Chloropleth Map

This is a map of population change for the United States including Alaska and Hawaii.
The North American Lambert Conformal Conic projection used was for a couple of reasons. First, this projection generally preserves shape and area which is what this map is trying to convey being a chloropleth map which shows the visual impact of population change by state. Also, the projection works well for the North American continent as Alaska appears to be roughly 2.5 times the size of Texas which is close to the true areal difference between the two states.
Layout seemed balanced but the scale of Alaska and Hawaii could have been changed so as to fit them closer to the continental United States. If this was done then all states should have been re-sized based on population change weighted to total population of each state thus revealing the true impact of population change for each state and the country as a whole.