Sports bring people together and it seems there’s always a season to keep up with, especially when it comes to basketball. Not only do the NCAA and NBA leagues draw massive crowds but the WNBA also has thousands of fans who flock to their games—especially the finals.

The WNBA Finals are a best-of-five series between the two semifinal winners held every October. We’ll take a look at WNBA finals history and which team has the most championship appearances. Plus, we can’t examine sports without talking about wins: the most and those that were oh-so-close on the map below.

View WNBA Champions in a full screen map

Wikipedia provided the open-source list of WNBA champions data for our map of women’s professional basketball championships. Explore the winners (and losers) geographically or by map groups like finals year or team’s current status. We’ll also highlight some trends below.

WNBA Championship History: Most Appearances

Though the league is only 12 active teams, there have been 15 WNBA teams that have played their way through the regular season to make it to the finals—regardless of winning or losing once they got there. The Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks have appeared in more than five WNBA finals each. Between them, they’ve appeared 11 times, although just one of those was together. With six appearances, the Lynx have the Sparks’ five finals appearances beat. The only teams close to catching up to their record are the Detroit Shock (4), Houston Comets (4), Seattle Storm (4).

Both the Shock and the Comets are no longer in the league. The Shock relocated (first to Tulsa and later to Dallas where they were rebranded as the Wings) while the Comets folded altogether. Some other teams that were no stranger to the WNBA Finals before franchise changes include the Sacramento Monarchs and Charlotte Sting, both of which folded. The Connecticut Sun (formerly Orlando Miracle) and Las Vegas Aces (previously known as Utah Starzz, San Antonio Silver Stars, and San Antonio Stars) had faced relocations in the past.

But which teams haven’t been so lucky?

Zero Finals Appearances

As for the teams that have never once made it to the finals, there are only three. They’re all former teams, so unlikely to make a final in the future, unless the team is revived. These never-champs are:

• Cleveland Rockers
• Miami Sol
• Portland Fire

The Cleveland Rockers were one of the original teams. established at the same time as the league in 1997. Yet the Rockers never made it to the finals before the team folded in 2003. In the case of both the Miami Sol and the Portland Fire, each only had a two-year run (2000–2002), so their lack of finals appearances is easily explained. Let’s move on to wins.

WNBA Most Championships

As for wins, which is the goal for every team, nine teams have more than one championship under their belt:

• Houston Comets
• Minnesota Lynx
• Seattle Storm
• Detroit Shock
• Los Angeles Sparks
• Phoenix Mercury
• Indiana Fever
• Sacramento Monarchs
• Washington Mystics

Which team—or teams—truly hold the crown? The Houston Comets (folded), Minnesota Lynx, and Seattle Storm have the most finals wins of any WNBA team (four wins each). While the Comets’ last win was in 2000 (the team was dissolved after the 2008 season), Minnesota won as recently as 2017 and the Storm were the 2020 champs.

The next-most WNBA finals wins appear to come in threes: the Detroit Shock, Los Angeles Sparks, and Phoenix Mercury have three W’s on their record. Combined, the WNBA championship wins of the Indiana Fever, Sacramento Monarchs (which moved to Tulsa after 2009 and then Dallas following the 2015 season), and Washington Mystics also add up to three wins. Now let’s move on to the teams with a lot of wins and no losses.

WNBA Champions With A Winning Streak

While Minnesota, Houston, and Seattle have the same high number of finals wins (four each), they do differ in their winning percentage. Only the Comets and Storm have a perfect score, winning as often as they’ve appeared in the championships.

As the Minnesota Lynx has seen two finals losses, their winning percentage is quite a bit lower at 0.667. The teams with a better winning percentage than the Lynx? Both the Detroit Shock and Phoenix Mercury out-score the Lynx with 0.75 percent wins. Those that fall below the Lynx? The Los Angeles Sparks (0.6), Sacramento Monarchs (0.5), Washington Mystics (0.5), and Indiana Fever (0.333). But even a winning percent of 0.333 is better than 0.

No Win Teams

Several WNBA teams have made an appearance or two in the finals but have yet to win a title. These include:

• New York Liberty
• Atlanta Dream
• Connecticut Sun
• Las Vegas Aces
• Charlotte Sting
• Chicago Sky

The New York Liberty has had the most opportunities to bring home a trophy, yet they’re still 0 for 4 in championships. The two teams that flubbed three chances each to win are the Atlanta Dream and Connecticut Sun. As for the rest of the teams without a W, the Las Vegas Aces have had two chances while both the Charlotte Sting and Chicago Sky have had just one throughout WNBA finals history.

And there’s certainly not a lack of basketball leagues to support. To dive into other dribbling champs, check out NBA Finals on a Map: Most Appearances, Most Wins or map your favorite league’s stats at batchgeo.com.

