Home » Maps & Cartography » Choropleth Maps – A Guide to Data Classification

Choropleth Maps – A Guide to Data

Classification
By: GISGeography Last Updated: August 7, 2023

What is a Choropleth Maps?

A choropleth map uses different shading and colors based on quantitative
data. But the problem for choropleth maps is: There are so many ways to
classify your data.
For example, there are equal intervals, quantile, natural breaks, and pretty
breaks. But what’s the difference between each of them?
Today, you’ll learn how to pick the best way to classify your data in choropleth
maps in our guide to data classification.
Quick Summary
Although each classification method has its strengths and weaknesses, the
choice should be based on the data’s distribution. But it can also include the
specific goals of your analysis and the visual representation you want to
achieve.
Here is a breakdown of the three most common types of data classification
methods:

Aspect Equal Intervals Quantile Natural Breaks

Divides data Divides data into Finds natural
Definition range into equal equal numbers groupings based
intervals of data points on data
distribution
Suitable for data Useful for Effective for
Application with uniform reducing
distribution extreme values’ highly
data
skewed
impact
Sensitivity to May not Helps mitigate Adjusts intervals
Extremes represent data impact of around natural
distribution well outliers clusters
Intervals may Class sizes can Tends to create
Class Counts result in uneven vary depending classes with
class sizes on data varying counts
May not reflect Can capture Considers data
Data Spread data variability variability of data distribution for
class ranges
 Aspect Equal Intervals Quantile Natural Breaks
Simplistic, easy Can obscure Reflects
Interpretability to understand data distribution underlying data
patterns
Might not
Visualization May not capture visually Reflects data
nuances in data represent data clustering visually
well
Decision- Less informed May not reveal Reveals inherent
making decisions due to subtle patterns data groups
equal intervals

Step 1. Choose Your Number of Classes

First, you must aggregate data based on several classes. When you have more
classes, you get more variation sometimes making it harder to separate
shading. If you want to test out different shading, ColorBrewer has a tool for
color advice.
For example, here are 10 classes:
While fewer classes provide less separation between classes such as 5
classes below.

After all, the number of classes you decide on really depends on the purpose
of your map.

Step 2. Select Your Data Classification Method

Second, you will have to decide how to classify your data. To put it another
way, data classification arranges your data with boundaries to separate
classes. You could separate your classes with an equal interval mode:

Alternatively, you could select a quantile type of classifier where it arranges

the data differently (more on this below)
Each data classification technique produces unique choropleth maps. But
they all paint a different story to the map reader. The one thing you must
realize is that you’re using the same data in each choropleth map, but what’s
really changing is how you classify the data.
Do you want to communicate data effectively? Check out this list of the 10
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Step 3. Creating a Choropleth Map

The most important thing you have to realize is that for each of these
choropleth maps we create, we use the same data. What’s changing is how
we classify the data.
In this example, we count the number of letters in country names. For
example:
Mali, Cuba, Peru, and others are four letter countries.
Whereas, Bosnia and Herzegovina has 22 characters.
If you plot out 4 to 22 characters, it will have a lot of colors.
For example, the four-letter countries are the lightest shades of green. As the
letter count increases, the shading gets darker.
Caption – Choropleth map shading by countries number of characters
Which country belongs to which group? It’s hard to tell.
So this is why we use data classification. When we group by classes, there’s
less shading and we aggregate the data by group.
Ultimately, the question is how do we define those class boundaries or bins?
In other words, how do we classify the data into groups?
First, let’s try dividing classes into evenly-spaced groupings like equal
intervals below and see what happens.

Option 1. Equal Interval Data Classification

The equal interval classification is cut and dry. All it really does is divide the
classes into equal groups.
 Class 1: 4 – 8 (113 countries have four, five, six, seven, or eight letters)
Class 2: 8 – 12 (41)
Class 3: 12 – 16 (12)
Class 4: 16 – 20 (8)
Class 5: 20 – 24 (2)
The minimum number of characters of a country is 4 such as Peru. The
maximum number of characters is 24, which is the Central African Republic.
When you plot each country and its number of characters on a map, it looks
like this (the brackets indicate the count):

Equal interval data classification subtracts the maximum value from the
minimum value (24-4=20). In our example, we generated 5 classes but the
number of classes is entirely up to you. Then, it divides 20 by 5 and you get an
interval (20/5=4).
Almost always, equal interval choropleth maps result in an unequal count of
countries per class. For example, class 1 has 113 countries out of 176
countries with four, five, six, and seven letters.
However, only 2 countries have more than 20 letters. As a result, this map
displays more light-shaded colors compared to only 2 with dark shading.
But what happens if you want the count of countries in each class to be close
to equal? That’s when you should use a quantile map.

Option 2. Quantile (Equal Count) Classification

The quantile map tries to bin the same count of features in each of the 5
classes. In other words, quantile maps try to arrange groups so they have the
same quantity. As a result, the shading will look equally distributed in quantile
types of maps.

Class 1: 4 – 6 (56 countries have 4, 5 or 6-letter names)

Class 2: 6 – 7 (38)
Class 3: 7 – 8 (19)
Class 4: 9 – 11 (36)
 Class 5: 12 – 24 (27)
Quantile maps take the number of features (176 countries in our case). Then, it
divides the total by the number of classes to get the average (176/5=35.2).
Finally, quantile maps count the quantity in each group and arrange them as
close to the average as possible.

