What’s your city’s biggest export? Is it a food, a tradition, a festival – or a person? From coast to coast, North America has raised some pretty notable people and now thanks to Mapbox employee, Topi Tjukanov, you can find out who the most famous person from your hometown is (without having to Google it).

Using data from a study published in June of 2022- this particular map shows the birthplace of the most highly profiled people all over the world in various fields over the last few thousand years.

“Social scientists are interested in significant people insofar as they have influenced the trajectory of the society in their times or later on,” the authors wrote.

“To build the most comprehensive, reliable database about notable individuals, and organize it in a way that can be later used by social scientists, we consider two main sources of information: information from Wikidata and information contained in 7 language editions of Wikipedia.”

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By answering the following questions the list was determined and transferred onto the map seen here:

  • What was the number of Wikipedia editions of each individual
  • The length, i.e total number of words found in all available biographies.
  • The average number of biography views (hits) for each individual between 2015 and 2018 in all available language editions
  • The number of non-missing items retrieved from Wikipedia or Wikidata for birth date, gender and domain of influence.
  • The total number of external links (sources, references, etc.) from Wikidata

The map can be broken down into four categories – culture, discovery & science, leadership and sports with only one person (the highest ranked) named from each geographical location.

Photo via Topi Tjukanov / Mapbox

Highly influential people such as Ted Cruz in Alberta, Pamela Anderson in BC, and James Cameron in Ontario are displayed in larger text, while well-known yet, less documented celebrities like Chad Kroeger, Tim Horton and Taylor Kitsch are displayed in the smaller text along with their “notability rank” their gender and whether they’re currently alive.

Honestly, love or hate the people on this map, see who’s made the most waves – so we’d recommend checking it out for yourself.

You might just be surprised to see who the most notable people in the world are!

Curiocity Staff

With a curated slate of what matters in your city, Curiocity presents you with the most relevant local food, experiences, news, deals, and adventures. We help you get the most out of your city and focus on the easy-to-miss details so that you’re always in the know.
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