How to Make a Choropleth Map in Tableau

A choropleth map is one of the most effective ways to tell a story with geographic data. By coloring areas like states, countries, or sales regions based on a specific value, you can reveal trends and patterns at a glance. We're going to walk through exactly how to create a high-quality, professional choropleth map in Tableau, step-by-step.

What is a Choropleth Map and Why Use One?

You've definitely seen a choropleth map before, even if you didn't know the name. Think of an election night results map where states are colored red or blue, or a weather map showing temperature variations across the country. That's a choropleth map - a map that uses differences in shading or color within predefined areas to visualize how a value varies across a geographic region.

The concept is simple: the darker the shade or the more intense the color, the higher the corresponding data point. This makes them incredibly powerful for answering questions like:

• Which states generate the most revenue?
• Where is population density highest in Europe?
• Which sales territories are underperforming?
• How have infection rates been distributed across different counties?

By mapping your data, you translate rows of numbers in a spreadsheet into an intuitive visual story that anyone can understand instantly. Instead of telling your manager "California had the highest sales," you can show them a map where California is shaded the darkest, which has a much greater impact.

Preparing Your Data for Tableau

Tableau tries its best to work with whatever you throw at it, but your life will be much easier if your data is set up cleanly from the start. For a choropleth map, you only need two core components in your dataset:

1. A Geographic Dimension: This is the column that defines your locations. It can be state names, country names, counties, provinces, or ZIP codes. The key here is consistency. Tableau is smart, but it can get confused if you have mixed spellings like “USA,” “United States,” and “U.S.A.” in the same column. Take a moment to clean this up first.
2. A Measure: This is the numerical value you want to visualize. It could be Sales, Profit, Population, Number of Customers, or Website Clicks - any quantitative metric that you can associate with your locations.

A simple dataset ready for Tableau might look something like this:

State,Sales,Region California,85000,West Texas,62000,South New York,71000,East Florida,48000,South Illinois,55000,Midwest

Step-by-Step Guide: Creating Your First Choropleth Map

With your data ready, building the map is surprisingly quick. We'll go from a blank workbook to a fully functional choropleth map in just five steps.

Step 1: Connect Your Data

First things first, you need to bring your data into Tableau.

Open Tableau Desktop. On the left side of the screen, you’ll see the "Connect" pane. This is where you tell Tableau where your data lives. It could be an Excel file, a CSV (Text file), or a server like Google BigQuery. For our example, let's assume it's an Excel file.

1. Under "Connect," click on Microsoft Excel.
2. Navigate to your saved data file, select it, and click Open.
3. Tableau will load your data and show you a preview in the Data Source page. If everything looks correct, click on the Sheet 1 tab at the bottom to go to your worksheet.

Step 2: Assign a Geographic Role

Once you're in the worksheet view, look at the "Data" pane on the left. This lists all the columns from your dataset. Tableau automatically categorizes them into Dimensions (typically text or date fields, shown in blue) and Measures (numerical fields, shown in green).

Find your geographic field (e.g., "State"). Tableau is usually clever enough to recognize common location names like "California" or "Germany" and will automatically assign it a geographic role. You'll know it worked if there’s a small globe icon next to your field's name.

If you don't see a globe icon, you may need to give Tableau a little help. Just right-click on the field and follow these steps:

• Hover over Geographic Role.
• A menu will appear with options like Country/Region, State/Province, County, ZIP Code/Postcode, etc.
• Select the one that matches your data.

This simple step is critical - it's how you tell Tableau, "Hey, this column isn't just a list of words, these are actual places that can be plotted on a map."

Step 3: Generate the Map

This is where Tableau really shines. To create your basic map, simply find your newly geo-coded field in the Data pane and double-click it.

That's it. Tableau will instantly generate a world map and place a single dot on each location present in your data. In the background, it automatically adds the generated 'Latitude' and 'Longitude' fields to the Rows and Columns shelves for you.

Step 4: Turn Your Dot Map into a Choropleth Map

A dot map is great, but we want to fill in the shapes of each state or country. To do this, we need to change the "Mark Type."

Look for the Marks card. This is a crucial area in Tableau where you control the visual properties of your data. You'll see a dropdown menu that is likely set to "Automatic."

Click on this dropdown menu and select Map (on older versions of Tableau, this might be labeled Filled Map).

Just like that, your dots will transform into shaded, filled territories. You now have the basic structure of a choropleth map, although all the shapes are the same color for now.

Step 5: Add Your Data to the Color Shelf

This final step is what brings your map to life and tells your story.

Go back to the Data pane on the left and find your measure - the numerical value you want to visualize (e.g., "Sales").

Simply click and drag this measure field and drop it directly onto the "Color" property on the Marks card.

Tableau will instantly assign a color gradient to your map. Regions with higher values will be a darker shade, and regions with lower values will be lighter. A color legend will also appear on the right side of the view so you can interpret the shades. Congratulations, you've just made a choropleth map!

Customizing and Refining Your Map

You have a working map, but a little customization can turn a good visualization into a great one. Making your map clearer and more intuitive is a key part of the data analysis process.

Editing Colors and Ranges

The default blue gradient in Tableau is nice, but it might not be the best choice for your data or your company's branding.

To change the color palette, click the Color property on the Marks card, then select Edit Colors.... This opens up a dialog box where you have full control.

• Palette: Click the dropdown to explore dozens of built-in color palettes. A sequential palette (going from light to dark in one color) is perfect for showing low-to-high values. A diverging palette (like red-to-blue with a neutral middle) is great for showing values that diverge from a central point, like profit (positive and negative).
• Stepped Color: You can check this box to group your data into a smaller number of distinct color buckets instead of a smooth gradient. This can sometimes make the map easier to read.
• Advanced Options: Click "Advanced" to set your own start, end, and center points for the color range, which is useful if you want to highlight values above a certain threshold.

Adding Tooltips for More Detail

Tooltips are the little info boxes that appear when you hover your mouse over a specific state or region on the map. By default, Tableau just shows the field names and values you've used. You can make these much more useful.

Click on the Tooltip property on the Marks card. A text editor will pop up. Here you can delete, rewrite, and format the text. You can also drag other fields from your Data pane directly into the tooltip editor to add more detail. For example, you could show not only the state's total sales but also its profit, number of orders, and profit ratio - all in one place.

Filtering and Adding Context

If your map is too crowded, filters can help your audience focus. Drag a dimension like "Region" from the Data pane onto the Filters card. A box will pop up allowing you to select which regions you want to display. If you show the filter, it becomes an interactive control for you and your end-users.

To add more geographic context, go to the menu bar at the top and select Map > Map Layers.... A pane will open on the left where you can add layers like country borders, state names, coastline, and more. This helps orient your viewer and gives the map a more polished, professional feel.

Final Thoughts

Creating a choropleth map in Tableau transforms a boring spreadsheet into an insightful, compelling visual story. Once you get the hang of dragging your geo data onto the view and your measures onto the color shelf, you unlock a powerful method for highlighting regional trends and making data-driven decisions.

While mastering tools like Tableau is a valuable skill, we know the learning curve can consume a lot of time you could be spending on strategy. We created Graphed because we believe getting insights from your data shouldn't require weeks of training. What took multiple steps of cleaning data, assigning roles, and dragging fields you could do by simply asking in plain English. For example, you could tell Graphed, "Show me a dashboard with a map chart of Shopify sales by state for this year," and have an interactive, real-time map built in seconds, drawing live from all your connected data sources.