You can see how the count of each class looks very similar and are close to
35.2. For each class, there are not too many or too few for the count.
Despite the balanced style in quantile choropleth maps, they can also be
misleading. They are misleading because people tend to look at one of the
shades and group it in the same category. For example, a 12-letter country
gets the same dark shading as a 24-letter country… and where’s the justice in
that?

Option 3. Natural Breaks (Jenks) Classification

The first thing to remember about the Natural Breaks (Jenks) classification is
that it is an optimization method for choropleth maps. In short, it arranges
each grouping so there is less variation in each class or shading.
 Class 1: 4 – 6 (56)
Class 2: 6 – 8 (57)
Class 3: 8 – 12 (41)
Class 4: 12 – 18 (18)
Class 5: 18 – 24 (4)
Natural Breaks (Jenks) takes an iterative approach by comparing the sum of
squared deviations between classes to the array mean. Then, the algorithm
uses a goodness of variance fit with 1 as a perfect fit and 0 as a poor fit.

The founder of the Natural Breaks data classification method was a

cartographer by the name of George Frederick Jenks. He specialized in
monitoring the eye movements of people when looking at a map. And the
results for this map looked great too.
You can see how this data classification method minimizes variation in each
group. As we have lots of shorter country names, it finds suitable class
ranges. But it still manages to group outliers with longer country names in a
class of its own.

Option 4. Standard Deviation Classification

Standard deviation is a statistical technique type of map based on how much
the data differs from the mean. You measure the mean and standard deviation
for your data. Then, each standard deviation becomes a class in your
choropleth maps.

In our case, the mean number of characters is about 8.5 with a standard
deviation of 3.7 characters. As a result, all countries with 5 to 8 characters will
be placed in the 0 to -1 standard deviation grouping. Likewise, countries with
9 to 12 letters are grouped in 0 to 1 standard deviation range like this:
 Class 1: <-1 σ (9)
Class 2: -1 to 0 σ (104)
Class 3: 0 to 1 σ (41)
Class 4: 1 to 2 σ (10)
Class 5: 2 to 3 σ (9)
Class 6: 3 to 4 σ (2)
Class 7: >=4 σ (1)
The raw categories as output need a bit of clarification to the reader. What is
the average? What is the range for each standard deviation?
Despite these inconsistencies, standard deviation types of maps might be one
of the most appropriate because of their statistical origin. All the 4 letter
countries are <-1 standard deviation. Countries with 5 to 8 letters are -1 to 0
standard deviations. The one 24-letter country is >4 standard deviations
because of its extreme deviation from the mean of 8.5.

Option 5. Pretty Breaks Classification

If you want round numbers in your ranges, then you should choose pretty
breaks. All “pretty breaks” classification does is rounds each break-point up or
down. So instead of having a breakpoint of 599.364, it will become 600,000
with pretty breaks.

It’s a bit hard to see how round the numbers are (it’s grouping by 5’s) in this
example because all the examples above also produce round numbers. But
when you have large numbers like population estimates (see below), it will
generate some very pretty breaks.
Class 1: 4 – 5 (29)
Class 2: 5 – 10 (111)
Class 3: 10 – 15 (24)
Class 4: 15 – 20 (10)
Class 5: 20 – 24 (2)
As a result of making rounded numbers, pretty breaks will also be very picky
about the number of classes you decide.
Here’s how population estimates compare when you look at all the data
classification techniques:

Equal Interval:

Quantile:

Natural Breaks (Jenks):

Pretty Breaks. Now that’s pretty:

Try It Out Yourself
Choropleth maps use different shading and coloring to display the quantity or
value in defined areas.
Often the case, the map maker uses a type of data classification to produce
its own unique choropleth map. Each data classification method impacts the
reader differently.
There are several ways to classify data in a GIS. We’ve outlined their
differences with different examples for choropleth maps. Use this guide to
classify practically anything like crime rates, levels of education, and politics.
What is your favorite data classification method? Let us know with a comment
below.

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6 Comments
Roman says:
November 23, 2021 at 12:29 am

Good examples and explanations. Is there a way to create bins that have equal
variances? I guess conceptually it would be a bit of a mashup of the quantile
and standard deviation methods. Would this method be useful for certain
applications?
Sirpa says:
December 14, 2018 at 2:37 am

A clear quide and easy to follow.

One important thing this guide leaves completely out is this: to which class the
limit value belongs to?
If the classification is for example
Class 1: 4 – 8
Class 2: 8 – 12
Class 3: 12 – 16
Class 4: 16 – 20
Class 5: 20 – 24
the label claims that value 8 for example belongs both to classes 1 and 2 and
missleads the map reader.

Sanjita Dhingra says:

April 19, 2018 at 11:14 pm

Very useful, but didn’t understand the standard deviation part. How did you
get stand deviation as 3.7? Please explain.

Jocelino Júnior says:

October 30, 2017 at 7:23 am
Great article! Very clear and useful explanations on how to use data
classification methods when making choropleths maps and other data-based
works. Thank you!
jusTodd says:
August 30, 2017 at 8:56 am

Interesting, but the piece fails to discuss a very important point in

classification schemes. From a user perspective, it is always important to
remember to classify in a clearly understood format. Use of meaningless
percentages have relatively little impact. 13%, 68%, 91% make no statement to
the common reader. Conversely, 25%, 50%, 75% are immediately recognized
by most individuals and stand out and make a statement.

Nick says:
August 6, 2017 at 1:55 am

On choropleth key, please put the highest values at the top not the bottom.
Also, next to each class value put the number of items in each class (n=) so
the reader can see the distribution of the data.
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