The family of ZIPScribble Maps is growing. This update adds maps for a dozen countries, most of them European: Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The data for countries other than the US is hard to obtain, and were it not for the tremendous effort the folks at geonames.org put into collecting it, these maps would not have been possible. That data is somewhat less reliable than the US one – having said that, however, Marc (the guy behind geonames.org) has been extremely responsive and fixed several problems that became apparent when drawing the maps. Misplaced points and mismatched names become quite apparent when a line is protruding into another state or province, or far into the ocean. So these maps actually have some use, after all. The shape data for drawing country outlines was obtained from VDSTech, but there seem to be many other sources for them.
The maps below are available as (large) PNGs and as PDFs for printing. There are several versions for each country, depending on how useful the short names for states that were included in the data appeared. And even though postal codes are not called ZIP codes outside of the US, I will stick to the name for the nice ring it has.
Want more maps? I will keep collecting data (and I have data for a few more countries), and post new maps as sufficiently reliable and complete data becomes available. If you have data about postal codes that contains latitude/longitude information, or can somehow be linked to it, please let me know.
Australia
The data for Australia is apparently incomplete, though I don't think we're missing much. Even if you are not very familiar with Australia, you will perhaps realize that the map is missing Alice Springs, which is smack in the middle of the continent. A few other cities are missing, too. But overall, the structure is very believable.
Austria
Though the data for Austria still seems to have a few small problems, the overall structure looks like many of the other maps. The pattern in the far north of Niederösterreich (Lower Austria, N) is remarkable though, because it looks different than the rest. Also, Vienna (W) is lacking some data, but would look like a spiral connecting its districts otherwise. What is quite visible, though, are the mountains that define the borders between some of the provinces, and which appear as regions without any postal codes.
Canada
Canada is the second-largest country in the world in terms of area, and is also extremely sparsely populated. The map shows the concentration of cities along the border with the contiguous US, and the vast areas that seem to be effectively empty.
France
The French are know for their beaurocracy, and the map seems to be an expression of that. Inside each région, there are several clusters for the départements, neatly separated. Smaller departments are often thrown together with larger ones, though, and inside each cluster is a nice bit of scribble chaos to make things more interesting. To the south-east, you can see the Mediterranean island Corsica.
Germany
Of course, Stefan Zeiger already beat me to the punch on this one. However, only EagerEyes.org offers you a printable version, a country outline, and the original ZIPScribble flavor. The structure within Berlin (BE) is interesting particularly.
Hungary
Budapest, Hungary's capital, is missing from the map, and the data does not appear to be complete. The structures are quite tidy, and look like a cleaner (and smaller) version of Spain.
Italy
The original boot with Sicily as its football, Italy certainly has one of the most distinct shapes. Its scribble structure is somewhat more organized than some countries, but not as regular as Spain or Hungary.
The Netherlands
Though one of the most densely populated countries, the Netherlands do not appear overcrowded in terms of postal codes.
Norway
The climate in Norway makes the coastal areas and the more southern parts more appealing to live. That data also looks much better than the middle to nortern parts.
Spain
Spain has an interesting internal structure in terms of postal codes. Rather than a lot of chaotic scribble, many of the lines do not cross over, a bit like on the Travelling Presidential Candidate Map. The only excaption is Galicia (GA), with its very dense scribble structure.
In order to get a compact image, I had to move the Canary Islands to the north and east. This is indicated on the map. In additon, you can see the Balearic Islands to the east, in the Mediterranean. The little spot directly south of mainland Spain is Melilla, a Spanish possession in north Africa. Interestingly, Spain's other exklave Ceuta does not seem to have a Spanish postal code.
Sweden
When my girlfriend saw this image, she immediately commented how Sweden looked like a stiletto boot, more elegant than even Italy. Wow, big controversy potential there, but I think I'd rather stay out of this one.
Switzerland
Switzerland is known for its mountains, and you can see that quite well on this map, especially in the middle to southern areas. Especially impressive is the canton of Uri (UR), which is one long valley; this is very nicely visible on this map.
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