Simple Thematic Mapping

in Stata

3rd German Stata Users

Group Meeting
Berlin, 8 April 2005

Maurizio Pisati
University of Milano Bicocca – Italy
maurizio.pisati@unimib.it
Thematic maps

 Thematic maps represent the spatial

distribution of one or more variables of interest
within a given geographical unit
Thematic maps

 Examples:
– A sociologist could use a choropleth map (a.k.a.
shaded map) to show how the percentage of
families below the poverty line varies across the
states or the provinces of a given country
– A police officer could be interested in analyzing a
dot map showing the locations of drug markets
within a given city
Software for thematic mapping

 Usually, to produce state-of-the-art thematic

maps one has to resort to specialized software
(e.g., ArcView, MapInfo)
 In some cases, however, it is possible to
exploit the graphical engine of a general-
purpose statistical package to draw simple but
effective thematic maps
Stata’s mapping capabilities

 Up until version 7, Stata offered very limited

mapping capabilities
 On the other hand, the graphical engine
introduced in Stata 8 is quite flexible and
makes it possible to draw several kinds of
maps in a relatively simple manner
The tmap package

 The tmap package is a suite of Stata programs

designed to draw five kinds of thematic map:
– Choropleth maps
– Proportional symbol maps
– Deviation maps
– Dot maps
– Label maps
The tmap package

 Choropleth, proportional symbol, and deviation

maps are intended to depict area data
 Dot maps are suitable for representing point
data
 Label maps can be used to show data of both
types
The tmap package

 The tmap package exploits the possibility –

offered by the new Stata graphical engine – to
overlay a large number of different graphs,
each of which is used to create a distinct
element of the desired map
The tmap package

 Specifically:
– graph twoway area is used to draw the outlines
of the geographical areas of interest and to fill them
with the appropriate colors
– graph twoway scatter is used to plot the
proper symbols or labels when required
Required datasets

 To use tmap, one typically needs two Stata

datasets:
– The master dataset
– The boundary dataset
Master dataset

 The master dataset is intended to store the

spatial data to be represented
 It is a standard cases-by-variables dataset
whose rows represent the geographical areas
or locations objects of analysis
Master dataset: example

id land turnout

1 Baden-Wuerttemberg 62.6
2 Bayern 57.1
3 Bremen 61.3
4 Hamburg 68.7
5 Hessen 64.6
6 Niedersachsen 67.0
7 Nordrhein-Westfalen 56.7
8 Rheinland-Pfalz 62.1
9 Saarland 55.5
10 Schleswig-Holstein 66.5
11 Brandenburg 56.4
12 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 70.6
13 Sachsen 59.6
14 Sachsen-Anhalt 56.5
15 Thueringen 53.8
16 Berlin 68.1
Boundary dataset

 The boundary dataset is intended to store the

geographical boundaries of the whole
geographical unit of interest R or of its sub-
areas Ai (i = 1,…,n)
Boundary dataset

 The boundary dataset must always include

the following three variables:
– _ID, which contains the numeric identifier of R or of
each sub-area Ai
– _X, which contains the x-coordinates of the polygon
or polygons that make up R or each sub-area Ai
– _Y, which contains the y-coordinates of the polygon
or polygons that make up R or each sub-area Ai
Boundary dataset

 If one or more of the sub-areas Ai are “islands”,

i.e., are completely surrounded by the territory
of another sub-area, then the boundary
dataset must include an additional variable:
– _ISLAND, which takes value 1 when the
corresponding sub-area is an “island”, and value 0
otherwise
Boundary dataset

 The boundary dataset must always be sorted

by variable _ID
Boundary dataset

 Each polygon included in the boundary

dataset must be defined by 1+k+1 records,
each of which corresponds to a proper pair of
(x,y) coordinates
Boundary dataset

