Category: mapping

If you’re from the U.S., you may be familiar with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” What was once a poem written in 1814 is now synonymous with the land of the free and the home of the brave—and for good reason: it’s the country’s national anthem.

But the U.S. isn’t the only one with an associated hymn sung at events. Many countries have chosen songs to represent them. Of the 195 countries on the map, the oldest anthems date back to the 1700s while the newest was adopted as recently as 2021.

Plus, some have multilingual anthems, with multiple lyricists and composers or artists working to create a version that can be sung in all national languages of a country. It’s a lot to digest in list form, which is why we’ve plotted it on the map below.

View List of national anthems mapped in a full screen map

Switzerland and Other Multilingual National Anthems

With 195 countries on the map, there are nearly 200 national anthems to cover. And that’s not including national hymns in multiple languages. Seven countries’ national anthems are multilingual, as noted on the list below.

• Switzerland’s Schweizerpsalm (“Swiss Psalm”) – in 4 languages
• Cameroon’s O Cameroun, Berceau de nos Ancêtres (“O Cameroon, Cradle of Our Forefathers”) – 2
• Canada’s Ô Canada (“O Canada”) – 2
• Finland’s Maamme / Vårt Land (“Our Land”) – 2
• Ireland’s Amhrán na bhFiann (“The Soldier’s Song”) – 2
• New Zealand’s God Defend New Zealand – 2
• Sri Lanka’s Sri Lanka Matha (“Mother Sri Lanka”) – 2

The national anthem of Switzerland, “Schweizerpsalm” or “Swiss Psalm”, has the most official versions. The hymn is written and sung in German, French, Italian, and Romansch—all of the country’s official languages.

“Swiss Pslam” has been officially translated into more languages than any other country. But Switzerland isn’t even close to being the country to have adopted the most official languages. That’s Benin (21 official languages), whose national hymn, “L’Aube Nouvelle” or “The Dawn of a New Day” is ironically only listed as being in a single language.

To see the languages of the six other countries’ anthems listed above, group the map by the “Number of multilingual versions”. Now let’s move on from language to take a look at the oldest national anthems in the world.

Oldest of the World’s National Anthems

Some of the world’s oldest anthems were adopted no more recently than 1847. But the absolute oldest may have been adopted in the 1700s, as you’ll see on the table below.

Country	National anthem	Date adopted (de jure)
United Kingdom	God Save the King	1745
Spain	La Marcha Real (“The Royal March”)	1770
France	La Marseillaise  (“The Marseillaise”)	1795
Argentina	Himno Nacional Argentino  (“Argentine National Anthem”)	1813
Peru	Himno Nacional del Perú  (“National Anthem of Peru”)	1821
Belgium	La Brabançonne  (“The Brabantian”)	1830
Brazil	Hino Nacional Brasileiro  (“Brazilian National Anthem”)	1831
Uruguay	Himno Nacional (“National Anthem”)	1833
Denmark	Der er et yndigt land  (“There is a lovely country”)	1835
Chile	Himno Nacional de Chile  (“National Anthem of Chile”)	1847
Liberia	All Hail, Liberia, Hail!	1847

The U.K.’s “God Save the King” was adopted as the royal anthem officially in 1745, making it the oldest anthem on the map—though it’s not officially a national anthem. Due to the passing of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III’s ascension, the song has reverted to its original title and lyrics of “King,” as it changes depending on who sits on the throne.

On that technicality, it would appear Spain’s “La Marcha Real” or (“The Royal March”) might just be the oldest national anthem. However, the tune has faced some upheaval, much like its home country. First declared official in 1770, it was then abolished from 1820-1823, adopted again from 1833-1868, co-official during 1873-1874, and once again abolished from 1931-1939 until its final reintroduction in 1939.

“The Royal March” is also currently one of only three national anthems in the world (along with those of Bosnia and Herzegovina and San Marino, which you can find on the map) with no official lyrics. Although it had lyrics in the past, they are no longer used.

Many of the other oldest anthems are dubbed “{Country} National Anthem” or similar variations. On the other hand, one of the newest national hymns was adopted as recently as 2021.