Everyone knows about the sinking of the Titanic, perhaps in part due to Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio’s heartbreaking portrayal of a fictional couple aboard. While we also all acknowledge that there was more than enough room on that door/raft, many people can’t name any other international shipwrecks, even those that took place more recently than the Titanic. Yet, 569 international shipwrecks took place between 1628 and 2015 and all had their own tragic backstories. Let’s take a look at where the final resting places for these ships are located via the map below.

View International Shipwrecks in a full screen map

We gathered information about the 569 international shipwrecks from Wikipedia and its subpages. Note that there are even more mappable shipwrecks that took place in domestic waters but we didn’t want to go overboard with data.

Group the map by ocean, subregion, or the smaller bodies of water to see where most of these wrecks reside, or read on for more information about their oceanic locations.

Shipwrecks by Ocean

Seventy-one percent of the planet is ocean, which has been divided into four ocean basins for geographical, cultural, and scientific reasons, per the National Ocean Service. The original four basins were the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, and Arctic oceans though most oceanographers now recognize a fifth basin: the Southern Ocean. You can sort the map by these basins, though we summarize the ocean basins and their shipwreck count below.

• Atlantic Ocean – 323 shipwrecks
• Pacific Ocean – 158
• Indian Ocean – 56
• Arctic Ocean – 29
• Southern Ocean – 3

Being only the second largest of the world’s oceans doesn’t stop the Atlantic Ocean from claiming the most shipwrecks. Almost 57% of international ships have gone down there while the Pacific Ocean (the #1 largest ocean) has half the amount of shipwrecks. However, the Atlantic was the body of water between European explorers and the New World. Frequent travel likely propels it to this grim number one position.

The coldest of all the oceans, the Arctic Ocean is partly covered by sea ice year-round. Due to this, it is less frequently travels, so it has a lower number of wrecks when compared to the other oceans. The same goes for the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic), which has temperatures between −2 to 10 °C (28 to 50 °F). Recognized in 2000, only three shipwrecks have occurred there: in 1819, 2007, and 2010. The 1819 wreck of the San Telmo resulted in the deaths of 644 people, possibly the first to die in the ‘future’ Antarctica. Additionally, San Telmo Island off the north coast of Livingston Island is named after the ship. But what about the number of shipwrecks in more specific regions of each ocean basin or even in bays, channels, and seas?

Ocean Bays, Channels, Seas, and Subregions Where Ships Sink

Each of the five ocean basins has subregions such as the North Pacific, South Pacific, Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic, or Central Indian Ocean. Of these, the North Pacific subregion has been the site of the most wrecks: 124.

Additionally, there are 33 bays, channels, and seas within the ocean basins and their subregions. Of these, the Mediterranean Sea (between Southern Europe and North Africa) is the most common for shipwrecks; 129 to be exact. Sixty-two wrecks have taken place in the North Sea, the second-most, including the Bourbon Dolphin shipwreck.

Over 20 shipwrecks occurred in each of the Norwegian, Phillippine, South China, and Baltic seas. Then there are 27 more bays, channels, or seas with one shipwreck or more. To decrease the chances of a shipwreck, even in one of these locations, it’s helpful to know the months shipwrecks occur most often.

Dangerous Months for Ships

Do ships tend to sink more often when faced with the icy waters of winter months? Or are wrecks more common throughout the summer months when ships may sail more frequently? Let’s find out.

Month	Number of shipwrecks
May	65
June	61
April	50
February	48
March	46
December	46
September	45
October	45
November	45
August	45
July	36
January	32

As you can see from the table above, May is the month of many wrecks. Forty-six of the 65 May shipwrecks occurred in the vast Atlantic Ocean. June, too, has seen a lot of ships sink, as has April. It would appear that the Northern hemisphere’s late spring and early summer is the time of year when international ships tend to go down.

On the other hand, the month of January has only seen 32 international shipwrecks between 1628 and 2015. In addition to January, the months of July and August-November seem to have calmer waters. It’s interesting to see May and June rack up high numbers while the months immediately following have 20+ fewer shipwrecks. Get an even better idea of the months, years, and even days when wrecks occur by grouping by time period on the map.

Group and Filter the Map by Multiple Columns: Oceans & Months

With BatchGeo you can group and filter any of your maps by a data column. For an even more detailed view, you can filter your maps with multiple column values at the same time.

For example, on the map of international shipwrecks, select the Atlantic Ocean from the ‘Ocean’ category so the map only displays wrecks in that basin. To add a second (and third and fourth and so on, if desired) column to the filter—like the month of May— select an additional category, which will keep the Atlantic Ocean filter from before. Note that you can do this with any of your maps made with BatchGeo, making map data analysis easier than ever before.

In the case of international shipwrecks, most occur in the Atlantic Ocean during May, which we easily discovered thanks to multi-column map grouping and filtering. Other ocean-related maps available for your perusal include the busiest ports worldwide and every US shark attack fatality since 1900, which are made with the help of BatchGeo’s online mapping tool.

