How to Make a Map Chart in Google Sheets

Visualizing data on a map instantly tells a story that rows and columns of numbers simply can't. If you have location-based information, a Google Sheets map chart (or "Geo chart") is one of the quickest ways to see regional trends, find performance hotspots, and communicate insights clearly. This guide will walk you through exactly how to prepare your data and create your own interactive map chart in just a few clicks.

What is a Google Sheets Map Chart?

A map chart, known as a "Geo chart" in Google Sheets, turns location data like country names, states, or even exact addresses into a visual representation on a map. Instead of just listing that you had sales in 25 different states, a map chart can color-code each state based on its sales volume, immediately showing you where your top-performing regions are.

This is incredibly useful for a variety of tasks:

• Marketing Analytics: See where your website users are coming from by plotting sessions per country.

• Sales Reporting: Visualize sales revenue by state or territory to identify strong markets and opportunities for growth.

• Operations and Logistics: Map out customer locations, store distributions, or service areas.

• Social Science Data: Display population data, survey responses, or economic indicators by country or region.

Google Sheets offers two main types of map charts:

1. Geo Chart: Uses colors and shades to represent data across entire regions, like countries or states. Higher values get a darker shade, creating a "heatmap" effect. This is perfect for comparing regional data.

2. Geo Chart with Markers: Places colored circles or "markers" on specific locations. The size and color of the markers can represent different values. This is better for visualizing data at specific points, like cities or exact addresses.

Both are powerful tools for transforming dry geographic data into an engaging and informative visual.

Preparing Your Data for a Map Chart

The most important step in creating a map chart is formatting your data correctly. If your spreadsheet isn't set up properly, Google Sheets won't know how to render the map. Fortunately, the required structure is simple.

You need at least two columns:

• Column A (Location): This column will contain your geographic data. You can use a variety of formats, but consistency is key. For example, use country names, state names, region codes (like "US-CA" for California), or addresses.

• Column B (Value): This column must contain the numeric data you want to visualize. This could be sales figures, website sessions, user counts, survey scores, temperature readings, or any other number you want to plot on the map.

Example Data Structures

The type of location you want to plot will determine how you format your first column. Here are a few examples:

1. Data by Country

If you're mapping website traffic, your data might look like this. The first column contains the country name, and the second contains the number of user sessions.

2. Data by State (within the US)

For a sales report targeting the United States, you'd list the state names along with the sales revenue.

3. Data by Specific Address (Using Lat/Long)

For precise locations, like plotting customer addresses or store locations, a Geo chart with markers is best. While you can sometimes use full addresses, providing Latitude and Longitude is the most reliable method.

Tip: If you only have addresses, you can use a Google Sheets add-on like "Geocode by Awesome Table" to automatically convert them to latitude and longitude coordinates.

Data Cleanliness is Crucial

Google has to recognize your location names. A simple typo can cause a data point to be omitted from the map. Keep an eye out for:

• Spelling errors: "Calfornia" instead of "California".

• Inconsistent naming: Using "United States," "USA," and "US" in the same column can confuse the chart editor. Pick one format and stick to it.

How to Make a Map Chart in Google Sheets (Step-by-Step)

Once your data is cleaned and structured correctly, creating the chart takes less than a minute. Let's build a map chart using our example data for sales revenue by state.

Step 1: Select Your Data

Click and drag your mouse to highlight all the cells containing your data, including the headers. In our example, we would select the cells containing "State," "Sales Revenue," and all the data points below them.

Step 2: Insert the Chart

With your data selected, navigate to the menu at the top of the screen and click Insert > Chart. Google Sheets will automatically analyze your data and suggest a chart type. Most of the time, it won't default to a map chart, so you'll need to change it in the next step.

Step 3: Choose the Geo Chart Type

The Chart editor panel will appear on the right side of your screen. Under the "Setup" tab, click the dropdown menu under "Chart type." Scroll down until you find the "Map" section, and choose either Geo chart or Geo chart with markers.

For our state-level sales data, a standard Geo chart is perfect because we want to see entire regions colored in.

Just like that, you have a functional map chart! Google Sheets has recognized the state names and colored them according to their corresponding sales revenue value.

Customizing Your Map Chart

A basic map is good, but a customized map is even better for telling a clear story. The "Customize" tab in the Chart editor is where you can fine-tune your chart's appearance.

Geo Settings

This is the most important customization section for a map chart.

• Region: By default, Google Sheets tries to guess the correct region (e.g., United States if it sees states). You can manually set this to a specific continent or change it to "World" to see the full global context. For our example, "United States" is the correct setting.

• Colors: You can set the colors for the Min, Mid, and Max values, along with a color for regions that don't have any data. This lets you align the chart with your brand colors or use intuitive schemes (like light green to dark green for "good" values).

Chart & Axis Titles

Giving your chart a clear title is essential. Under the "Chart & axis titles" dropdown, you can add a Chart title (e.g., "Q3 Sales Revenue by State") and a Chart subtitle to provide more context. This makes your chart understandable to anyone who sees it, even without the underlying data.

Legend

You can adjust the position and formatting of the numeric scale legend that your chart displays, ensuring it fits well with your chart's layout.

Tips for Effective Map Charts

Here are a few best practices to keep in mind to make your map charts more effective and easier to read.

• When to Use Shaded Maps vs. Markers: Use a standard Geo chart (shaded regions) when comparing totals across known areas, like countries or states. Use a Geo chart with markers when plotting specific, independent points, such as city-level data, store locations, or event venues.

• Don't Overload the Map: If you're plotting hundreds of individual city-level data points across a national map, the markers may become a cluttered mess. In such cases, it might be better to aggregate the data up to the state or regional level first.

• Fixing Unrecognized Locations: If a country or state isn't showing up on your map, the most likely culprit is a typo or an abbreviation that Google Sheets doesn't recognize. Double-check the spelling in your data table. For more granular data, using ISO region codes (e.g., 'US-NY' for New York) or latitude/longitude is the most reliable method.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to make a map chart in Google Sheets is a simple but powerful data visualization skill. By structuring your geographic data properly, you can instantly turn a dull spreadsheet into an insightful map that highlights regional trends and makes your data story easy for anyone to understand.

Of course, the first step is always getting your data into the sheet, which often means manually exporting CSV reports from tools like Google Analytics, Shopify, or your CRM. At Graphed, we help automate that entire process. By securely connecting to your data sources, you can use plain English to ask questions and instantly build live dashboards – including map charts – that update themselves. Instead of fighting with CSVs, you could just ask, "Show me a map of website sessions in the US by state for the last 30 days," and get a real-time answer. You can try Graphed for free and spend more time on strategy and less on manual reporting.