Evolution of National Atlases and an Overview of National Atlases Worldwide

Summary

A national atlas is a systematic and comprehensive cartographic work compiled by authoritative national institutions, reflecting a country's natural, social, and economic conditions, with origins dating back to the late 17th century. This paper systematically reviews the development history of national atlases, identifying the Finnish National Atlas of 1899 as the world's earliest recognized national atlas, and outlines the context of competitive national atlas production among European countries during 1950–1970. The main body of the paper presents a detailed tabular inventory of 83 representative national atlases from Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, providing information on each atlas's compiling institution, publication year, scale, format, and annotations. This serves as a valuable reference for cartographic research and national atlas compilation practice.