying in the same place. In the cartogram on the right, the objects not only shrink or grow but also move one way or another to avoid overlapping with another object.