Maps are the ultimate decision-maker when it comes to determining the center of the U.S., the center of Oregon, or even the center of a major city like Portland. Typically, this center is the location’s unique latitude and longitude degrees. Yet, while no one city in the world can have the same latitude and longitude, many cities share one or the other, even if they’re on the opposite ends of a country. Take Charleston, South Carolina and Carlsbad, California. Both of these U.S. cities are near 33° latitude, which you can see on the map below.

View U.S. cities by latitude and longitude in a full screen map

The data on the map above is from Wikipedia’s List of United States cities by population, which also contained the precise latitude and longitude coordinates. We also used an Excel formula (=IF(CELL<0, MROUND(CELL, -1), MROUND(CELL, 1))) to round the coordinates to their nearest latitude and longitude (within 1 degree). You may filter the map by these ranges or be reminded of exactly what latitude and longitude signify.

A Latitude and Longitude Refresher

If it’s been a while since you learned about latitude and longitude in school, don’t fret. Sixth-grade you may have found geographical coordinates confusing, but they’re not as difficult as they seem. Latitude and longitude are geographic coordinates (read more about them in our Cities Around the World by Latitude and Longitude post). They depict the points of the Earth. While together latitude and longitude make a coordinate pair, each individual coordinate refers to one of two cardinal directions. Take latitude, for example.

Latitude

Latitude, which is usually displayed first in the coordinate pair (i.e. 45.5370°N, Longitude° for Portland, Oregon) identifies how North or South a point is. Portland, Oregon’s latitude of 45.5370°N makes it clear the latitude is North thanks to the “N.” However, when noting the latitude of a point in decimal form, positive numbers indicate North while Southern points use negative (-) numbers. For example, 45.5370, Longitude; the fact that the number is positive demonstrates the latitude is to the North. A Southern latitude in decimal form would be negative. Next up is longitude.

Longitude

Longitude, which indicates how far East or West a point is, typically follows latitude. When noting the longitude of a point in decimal form, positive numbers indicate East while Western points use negative (-) numbers. For example, Portland, Oregon’s longitude of 122.6500°W makes it clear the longitude is West thanks to the “W.” However, in decimal form, Latitude, -122.6500, the negative sign demonstrates the longitude is to the West.

When latitude and longitude are combined, we get the exact location (45.5370°N, 122.6500°W) of a point on the Earth, like Portland, Oregon. Now that we’re a bit more clear on latitude and longitude, let’s take a look at the cities in the U.S. with similar coordinates.

Cities With Similar Latitudes and Longitudes

Thanks to latitudes and longitudes rounded to the nearest degree, we can easily see which of the 315 major U.S. cities have the same near coordinates. We often pin New York, New York and Los Angeles, California against each other. After all, they are two of the largest cities in the U.S. Well, now we can add similar latitudes to the list! New York’s near latitude is 41 while L.A. is at 34, just a 7° difference. What lands them at opposite ends of the country are the longitudes of N.Y.C. and L.A.: -74 and -118, respectively.

However, other cities have even more similar near latitudes (or longitudes) than the Big Apple and the City of Angels, as is the case with the Cities Around the World by Latitude and Longitude.

Same Near Latitudes

Near latitudes—latitudes rounded to the nearest 1°—in the continental U.S. range from 26 to 48. The city in the continental U.S. with the most southern latitude is Miami, Florida. Of course, many other cities in Florida have the same near latitude of 26. What might surprise you, though, is that there are three cities in Texas that have the same near latitude: Brownsville, McAllen, and Edinburg, Texas.

On the other end of the U.S. near latitude range is Everett, Washington. With a near latitude of 48, the only similarly situated cities are also in Washington. However, Renton, WA has a near latitude of 47, which it shares with Fargo, North Dakota. Billings, Montana, Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon all have the same near latitude (46) while Salem, Oregon, Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Green Bay, Wisconsin all have 45° near latitudes.

Same Near Longitudes

As for near longitudes, they range from -71 to -123. Boston, Massachusetts is at -71, along with two additional cities in Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, and Manchester, New Hampshire. At -123 longitude are several Oregonian cities (Eugene, Salem, Hillsboro, and Portland), plus Vancouver, WA, and San Francisco and Santa Rosa, CA, which we can easily see since we put the data on a map.

Map Your Latitude and Longitude Data

When you want to visualize your data in ways other than spreadsheets, turn to maps. With BatchGeo, you can map your location data, including latitude and longitude. To do so:

1. Open your spreadsheet
2. Select (Ctrl+A or Cmd+A) and copy (Ctrl+C or Cmd+C) all your data
3. Open your web browser and go to batchgeo.com
4. Click on the location data box with the example data in it, then paste (Ctrl+V or Cmd+V) your own data
5. Check to make sure you have the proper location data columns available by clicking “Validate and Set Options”
6. Select the proper location column from each drop-down
7. Opt to “Show Advanced Options” to ensure Latitude and Longitude are also set to the proper location data columns
8. Click “Make Map” and watch as the geocoder performs its process

Visit batchgeo.com to map your latitude and longitude data now.