 The first record denotes the beginning of a new

polygon and corresponds to a missing
coordinate pair (.,.)
Boundary dataset

 The 2nd to (k+1)th records denote the k nodes

of the polygon and correspond to the k
coordinate pairs (x,y) that define such nodes
 These records must be arranged so as to
correspond to consecutive nodes
Boundary dataset

 The last record denotes the end of the polygon

and corresponds to a coordinate pair which is
an exact replica of the first node of the polygon
Boundary dataset: example

A3

A2

A1 A1
Boundary dataset: example
+-------------------------+
| _ID _X _Y _ISLAND |
|-------------------------|
| 1 . . 0 | <- Polygon 1: start
| 1 10 10 0 |
| 1 10 30 0 |
| 1 18 30 0 |
| 1 18 10 0 |
| 1 10 10 0 | <- Polygon 1: end
| 1 . . 0 | <- Polygon 2: start
| 1 22 10 0 |
| 1 22 30 0 |
| 1 30 30 0 |
| 1 30 10 0 |
| 1 22 10 0 | <- Polygon 2: end
|-------------------------|
| 2 . . 0 | <- Polygon 3: start
| 2 10 30 0 |
| 2 10 50 0 |
| 2 30 50 0 |
| 2 30 30 0 |
| 2 10 30 0 | <- Polygon 3: end
|-------------------------|
| 3 . . 1 | <- Polygon 4: start
| 3 22 48 1 |
| 3 28 48 1 |
| 3 28 42 1 |
| 3 22 42 1 |
| 3 22 48 1 | <- Polygon 4: start
+-------------------------+
Boundary dataset: mif2dta

 mif2dta is a simple Stata program that converts

MapInfo Interchange Format boundary files into Stata
boundary datasets
 mif2dta converts any given pair of files
rootname.mif and rootname.mid into a new pair of
Stata datasets: rootname-Coordinates.dta (the
boundary dataset) and rootname-Database.dta (the
master dataset)
 Optionally, mif2dta also computes the coordinates of
the centroids of the geographical areas of interest
Boundary dataset: shapefiles

 To convert a shapefile into a Stata boundary

dataset:
– Convert the shapefile of interest into the proper pair
of MIF files (e.g., using the freeware DOS program
shp2mif.exe)
– Use mif2dta to convert the MIF files into the
corresponding Stata master and boundary datasets
tmap choropleth

 tmap choropleth represents the spatial

distribution of area data by means of
choropleth maps, i.e., maps where each of n
sub-areas is colored (or shaded) according to a
discrete scale based on the value taken on by
a quantitative variable of interest in that sub-
area
tmap choropleth

 The number of classes that make up the

discrete scale must be between 2 and 9
 The corresponding class breaks can be based
on four different criteria:
– Quantiles
– Equal intervals
– Standard deviates
– Custom
tmap choropleth: example

tmap choropleth spd2, ///

id(id) map(Germany-Coordinates.dta) ///
clmethod(quantile) clnumber(4) ///
palette(Reds) ///
title("Pct. votes for SPD at latest election") ///
subtitle("(Two-party share)") ///
legpos(5)
tmap propsymbol

 tmap propsymbol represents the spatial

distribution of area data by means of
proportional symbol maps, i.e., maps where
the value taken on by a quantitative variable of
interest in each of n sub-areas is represented
by a symbol whose size is proportional to the
value itself
tmap propsymbol: example

tmap propsymbol spd2, ///

x(x_coord) y(y_coord) ///
map(Germany-Coordinates.dta) ///
scolor(red) sshape(O) ssize(1.2) ///
ocolor(white) fcolor(sand) ///
title("Pct. votes for SPD at latest election") ///
subtitle("(Two-party share)") ///
note("Symbol size proportional to variable value", span)
tmap deviation

 tmap deviation represents the spatial

distribution of area data by means of deviation
maps, a particular kind of proportional symbol
maps where:
– symbol size expresses the absolute deviation of the
quantitative variable of interest from its mean or
median
– symbol fill expresses the sign of the deviation
(positive or negative)
 tmap deviation: example

