While the map you describe is certainly fun to look at, it won't actually answer the questions you are interested in. It would basically shows population density, with an emphasis on a small number of changesets with huge amounts of small changes. A simple useful approach is looking at a site like [missing maps osm stats][1] or [osm analytics][2] , and see if the speed of mapping roads is increasing in the developing world. As far as I've seen when looking at the data, even as the road network becomes complete in Europe, people keep working on them, adding ever more detail. So if you want to know if "mapping attention" is shifting, I think you'd be better of with a map of simply the number of changesets or the number of different contributors. Some goodies in that direction are in this [Mapbox osm analysis lab][3]. A thorough study would also take into account population and size of the economy to relate mapping activity to mapable objects. [EDIT] I think [this one][4] goes closest to what you're looking for. It tries to tell too many things at once IMHO. I've opened it in Germany for you. The red dots show an explosion of number of daily active users as soon as 2008, and then it basically stays more or less the same. In the second graph, the red dots are the number of people yearly working on roads. Similar profile. The number for 2016 is quite low, probably because of some lag in getting the data. Then look at buildings: a much smoother rise. Interesting to compare this to the explosion in [DR Congo from 2014][5], ups and downs in [Haiti][6] or the steady-as-she-goes in [Peru][7]. [1]: http://www.missingmaps.org/osmstats/ [2]: http://osm-analytics.org/ [3]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/ [4]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/users-by-country?yearIdx=0&minActiveDays=10&maxActiveDays=365&#3.36/44.35/-21.29 [5]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/users-by-country?yearIdx=0&minActiveDays=10&maxActiveDays=365&#2.27/21.47/-84.47 [6]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/users-by-country?yearIdx=0&minActiveDays=10&maxActiveDays=365&#3.36/20.01/-107.09 [7]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/users-by-country?yearIdx=0&minActiveDays=10&maxActiveDays=365&#3.36/2.12/-99.51

While the map you describe is certainly fun to look at, it won't actually answer the questions you are interested in. It would basically shows population density, with an emphasis on a small number of changesets with huge amounts of small changes. A simple useful approach is looking at a site like [missing maps osm stats][1] or [osm analytics][2] , and see if the speed of mapping roads is increasing in the developing world. As far as I've seen when looking at the data, even as the road network becomes complete in Europe, people keep working on them, adding ever more detail. So if you want to know if "mapping attention" is shifting, I think you'd be better of with a map of simply the number of changesets or the number of different contributors. Some goodies in that direction are in this [Mapbox osm analysis lab][3]. A thorough study would also take into account population and size of the economy to relate mapping activity to mapable objects. [1]: http://www.missingmaps.org/osmstats/ [2]: http://osm-analytics.org/ [3]: http://mapbox.github.io/osm-analysis-collab/