About this site

This site aims to map data about UK constituencies on hex cartograms. We have created themes and are populating them with separate pages for each data aspect. That way it is possible to link to individual maps and make sharing them easier. If you know of an existing open dataset (provided by constituency) that you think we should include, please get in touch.

Hex maps

At Open Innovations we have a bit of a reputation for hex maps (technically, cartograms). When it comes to showing data about constituencies - where every constituency should have an equal visual weight in a visualisation - we think hex maps do a better job than geographic maps. Particularly, strictly geographic representations of constituencies biases the overall impression in favour of the much larger, rural constituencies and effectively hides geographically small inner city constituencies. Obviously there are trade-offs when you abstract the geography - individual constituencies can't necessarily preserve their real-life neighbours and so relative positions do get distorted - but we feel that getting the correct overall impression from a visualisation matters more.

Given the 2023 boundary reviews, this site will make use of two different maps depending on the data source. Where data is produced for the current constituencies, we shall use our 2024 Constituency hex layout. Otherwise we shall still be using our old constituency layout.

Download the layouts as HexJSON or pre-rendered SVG:

Technical details

The site is built using Lume - a static website builder. The various visualisations (e.g. hex cartograms) have been created using our OI Lume Viz package. The hex layout of previous constituencies and the hex layout of 2023 constituencies were both created by us with valuable contributions from various members of the public who have helped to improve them. They are both available as HexJSON. If the 2023 layout isn't to your liking, you could alter it with our hex builder tool, save the result as HexJSON, update the source file, and create a pull request.