Newest National Anthems

The countries with the ten newest anthem additions adopted them between 2006 to as recently as 2021. Let’s take a look:

• Afghanistan’s Dā də bātorāno kor (“This is the Home of the Brave”) – 2021
• Norway’s Ja, vi elsker dette landet (“Yes, We Love This Country”) – 2019
• Mauritania’s Bilada-l ubati-l hudati-l kiram (“Country of the Proud, Guiding Noblemen”) – 2017
• Somalia’s Qolobaa Calankeed (“Praise to the Flag”) – 2012
• Libya’s Libya, Libya, Libya – 2011
• South Sudan’s South Sudan Oyee! – 2011
• Turkmenistan’s Garaşsyz, Bitarap Türkmenistanyň Döwlet Gimni (“The State Anthem of Independent and Neutral Turkmenistan”) – 2008
• Nepal’s Sayaun Thunga Phulka (“Made of Hundreds of Flowers”) – 2007
• Serbia’s Bože pravde (“God of Justice”) – 2006
• Kazakhstan’s Meniñ Qazaqstanım (“My Kazakhstan”) – 2006

Afghanistan’s “Dā də bātorāno kor” (“This is the Home of the Brave”) is, of course, the newest national anthem on the map. The a cappella song doesn’t contain any musical instruments, because instruments aren’t allowed for religious purposes in Afghanistan.

While “Ja, vi elsker dette landet” (“Yes, We Love This Country”) was performed as early as 1864, at the time, “Sønner av Norge” (“Norwegian National Song”) was still the official national anthem. It wasn’t until December 2019 that “Yes, We Love This Country” became the new Norwegian anthem.

Other than Afghanistan and Norway, many more recent anthems are no surprise as they are that of newly established countries. South Sudan split from Sudan in 2011 and as such, their national anthem is relatively new. The same can be said for Serbia, Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan’s national anthems, as these countries were established in 2000, 1992, and 1992, respectively.

For more national statistics, be sure not to miss our map of the National Animals of Every Country.

How many people can easily pinpoint where Nauru—one of the smallest island countries—is located in the Pacific Ocean? Or identify the exact location of 37.819722,-122.478611 on a map? Although you can zoom in and out of most online maps to aid your search for specific map markers, this doesn’t always enable everyone to find what they need quickly.

It’s easy to use Google Maps to find individual or multiple locations. What’s harder is identifying that single location without wiping out the rest of your search. One solution to this geographic puzzle is to build a map based on your own data, then add the data to Google. It’s too hard for most of us to do manually, but a free BatchGeo map can be generated from a spreadsheet.

So if you find yourself scouring a map for specific locations or coordinates, create a BatchGeo map and use the Search bar on any BatchGeo map, which is built on top of Google Maps. In this post, we’ll show multiple ways to search your map and how you get more information than just a pin’s location.

Find a City, State, or Country

Let’s start with a basic search.

View Example Sales Data in a full screen map

Say you have a sales map that includes customer cities and you’re looking for Buffalo Grove, Illinois customers…but where is that?

Instead of zooming in and out of Illinois to try and spot it, we’ll search for Buffalo Grove in the upper right-hand corner of the map.

Click on the Search result and you can go directly to the map marker for Buffalo Grove. With our Data View, you’ll also see a list of all of the customers in Buffalo Grove under the map, along with any additional information from your spreadsheet of data.

Multiple Location Search Results

If there are multiple results of your Search (as is the case for the most common U.S. city names), you’ll see them all listed in Data View as well as on the map.

Of course, your ability to Search applies to more than just sales maps—and it’s also not just cities like Buffalo Grove or Franklin. Let’s see how latitude longitude searches work, even if the exact latitude and longitude aren’t data points on your map.

Latitude Longitude Searches (Exact and Nearest)

Moving on, you can also find a point on the map with a Search for a coordinate pair: latitude and longitude. Latitude and longitude are commonly depicted in decimal degrees (59.3277778, 18.09111111), with latitude typically listed first, followed by longitude.

Pinpoint Exact Latitude and Longitude

Of course, as with searching for a city, you can type in an individual latitude or longitude decimal. Let’s test it out with our map of 569 international shipwrecks.

View International Shipwrecks in a full screen map

It will appear as a Search result.

On the other hand, entering an entire coordinate pair will give you one of two results. If it’s a point pinned on your map, you’ll be taken directly to it. For example, a Search for the coordinates of the Vasa shipwreck (59.3277778, 18.09111111) takes you directly to the map marker.

However, if it’s not a point, the result will be different.

Find the Nearest Coordinates

Oftentimes, the exact coordinate pair (or even city, state, or country!) might not be contained in a marker on your map. In that case, you’ll get the nearest pin to your Search.

Now let’s see if there’s a shipwreck using Portland, Oregon’s coordinates (hint: there’s not because it’s land).

If you Search for a coordinate pair (or city, state, country, etc.) and it’s not a marker, you’ll get to see the nearest point to your Search. In this case, we’re taken to the I-183 wreck in the Pacific Ocean. While miles away from Portland, Oregon, the information is still useful—we know it’s the nearest marker on the map.

