UN World Map - IGME Cartography Framework

R scripts for creating publication-ready child mortality maps using UN cartography standards and Robinson projection, for UNICEF IGME reports.

Shapefiles are from 2012 UN cartography and have been used consistently for IGME reporting.

Directory Structure

un_world_map/
├── shp/        # Raw UN cartography shapefiles (2012)
├── rds/        # Processed spatial objects for faster loading
├── input/      # IGME mortality estimates and country metadata
├── fig/        # Generated map outputs (PNG/PDF)
├── R/          # Core mapping function (make.world.map.R)
└── code/       # Example scripts
    ├── _Maps_of_mortality_rates_region_or_world.R        # World/regional mortality maps
    ├── _Maps_of_mortality_rates_region_or_world_bubble.R # Bubble variant
    ├── _Maps_plot_categorical_country_groups.R           # Categorical grouping maps
    ├── _Maps_plot_one_country_group.R                    # Single group highlight
    ├── script_process_sp_to_rds.R                        # Shapefile preprocessing
    ├── script_plot world sp files.R                      # Shapefile testing
    └── IGME_standardmaps_old original script.R           # Legacy (deprecated)

Quick Start

Source one of the top-level scripts to generate standard IGME mortality maps:

source("_world map of mortality rates.R")        # Standard mortality rate maps
source("_world map of any continuous variable.R") # Any continuous variable

Both scripts default to generating U5MR and MR1t59 maps; edit indicator codes at the bottom to generate others. Output PNGs are saved to fig/.

Key Function: make.world.map()

Defined in R/make.world.map.R. Requires spatial objects and data to be loaded in the calling environment (handled by the example scripts).

Parameter	Description
ind0	Indicator code (e.g. "U5MR", "NMR")
iso.subset.c	ISO3 codes for regional maps; NULL = world map
region.name	Label for regional maps
my_color_palette	Override default color palette
my_category_break	Override default legend breaks
plot.coastlines	Include coastlines (default: FALSE)

Supported Indicators

Code	Description
U5MR	Under-five mortality rate
NMR	Neonatal mortality rate
CMR	Child mortality rate (1–4 years)
MR1t11	1–11 months mortality rate
MR1t59	1–59 months mortality rate
5q5 / 5q10	Mortality rate (5–9 / 10–14 years)
10q10	Adolescent mortality rate (10–19 years)
5q15	Mortality rate (15–19 years)
SBR	Stillbirth rate

Dependencies

library("sf")           # Spatial data (replaces legacy sp)
library("dplyr")
library("RColorBrewer")
library("data.table")

Input Data

• input/IGME_2024_rate_estimates.csv — IGME mortality estimates
• input/new_cnames.rds — Country metadata (ISO/UN codes)
• rds/*.rds — Preprocessed UN cartography shapefiles

If rds/ objects are missing, regenerate them with code/script_process_sp_to_rds.R.

UN Cartography Standards

• Projection: Robinson
• Disputed territories: Aksai Chin rendered with striped pattern
• Dependencies: Greenland → Denmark; Hong Kong/Macao → China
• Kosovo: Dashed boundary treatment