By: Abigail Vandenberg
This time next week many of us will be reunited with loved ones and sitting down to share a classic Thanksgiving meal. This week we bring you every map you’ll need for this holiday to answer all the questions that you never knew you had about Thanksgiving.
Let’s start with where our Thanksgiving favorites are grown. The plethora of choropleth maps above shines some light on the production of green beans, carrots, corn, pumpkin, turkey and more. It shows that most potatoes really do come from Idaho, a surprising number of carrots are grown in California and the pecan growing giants of Texas and Georgia to name a few.
Besides food at the dinner table, another popular thing to share on Thanksgiving is what each of us is most thankful for. This U.S. map shows what Americans are most thankful for by state based on Facebook’s data. Rain, thunderstorms and God seem to be a popular thread among some states. Now don’t go writing any scientific papers on this one, but maybe it can be a good conversation starter with your relatives when you get together next week.
After favorite foods and proclamations of gratitude, the only other Thanksgiving aspect I can think of mapping is travel patterns. This network map shows plane, train and automobile travel on Thanksgiving day in the continental United States. AAA predicts 53.4 million people to travel this Thanksgiving. This is a 13% increase from 2020 and is within 5% of pre-pandemic travel levels. The increase in millions of travelers and the reopening of U.S. borders for international travelers has caused the highest year increase in Thanksgiving travelers since 2005. AAA is advising people to expect crowded airports and roads this holiday.
