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US State maps

Stylized geographic maps of US states

Updated at 2019-10-16 21:19:33 UTC

Surveys often elicit the US State of residence from respondents. It's possible to display these as stylized US maps.

US Choropleth map visualization showing state-level survey data with geographic shapes colored by intensity. States are displayed in their true geographic positions and proportions, with color gradients indicating data values. A legend appears on the right side showing the scale of values represented by the color scheme.

Image Caption

Initially Protobi displays state much like any other variable, as a bar chart:

Traditional horizontal bar chart showing US state survey data. Each state is listed vertically on the left with state abbreviations (CA, TX, FL, NY, etc.), with horizontal bars extending to the right indicating data values. The bars are colored uniformly and sorted by value from highest to lowest.

To display states as  geographical shapes as in the first image at top, select "Edit JSON ..." from the edit icon and set the attribute "chartType": "Choropleth".

Another option is the "Squaires" layout as used by the Wall Street Journal and NPR. This displays each state as an equal size square approximately geographically arranged. For this set "chartType": "Squaire":

Squaire map visualization showing US states as equal-sized squares arranged in approximate geographic positions. Each square represents one state with its two-letter abbreviation and is colored by data value. States maintain rough geographic relationships (West Coast states on left, East Coast on right, Alaska and Hawaii positioned separately below) while having equal visual weight.

Another option is the "HexMap" layout as used by the Wall Street Journal and NPR. This displays each state as an equal size hexagon approximately geographically arranged  For this set "chartType": "HexMap":

HexMap visualization displaying US states as equal-sized hexagons arranged in approximate geographic positions. Each hexagon contains a state's two-letter abbreviation and is colored by data value. The hexagonal tiles tessellate together creating a honeycomb pattern while maintaining rough geographic relationships between states.

Each of these maps assume that the data values are two digit state codes (e.g., "AK") or complete state names (e.g., "Alaska").  

If the raw data is other values, e.g., numeric codes, that are formatted to display as state abbreviations or names, it may be necessary to reformat the data. This can often be as simple as renaming the attribute "format" to "reformat" in "Edit JSON..." and setting "format" to null.