Simple Thematic Mapping

Abstract

Thematic maps illustrate the spatial distribution of one or more variables of interest within a given geographic unit. In a sense, a thematic map is the spatial analyst's equivalent to the scatterplot in nonspatial analysis. This paper presents the tmap package, a set of Stata programs designed to draw five kinds of thematic maps: choropleth, proportional symbol, deviation, dot, and label maps. The first three kinds of maps are intended to depict area data, the fourth is suitable for representing point data, and the fifth can be used to show data of both types.

Keywords

gr0008 tmap choropleth tmap propsymbol tmap deviation tmap dot tmap label thematic map choropleth map proportional symbol map deviation map dot map label map

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