Map chart race
A choropleth that animates over time, with world, regional, and country maps down to US county and Indian district level — plus a dot-density mode.
Choosing a map
A map race colours regions by value and animates the colouring over time. The map is chosen when the project is created.
Four kinds are available. The world map, optionally scoped to a continent or sub-region. More than 70 country maps, each broken into its own internal divisions — states, provinces, departments. All 50 US states at county level. And Indian states at district level.
Your spreadsheet's item names must match the map's region names for values to land. If a region stays blank, that mismatch is almost always the reason — US counties resolve by FIPS code, and Indian districts by their 2011 Census code as well as by name.
The legend and colour scale
The Legend panel is where a map race is won or lost. Min Color and Max Color define the ramp, and No Data Color sets what a region with no value looks like.
That last one matters more than it sounds: leaving missing regions the same colour as low values silently misrepresents your data. Give "no data" a visibly distinct colour — grey is conventional.
Legend Item Count sets how many steps the scale is divided into, Minimal Value sets its floor, and the orientation, size, gap, and font controls handle placement and styling.
Labelling regions
Three panels label the map, and each has a Visibility Threshold — the setting that keeps a world map from becoming unreadable.
Area Names draws region names, with font, colour, line height, and a shadow for legibility over varied fills. Area Values draws the number, with the same styling plus Value Animation. Area Images places a flag or logo, with Image Placement, width, and height.
The thresholds suppress labels on regions too small to hold them. On a world map, leaving every label on produces a solid mass of text over Europe.
Dot density mode
The Dot Density panel switches the map from a colour fill to scattered dots, where 1 Dot Equals a fixed quantity.
This suits counts rather than rates — population, cases, units sold — because dots accumulate visibly as values grow. Dot Size, Dot Color, and New Dot Animation control the appearance and how new dots arrive.
A choropleth showing a raw count can mislead, since a large region looks more significant than a small one with the same value. Dot density largely avoids that problem.
Borders and the advanced variant
The Area Borders panel sets Border Width and Border Color. On a dense map, thin light borders separate regions without competing with the data.
Advanced map chart race is a separate, Pro-only project type that adds richer per-region overlays pinned to the map. Use it only when the standard map race is not expressive enough — it is more work to configure.
For country and region datasets, also consider bar + map chart race, covered in combination charts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Some regions stay blank. Why?
Almost always a name mismatch between your spreadsheet and the map's region names. Check the exact spelling the map expects — 'USA' and 'United States' are not interchangeable.
Should we use colour fill or dot density?
Colour for rates and per-capita figures, dots for raw counts. A choropleth of a raw count exaggerates large regions; dot density does not.
The map is covered in labels. What should we change?
Raise the Visibility Threshold on Area Names, Area Values, and Area Images. Each is independent, so you can show values everywhere but names only on larger regions.
Can we map a single country's internal regions?
Yes — more than 70 countries are available with their internal divisions, chosen at project creation. US states go a level deeper to counties, and Indian states to districts.
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