Ethnic maps?

March 15, 2005 1:09 PM

1. Are there maps anywhere that show the geographical distribution of ethnicities and religions accross different regions? 2. Or, does a program exist where I could plug in preference for different feilds (example: religion, climate, geography) and it would spit out the closest region to such specifications?

I would mostly apply this to Central Asia (the closest I have found is this, which I can't read, nor can I find the source map). I have a very good general idea, I know what exists over a large area of Asia, but specifically where? There has been a confluence of ethnicities and religions established over its history, joining Asian, Turkish, Russian, Islamic, Buddhist, and Hindu cultures. After researching countries individually, having studied the ancient history of the region, I can't get a handle on what actually exists today in specific locations. Kazakhstan, one of the many countries that comprises "Central Asia," reaches from the Caspian Sea to China, from desert to freezing temperatures, so where is what?

posted by scazza to society & culture (4 comments total)

The UN POPLIN database might help.
posted by AlexReynolds at 1:17 PM on March 15, 2005

POPIN, rather.
posted by AlexReynolds at 1:17 PM on March 15, 2005

Check out the maps of Asian countries and the former Soviet Union at the University of Texas Libraries' map pages. They have maps showing distribution of ethnolinguistic and religious groups, among other things.
posted by gubo at 6:03 PM on March 15, 2005

Interesting, this map is close but doesn't show any Asian ethnic groups in the region. Most likely b/c they're not considered a "major" ethnic group. Any Asian influence was probably bred in anyway so to still be considered one of those Turkic ethnicities. I love this map collection but I didn't bother to look on this question. Probably the closest I'm going to get. Thanks!
posted by scazza at 8:18 PM on March 15, 2005