tmap deviation spd2, ///

x(x_coord) y(y_coord) ///
map(Germany-Coordinates.dta) ///
scolor(blue) sshape(O) ssize(1.2) ///
ocolor(white) fcolor(bluishgray) ///
title("Pct. votes for SPD at latest election") ///
subtitle("(Two-party share)") ///
note(`"`"Solid circles denote positive deviations from the mean"'"' ///
`"`"Hollow circles denote negative deviations from the mean"'"' ///
`"`"Circle size proportional to absolute value of deviation"'"', ///
span)
tmap label

 tmap label is an auxiliary program that

allows the user to superimpose onto a base
map the values taken on by a numeric or string
variable at different locations
 This program can be used, for example, to plot
sub-area names or to represent the spatial
distribution of a given quantitative variable of
interest in numeric form
tmap label: example

tmap label state, ///

x(x_coord) y(y_coord) ///
map(Germany-Coordinates.dta) ///
lcolor(red) llength(30) lsize(0.8) ///
ocolor(sienna) fcolor(eggshell) ///
title("Länder")
tmap dot

 tmap dot represents the spatial distribution of

point data by means of dot maps, i.e., maps
where the locations at which some “events” of
interest have occurred are indicated by
symbols whose color and/or shape can vary
according to the type of “event”
tmap dot: example

tmap dot, ///

x(x) y(y) ///
map("MilanoOutline-Coordinates.dta") ///
by(type) ///
fcolor(stone) ///
title("Location of police stations") ///
subtitle(`"`"Milano, 2004"'"') ///
legtitle("Police force", size(*0.7)) ///
legbox(lc(black))
 tmap choropleth: more examples

tmap choropleth murder if conterminous, ///

id(id) map(Us48-Coordinates.dta) ///
palette(Blues) ocolor(white) bcolor(navy) ///
title(`"`"Murders per 100,000 population & Pct. pop. with high school diploma"'"', ///
color(white) span) subtitle("United States 1994", color(white)) ///
legbox(lc(white) fc(navy) margin(medsmall)) ///
legpos(5) legcol(white) ///
legtitle("Murder rate", color(white) size(*0.8)) ///
addplot(deviation hsdip if conterminous, x(x) y(y) sc(red) ssi(0.8)) ///
note(`"`"Circles represent pct. pop. with high school diploma"'"' ///
`"`"Solid circles denote positive deviations from the mean"'"' ///
`"`"Hollow circles denote negative deviations from the mean"'"' ///
`"`"Circle size proportional to absolute value of deviation"'"', ///
color(white) span)
tmap choropleth: more examples

tmap choropleth winner if conterminous, ///

id(id) map(Us48-Coordinates.dta) ///
clmethod(unique) ///
palette(Custom) colors(`"`"203 24 29"'"' navy) ///
title(US Presidential Elections 2004) ///
subtitle(Pct. votes for Bush) ///
legpos(5) legsize(1.2) ///
legtitle("Winner", size(*0.8)) legcount ///
addplot(label votebushpct if conterminous, ///
x(x) y(y) lc(gs14) ls(0.9))
tmap and spatial data analysis

 tmap can be used to display results produced

by other Stata programs, e.g., spatial data
analysis programs
 What follows is an example of a choropleth
map + LISA cluster map (Anselin 1995) created
using a combination of tmap and a modified
version of spatlsa
European Parliament Elections 2004 - Lombardia
Pct. votes for Northern League
Ackowledgments

 The color schemes used in tmap

choropleth were designed by Dr. Cynthia A.
Brewer, Department of Geography, The
Pennsylvania State University, University Park,
Pennsylvania, USA. The color schemes are
used with Dr. Brewer’s permission and are
from the ColorBrewer map design tool
available at ColorBrewer.org
Ackowledgments

 I wish to thank Nick Cox and Ian S. Evans for

helping improve the first release of tmap
 The second release owes much to ideas and
suggestions by Nick Cox and Vince Wiggins
 Any remaining errors and limitations are mine