What is a scatter map?

A scatter map plots a point at each location in your data, on top of a real map, instead of shading entire regions. Point size and color both reflect a measure's value, so it's the chart type for seeing exact locations and their relative weight at a glance - cities, countries, or any place name the chart can find a coordinate for.

How is a scatter map different from a choropleth map?

A choropleth map shades entire region boundaries - useful when the geographic area itself carries meaning. A scatter map plots a single point per location, sized and colored by value - useful when you care about specific places rather than the regions containing them, or when your data is city-level rather than region-level and shading a whole country or state would be misleading.

Can I size points by one measure and color them by another?

Yes. Assign one Row field for the main value, which drives point color through the Visual Map gradient. Optionally add a second Row field, which drives point size independently. Without a second field, the same value drives both color and size.

Why don't all my locations show up as points?

A point only appears if the chart can match your location name to a known coordinate. Names that don't match closely enough to a recognized city or country are skipped entirely, with no point drawn - unlike a choropleth map, where an unmatched region simply keeps its default fill color and stays visible on the map.

How does the chart pick the underlying map?

Map Region in Map Settings lets you choose explicitly from 8 maps - World, India, USA, UK, Australia, UAE, China, or Europe. Pick the one that matches your data's geography; there's no auto-detection fallback for Scatter Map the way there is for Choropleth Map.

Can viewers pan and zoom the map?

Yes, by default. Enable Pan/Zoom in Map Settings controls this - when on, viewers can drag to pan and scroll to zoom.

When should I use a scatter map instead of a choropleth map?

Use a scatter map when your data is at the city or point level, or when you want to compare specific locations without implying that an entire region shares the same value. Use a choropleth map when the data genuinely applies to a whole region - state, country, district - and shading that region's full boundary is the right way to show it.

Scatter Map | Edilitics Docs

Plot locations as sized, colored points on a real map. Best for city or country-level data where exact point locations matter more than shaded regions.

A scatter map plots a point at each location in your data on top of a real map, sized and colored by a measure's value. Drop exactly one categorical field with location names into Column, and one or two numeric fields into Row - the first drives color, an optional second drives size independently. Use it when specific locations matter more than shaded region boundaries.

Loading map…

When to Use

A scatter map answers "where exactly is this happening, and how much" at the level of individual places - cities, countries, named locations - rather than entire regions. It's the right choice when shading a whole state or country would overstate what the data actually says, or when the data was never region-level to begin with.

A point only appears if its name resolves to a known coordinate. Unlike a choropleth map, where an unmatched region just keeps its default fill color, an unmatched location on a scatter map draws no point at all. Check Map Region matches your data's geography before assuming a missing point is a data problem.

Switch to a different chart when:

Your data genuinely applies to whole regions, not individual points - use Choropleth Map
Precise ranking matters more than geography - use Horizontal Bar
You're comparing two numeric measures with no geographic dimension - use Scatter Plot

Scenario	Dimension (Location)	Measure(s)
Revenue by major city	City	Revenue
Office locations by headcount	City	Headcount
Warehouse footprint by capacity and utilization	City	Capacity (color), Utilization (size)
Customer concentration by country	Country	Customer count
Event attendance by venue city	City	Attendees (color), Repeat visitors (size)

Required Inputs

Field	Type	Count
Dimension (Location)	Categorical	Exactly 1
Measure (Color value)	Numeric	Exactly 1
Measure (Size value)	Numeric	Optional, exactly 1

When only one measure is assigned, it drives both point color and point size. Add a second measure to size points independently of their color.

For step-by-step build instructions, see Build Your First Chart.

Formatting Options

The Format tab unlocks after the location field and at least one measure are assigned.

Style

Use the chart title to state what the color and size represent, since neither carries units on its own.

Control	What it does
Show Chart Title	Shows or hides the title.
Enter Chart Title	Title text. Maximum 50 characters.
Font family	Font applied to the title.
Font size	5 to 30.
Bold / Italic	Weight and style.
Alignment	Left, center, or right within the chart container.

