How to Create a Geographic Map

This article describes how to go from an output that contains countries or another geographic category, such as state, region, or county, and a comparative statistic, such as population.

To a state where you have a geographic map that shades the color of each location in the map in proportion to data values.

Requirements

Geographic map visualization requires that the data has been combined into categories. For example, that population has been summarized according to state. For full details on how you can combine your data into categories automatically see How to Automatically Combine Categories - By Geography.

To create a geographic map, you will need one of the following outputs:

1. A summary table that contains a state or other geographic question in the Rows drop-down menu, which will allow you to map the number of people/proportion of people in each geographic area from your sample. Alternatively, a summary table of a Binary - Multi question or Numeric - Multi question, where there is one row (variable) for each geographic region that you want to include in your map.

2. A crosstab setup that has a geographic question in the Rows and a numeric variable in the columns. Alternatively, you could have a SUMMARY table of a Binary - Multi question or Numeric - Multi question, where there is one row (variable) for each geographic region that you want to include in your map.

3. A raw data table where you have one row per geographic area and no tabulation, where aggregation or calculations are needed on the data. When this is the case, you can create a raw data table using Table > Paste or Enter Table to display the raw data in a table form. From the object inspector, go to Inputs > DATA SOURCE > Paste or type data.

Method

1. Create an output table on the Page, as described in Requirements.
2. From the toolbar, go to Visualization > Geographic Map > Geographic Map.
3. From the object inspector, go to Inputs > DATA SOURCE > Output in 'Pages' and select the output on the page that contains the geographic data. You can find the name of the output by selecting the output, and from the object inspector, Properties > GENERAL > Name.

Next

How to Label a Geographic Map

How to Automatically Combine Categories - By Geography