Geospatial
Dot Map
One dot per occurrence, showing density and distribution of point events.
Business Locations
60 coffee shops, restaurants, and bars across the US
View data (62 rows)
| Type | Location |
|---|---|
| Coffee | New York |
| Bar | Brooklyn |
| Restaurant | Jersey City |
| Coffee | Newark |
| Restaurant | Boston |
| Coffee | Cambridge |
| Bar | Providence |
| Restaurant | Hartford |
| Bar | Philadelphia |
| Restaurant | Baltimore |
| Coffee | Washington DC |
| Bar | Arlington |
| Restaurant | Richmond |
| Coffee | Charlotte |
| Bar | Raleigh |
| Restaurant | Atlanta |
| Coffee | Charleston |
| Restaurant | Jacksonville |
| Coffee | Orlando |
| Bar | Miami |
| Restaurant | Tampa |
| Bar | Nashville |
| Restaurant | Memphis |
| Coffee | Louisville |
| Restaurant | Indianapolis |
| Bar | Cincinnati |
| Coffee | Columbus |
| Restaurant | Cleveland |
| Bar | Pittsburgh |
| Restaurant | Detroit |
| Restaurant | Chicago |
| Bar | Milwaukee |
| Coffee | Madison |
| Restaurant | Minneapolis |
| Coffee | St. Paul |
| Bar | St. Louis |
| Restaurant | Kansas City |
| Coffee | Omaha |
| Bar | Des Moines |
| Restaurant | Dallas |
| Coffee | Fort Worth |
| Coffee | Austin |
| Restaurant | San Antonio |
| Restaurant | Houston |
| Bar | New Orleans |
| Coffee | Oklahoma City |
| Bar | Denver |
| Coffee | Boulder |
| Restaurant | Salt Lake City |
| Coffee | Phoenix |
| Restaurant | Tucson |
| Bar | Las Vegas |
| Coffee | Albuquerque |
| Coffee | San Diego |
| Coffee | Los Angeles |
| Bar | Long Beach |
| Coffee | San Jose |
| Restaurant | San Francisco |
| Bar | Oakland |
| Coffee | Sacramento |
| Coffee | Portland |
| Coffee | Seattle |
Use a dot map when…
- Individual event locations
- Crime maps, store locations, species sightings
Avoid when…
- Aggregated regional data (use choropleth)
- Very dense data (overlapping dots)
Data it needs
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Min Rows | 5 |
| Min Columns | 3 |
| Column Types | stringnumbernumber |
| Notes | Two of the columns are longitude and latitude (or a place-name string the renderer geocodes); the third is an optional category. |
Visual anatomy
Marks
circle
Channels
position (lat/lon)color-hue
Axes
geographic coordinates
Guiding principles
Consider instead
Common mistakes
Overplotting in dense areas
No basemap context
History
John Snow's 1854 cholera map is the most famous early dot map.
Accessibility notes
Pair category color with shape or label so readers who can't distinguish hues still get the encoding. Provide a sorted location/category text list as alternative.
Related reading
Got data? Let's see what works.
Drop your CSV. You'll get a Dot Map plus four alternatives - ranked by which one actually fits your data best.