Posts tagged as:

thematic map

How to create a thematic map in Excel

by Jorge

thematic map population by state


How do you create a map like the one above for your next presentation if you don’t have a mapping tool? Simple, create it in Excel. Easier said than done, right? Well, not really…

Following the “geo-scatterplot”, in this screencast tutorial I’ll show you how to create a thematic map and color-code it, based on your own data. You don’t need add-ins or additional software, just a little time to set it up. Please note that this is not intended to replace even the simplest mapping tool.

To start the tutorial just click the link below:

Screencast: How to create a thematic map in Excel.

Note that you need a map. You can draw it yourself or you can import it. Drawing a States map is simple:

  • Import an image to the Excel file (you can use this one, for example);
  • Draw the shapes using the map as a reference.

create_map_excel_06

The other option is to obtain a file. You can get an ESRI Shape file from the National Atlas but you’ll have to convert it to Windows Metafile (WMF) or similar format.

Hope you’ll find this technique useful and feel free to suggest any improvements.

If you liked this tutorial you may be interested in How to create population pyramids and the “Howto Edition” fo the Demographic Dashboard. And you may consider subscribing…

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Geo-scatterplot or the poor man's GIS

by Jorge

geo_scatterplot This is an Excel scatterplot. Each point is one of the 4200 Portuguese civil parishes. The green point shows the active parish and the red ones some parishes that may have a similar profile. Of course, if you select a different parish the red set also changes.

I like this idea of displaying geographic coordinates in a scatter plot and by that be able to see some (very basic) geographic patterns. Just by plotting the coordinates you get an idea of how the territory is structured and you can start asking questions (“why is the north so different from the south?”). By providing some more data (color coding the data points) we can add complexity to our questions.

If you think there may be a spatial pattern in your data and you (or the users) can’t have access to GIS software, or you just don’t want to learn another application, this technique could come in handy.

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