1. Mapping your data
Welcome to Chapter 3. In this chapter we will be creating some more complex visualizations. In this lesson, we'll cover what geographic data is and how Tableau can use this data to create maps.
2. What is geographic data?
If you're visualizing countries globally, flight paths regionally or looking at local oil pipeline coverage, you are likely working with geographic data. Seeing that data on a map helps you make better decisions to solve the problem at hand. There are two types of maps in Tableau.
3. Filled map
You can create what is called a filled map. Like its name suggests a filled map is basically boundaries of a geographic region filled with color. Here the different US states are colored in.
4. Symbol maps
A symbol map uses symbols to represent a geographic region. It places the symbol in the center of the region. As you can see in the map on the slide, there is a circle in the center of each US state. This is what we will be doing in this lesson.
5. Recognized geographic types
Tableau’s robust internal database can recognize a number of different geographic information types. These include US area codes, cities worldwide, US congressional districts, worldwide countries and regions, US counties, worldwide states and provinces, and postal codes.
So, Tableau can automatically assign coordinates to those places. This process is called geocoding. In Tableau all geocoded fields will have a globe icon associated with it.
6. Data
In this chapter, you will be looking at worldwide health statistics from the gapminder and UN datasets. You are working for the World Health Organization and are asked to look into some historic data. Spotting patterns in the past will help make decisions on directing and coordinating international health within the United Nations system today.
7. Business question
The question you will be answering at the end of this lesson is: What was the population growth of the country with the highest population in 2008? Knowing this, the World Health Organization will have a better idea of where to reduce health risks due to overpopulation.
8. Demo time!
Let's have a look at how you can create a symbol map in Tableau.