Map Settings chooses the base map and controls its pan/zoom behavior and region styling. Region label controls from Choropleth Map don't apply here, since the geography is just a backdrop for the points.

Control	What it does
Map Region	World, India, USA, UK, Australia, UAE, China, or Europe. Switches the entire underlying map. There's no auto-detection fallback - pick the map that matches your data directly.
Enable Pan/Zoom	Lets viewers drag to pan and scroll to zoom. On by default.
Initial Zoom	1x to 5x. The map's starting zoom level.
Border Width / Border Color	The line separating underlying map regions from each other.
Default Area Color	Fill color for the underlying map regions. Transparent by default, since the points - not the regions - carry the data.
Low Value Color / High Value Color	The point color gradient's two ends. Same setting as Visual Map's Low/High Value Color below - both write to the same gradient.

Scatter Settings controls the points themselves - size range, ripple effect, and labels.

Control	What it does
Ripple Effect	Animates each point with an expanding ring, drawing attention to active locations. Off by default.
Show Labels	Prints each location's name below its point.
Label Color / Label Font Size	Styling for location labels, shown only when Show Labels is on.
Min Point Size / Max Point Size	The pixel range points are scaled into, based on the size measure's value.

Labels render below each point rather than to the side, specifically to reduce overlap when points sit close together.

Visual Map is the color legend explaining the gradient applied to point color - driven by the first Row measure, independent of size.

Control	What it does
Show Visual Map	Shows or hides the legend. The coloring still applies either way.
Orientation	Vertical or horizontal placement of the legend.
Vertical / Horizontal Position	Where the legend sits within the chart area.
Interactive Range	When on (default), viewers can drag the legend's handles to narrow the highlighted value range.
Low Value Color / High Value Color	The gradient's two ends - the same setting exposed in Map Settings above.

Interactivity

The tooltip appears on hover over a point, showing its location name and color value.

Control	What it does
Show Tooltip	Shows or hides the tooltip entirely.
Header / value text styling	Font, size, and color for the lines shown in the tooltip.

Animation controls the transition when the chart first renders or the data changes.

Control	What it does
Enable Animation	Turns the transition animation on or off.
Duration	How long the transition takes.
Delay	How long the transition waits before starting.
Easing Function	The transition curve.

Enable the Toolbox when viewers need to export the chart or inspect its underlying data.

Control	What it does
Show Toolbox	Shows or hides the toolbox icon bar.
Save as Image	Adds a download icon that saves the chart as a PNG.
Data View	Adds an icon that opens the underlying data table in a separate view.

Best Practices

Pick Map Region explicitly - there's no auto-detection to fall back on. Choropleth Map can guess a more specific map from your region names when left on World; Scatter Map can't. If your data is India-level city data, select India directly, or points may fail to resolve coordinates on the wrong map.

Use the location's actual name, not an abbreviation, for the most reliable point matching. "Mumbai" resolves correctly; an unusual abbreviation or misspelling may not match any known coordinate, and a location that doesn't match draws no point at all - it won't show up as a default-colored placeholder the way an unmatched choropleth region does.

Add a second measure for size only when it adds real information. A single measure driving both color and size is the right default - reach for a second measure when the two genuinely diverge, like coloring by revenue while sizing by customer count, so the two visual signals aren't just restating each other.

Turn on Ripple Effect sparingly. It's effective for drawing the eye to a handful of standout locations, but on a map with dozens of points, the animation becomes visual noise rather than emphasis.

Switch to Choropleth Map if you find yourself wanting every point covered by a region. A scatter map's points sit on top of a backdrop map - they don't communicate area or boundary. If the underlying region itself is part of the insight, shading it directly says that more clearly than a point ever can.

FAQs

Need help? Email support@edilitics.com with your workspace, job ID, and context. We reply within one business day.

Scatter Map