Getting the nearest pin to your Search also applies when searching for cities, states, countries, etc. Search for cities, states, countries, and geographic coordinates on any custom BatchGeo map you make from top golf courses to island countries.

Nelson Mandela said that education is the most powerful weapon to change the world. But not every city worldwide, or even in a country like the U.S., has the same education levels. In fact, some cities in America see 53.8% of residents completing graduate school while other U.S. cities just 0.9%. That’s a big gap.

So when it comes to the most educated cities in the US, the map below teaches us those with the highest percentage of graduate or professional degrees, cities where most people stop after their Bachelor’s, Associate’s, some college or high school, along with several more levels of education.

View Most Educated Cities in the US in a full screen map

The map’s educational attainment data comes from the recent U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey. It describes the education level of those over the age of 25 in 630 cities, ranging from high school, Associate’s degrees, Bachelor’s, and beyond to conclude the US cities with the highest education rates. So let’s get learning which those are, including the #1 most educated city in the US (a hint: it’s in California).

Most Educated Cities in the US: Grad School Edition

There are many levels of education: 9th-grade completion, high school graduation, and Bachelor of Arts. But the most educated cities in the US are those with the highest percentage of grad school graduates. The 10 cities below report between 37.6% to 53.8% of their population received graduate degrees:

• Palo Alto, California – 53.8%
• Newton, Massachusetts – 51.2%
• Cambridge, Massachusetts – 50.3%
• Ann Arbor, Michigan – 46.3%
• Evanston, Illinois – 41.6%
• Berkeley, California – 41.3%
• Boulder, Colorado – 40.6%
• Arlington, Virginia – 40.1%
• Mountain View, California – 39.7%
• Carmel, Indiana – 37.6%

Whether California is home to ample universities with professional programs or there’s just something in the water, there’s no doubt the Golden State gets an “A” in education. The most educated city in the US, Palo Alto, is located here, along with Berkeley (#6) and Mountain View (#9). Of course, many of these cities are near large and famous universities, including Stanford in Palo Alto and Berkeley, in, well… Berkeley. Additionally, Google is based in Mountain View and hires many PhDs. While the American average for graduate degrees is 13.8%, a total of 48 California cities fall above that, making CA one of the most educated states ranking.

On the opposite side of the country, Massachusetts’ top intelligent towns include Newton along with Cambridge, which is home to Harvard and MIT.

That leaves just half of the top 10 to be discussed, three of which are located in Midwestern states like Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Of course, many folks stop at a Bachelor’s degree, so let’s highlight them.

American Cities Without Graduate Degrees

As we previously mentioned, an average of 13.8% of people in American cities have graduate degrees. The following cities are well beneath that percentage, making them some of the least educated in the nation.

• Lynwood, California – 0.9%
• Camden, New Jersey – 1.3%
• South Gate, California – 1.4%
• Florence-Graham, California – 1.6%
• Tulare, California – 1.6%
• Cicero, Illinois – 1.8%
• Paterson, New Jersey – 1.8%
• East Los Angeles, California – 1.9%
• El Monte, California – 2%
• Pharr, Texas – 2.1%

While California the state was home to a few of the best educated locations, more than half of the cities above are located in California. The difference is that these are smaller, less-populated areas with historically low-income residents.

Five of the six rural Californian cities are located within 20 miles of one another, the same distance of previously-mentioned Illinois’s topmost educated city (Evanston) from lesser-so Cicero.

And of course, it has to be said that the Texan city of Pharr also happens to be far from a high rate of professional degree recipients. Regionally, only the Southeast is not represented by the least-educated cities above. However, it should be noted that several of these lesser cities have higher-than-average rates of other education levels.

Bachelor’s Degree Hubs

Finally, when it comes to being one degree removed from graduate education, the U.S. average is 21.87%. But where there’s an average, there are those that excel.

As was the case with graduate degrees, California is home to two of the country’s cities with a high percentage of Bachelor’s degrees: Redondo Beach (43.2%) and San Ramon (40.1%). Then there are three Georgian cities: Alpharetta (42.4%), Johns Creek (39.6%), and Sandy Springs (39.5%) with higher-than-average rates.

And ultimately, the following cities are just as notable:

• Highlands Ranch, Colorado – 41.4%
• Fishers, Indiana – 41.1%
• Sammamish, Washington – 40.9%
• Flower Mound, Texas – 40.3%
• Mount Pleasant, South Carolina – 39.9%

For more maps on education, be sure to check out Does Education Influence Incarceration? and Map of Top Colleges in the US. Or get started with BatchGeo today.