Types of Maps: Topographic, Political, Climate, and More

Geographers use many types of maps to study Earth’s places, people, environments, and patterns. Some maps provide general information about an area. Others focus on one particular topic, such as climate, population, or natural resources.

A map cannot show every feature of a place. Mapmakers, called cartographers, select the information that is most useful for the map’s purpose. They use colors, lines, symbols, and labels to represent features and data. Readers should always check a map’s title and legend to understand what its symbols mean.

Fast Facts: Types of Maps

A map is a visual representation of selected features in an area. Maps may show natural features, human-made features, boundaries, locations, or data.
General reference maps show several kinds of information that help readers locate and identify features. Political, physical, topographic, and road maps are common examples.

Thematic maps focus on a particular subject, such as rainfall, languages, population, economic activity, or the spread of a disease.

Political Maps

A political map focuses on boundaries and places created or named by people. It may show countries, states, provinces, territories, counties, cities, and capitals.

For example, a political map of the United States might show the 50 states, their capitals, and the nation’s international borders. A political map of the world might show countries and their capital cities.
Political maps may include rivers, lakes, or coastlines to help readers understand location, but physical features are not usually their main focus.

Political boundaries can change over time. Boundaries may also be disputed by different countries or groups. Because of this, two maps may represent a boundary differently. Readers should consider when a political map was created and what sources the mapmaker used.

Physical Maps

A physical map shows natural features of Earth’s surface. These may include mountains, plains, plateaus, deserts, rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Physical maps often use color and shading to represent differences in elevation and landforms. For example, a map might use one color for low-lying land and another for higher elevations. However, colors do not have exactly the same meaning on every map. Readers must use the legend to interpret them correctly.

A physical map of Hawaii might show the islands’ mountains, volcanoes, valleys, and coastlines. It could also show how elevation changes between coastal areas and the mountainous interiors of the islands.

Physical maps help geographers examine the shape of the land and the locations of natural features.

Topographic Maps

A topographic map shows the shape, elevation, and slope of the land in detail. Its most important feature is the use of contour lines.

A contour line connects points that have the same elevation. The difference in elevation between one contour line and the next is called the contour interval. For example, each contour line on a map might represent an increase of 20 feet or 100 feet in elevation.

The spacing between contour lines also provides information. Lines that are close together usually represent a steep slope. Lines that are farther apart usually represent a gentler slope.

Topographic maps may show natural features such as mountains, valleys, rivers, and vegetation. They may also show human-made features such as roads, buildings, railroads, and boundaries.

Hikers, engineers, emergency planners, scientists, and land managers use topographic maps to study terrain and plan activities.

Climate Maps

A climate map shows long-term patterns in weather conditions across an area. Climate describes the usual weather patterns of a place over many years, not the weather on one particular day.

Climate maps may show average temperature, average precipitation, climate regions, snowfall, or the usual length of growing seasons. They often use colors or shading to represent different climate conditions.

For example, a climate map of Australia might show the dry climates of much of the continent’s interior and the milder or wetter climates found in some coastal areas.

Climate maps can help people compare regions and study how factors such as latitude, elevation, oceans, and wind patterns affect climate. They can also help farmers, planners, and scientists make decisions.

Economic or Resource Maps

An economic or resource map shows the locations of economic activities or resources. These maps may display farming, mining, manufacturing, energy production, fishing, forestry, tourism, or trade.

Symbols, colors, or patterns may represent different activities and resources. For example, one symbol might represent oil production, while another represents iron ore. Different colors might identify areas where particular crops are commonly grown.
An economic or resource map of Brazil might show areas where coffee, soybeans, or sugarcane are produced. It might also show mining areas, manufacturing centers, ports, or energy resources.
These maps can help readers understand how people use land and resources. However, a map may not show who controls a resource, who benefits from it, or how economic activities affect local communities and environments. Those questions often require additional sources.

Road Maps

A road map shows routes people can use to travel from one location to another. It may include highways, local roads, streets, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways.

Road maps may also identify cities, parks, hospitals, rest areas, campgrounds, and other points of interest. Maps with greater detail usually show smaller roads and more local features.

Different types of roads are often represented by lines with different widths, colors, or patterns. A major highway may be shown differently from a small local road. These symbols are not identical on every map, so readers should check the legend.

Many road maps are now digital and interactive. Digital maps can provide directions, estimate travel time, show traffic conditions, and suggest different routes. Printed road maps remain useful because they can show a large area at once and do not require electricity or an internet connection.

Thematic Maps

A thematic map focuses on one topic or set of related data. Its purpose is to help readers identify a pattern, compare places, or examine how something is distributed across an area.

Thematic maps can show population, languages, election results, rainfall, land use, migration, income, vegetation, health data, or many other subjects.
A thematic map may include boundaries, rivers, cities, or roads as reference points, but these features are not the map’s main subject.

For example, a population-change map might use different colors to show where the population increased, decreased, or stayed about the same during a certain period. A rainfall map might use shading to compare the average amount of precipitation received in different areas.

Thematic maps can make large amounts of data easier to understand. However, readers should examine the title, legend, date, source, and scale before drawing conclusions. They should also consider what information is not shown. A map can reveal important patterns, but it rarely explains the complete story by itself.