Choropleth map

Notes §

• Wiki: from Greek χῶρος (choros) ‘area/region’, and πλῆθος (plethos) ‘multitude’

• There are 2 things we should be careful about when reading choropleth maps §

  • Recognise that classes on a choropleth map function like the ‘bin’ in a histogram
  • Our eyes can be attracted to the largest areas that have low density of data

Choropleth maps are flexible – we’ve already seen examples that present rates and ordinal (ranking) data. However, choropleth maps are generally not suited to mapping magnitude data. - Smith, Alan. How Charts Work (p. 197). Pearson Education. Kindle Edition.

Relationship to show §

• Spatial
• Ordinal and rates (p 196) But not good for Magnitude

Variants §