From 1820 to 2013, 79 million people obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States.
Metrocosm created an amazing visualization to represent the data. The video map visualizes all of them based on their prior country of residence (country of origin). The brightness of a country corresponds to its total migration to the U.S. at the given time.
The visualization is functional as it provides an intuitive feeling of the what happened at any given point in time. It’s also not overwhelming as it “blacks out” non relevant countries and times. It’s very aesthetic.