It's not just a population map. It's also a map of the western and eastern blocs. Tennis is pretty bourgeois. East Germany is super defined. Although I find the Czech Republic and the Balearic islands interesting. Lots of British tourists want lots of courts?
this post was submitted on 16 May 2025
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Germany and East Germany being defined however very much reflect the population density in Germany however.
Tennis was big in Finland during the yuppie times afaik. Now you see abandoned tennis courts pretty often.
Same happening for padel hah
Also wealth within these blocs. The south of England is super blue even though it doesn’t have a necessarily high population density apart from London. It’s just it’s far more bourgeois and aristoratic than the north.
Is Spain just that much less densely populated or do they just not care for tennis as much as the rest of western Europe? Both?
Spain is mostly very sparsely populated outside of big cities.
But of course this isn't a map of tennis courts, it's a map of tennis courts that are entered in OpenStreetMap.
That's a good point, OpenStreetMap coverage could simply be worse in more rural parts of Eastern Europe
In Spain, a lot of if tennis courts have been replaced with padel courts (more profitable and trendy).
Is that what they call pickleball there?
no, different sports.
It's a different sport that originated in Mexico but has been expanding fast throughout South America and Europe.
I think Pickleball is more of a US thing
I also started wondering if this was just another population density map
The rich can afford to make their tennis courts out of uranium while the poor have to play on hydrogen.
Yes but it is tennis or real tennis
tennis court density, you say. so the darkest blue dots are hard courts and the paler ones are clay courts?
Now do pickleball!
poor iceland