What are Maps in Power BI?
Maps in Power BI are visualizations that allow you to display geographical data on an interactive map. They help you visualize and analyze data associated with geographic locations, such as cities, countries, or latitude/longitude coordinates. Maps provide a spatial context to your data, making it easier to understand patterns, trends, and relationships based on location.
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Key Takeaways
- Maps in Power BI help visualize geographic data for better insights. You can create maps using the Map visualization type.
- Customize the appearance of maps and add data labels for clarity.
- Different types of Power BI maps are available, including basic, filled, and custom maps.
- Accuracy and consistency in your data are crucial for meaningful map visualizations. Power BI Maps helps understand patterns and trends based on location.
How to Create Maps in Power BI?
To create maps in your workspace in Power BI, follow these steps:
Step 1: Open Power BI Desktop and open a new or any existing report to create maps.
Step 2: For creating new reports, import or connect to your data source, including geographic information (e.g., city names, latitude, longitude).
Step 3:
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane.
- Choose Map visual type.
- Drag and drop your geographic data fields (e.g., City, Country) into the appropriate fields of the map visualization.
Step 4: Navigate to the Visualizations pane, and click on the Format your visual tab to access formatting options.
You can customize the map’s appearance, such as colors, data points, legend, and tooltips.
Additionally, you can enable data labels to display information on the map visualization and configure label settings, such as font size and position.
Step 5: Use the interactive features of the map to zoom, pan, and explore data points.
Step 6: Apply filters and slicers to focus on specific data subsets.
In the next section, we will learn about different types of Maps.
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Types of Maps in Power BI
There are different types of maps you can create in Power BI, including:
- Basic Map or Bubble maps in Power BI: This map is used to link both categorical and quantitative data points with spatial locations or on a geographical map.
- ArcGIS Map: The compounding effect of ArcGIS maps, along with Power BI, takes the mapping beyond just data point presentation on the map to an astounding user experience level. The accessible features for base maps, location types, themes, symbol styles, and reference layers produce attractive, informative map visuals. The blend of authoritative information layers (such as economic data) on a map with spatial examination communicates an improved understanding of the information in your visual.
- Azure Maps in Power BI: The Azure Maps in Power BI visual offers an affluent set of information visualizations for spatial information on top of a map. Over 80 % of trade information is estimated to have a regional context. The Azure Maps might be utilized to understand how this region context narrates to and influences your trade information.
- Filled Map (Choropleth): A filled map utilizes shaded regions or tinting or patterns to represent variation in data values in proportion across different regions or geographies (e.g., countries, states). It displays the relative differences with shades ranging from light to dark, i.e. less frequent to more frequent.
- Shape Map: These maps show different color shades across regions on the map based on comparative differences between regions. It can’t display the precise geographical location of regions on the map based on input datasets. The key driver behind this map is to display a different color shade across regions based on the relative comparisons of those regions.
- Custom Maps in Power BI: You can create custom maps in Power BI through available apps in the Power BI marketplace or AppSource that offer additional mapping features, such as heat maps and custom layers.
You can also create Power Maps to plot geographic and temporal data in a 3D map or customized format that can be shared with people. You can plot a huge volume of data on Bing maps in 3D format, show the changes over time and share the guided video tours with other people.
In the next section, we will go through a few examples of how to create maps in Power BI Desktop with a step-by-step process.
Examples
In this section, we will see two examples where we will provide a step-by-step process to create bubble maps and Filled maps in Power BI.
Example #1
In this example, we will create bubble maps in the Power BI table by using Power BI Map US Data dataset containing geographical sales data in Power BI. To create bubble maps in Power BI, follow the steps below:
Step 1: Open the Power BI Desktop, import the Power BI Map US Data dataset using Data Connection and click on the Load button.
Once imported into Power BI, you will be able to view the data fields in the Fields pane.
Step 2: Navigate to the Visualizations pane and choose Map visual type.
Step 3: Drag and drop the geographical attributes from the Fields pane into the appropriate fields of the map visualization.
Step 4: Navigate to the Format your Visual tab to customize the map’s appearance, such as colors, data points, legend, and tooltips. You can enable data labels to display information directly on the map visualization and also choose to configure label settings, such as font size and position.
Once the formatting is done, you shall be able to view the bubble maps in the report canvas.
Note: Before you use the bubble maps in Power BI, you need to enable it in the Admin portal in Power BI Service. To enable Map Visual in Power BI Desktop, follow the steps below:
- Open the Power BI app service and go to settings.
- Navigate to the Admin portal – Tenant settings
- Turn the slider to Enabled to use Map and filled map visuals
Once it’s enabled, it roughly takes 15 minutes to reflect the changes to Power BI Desktop.
Once completed, you also need to enable it in Power BI Desktop using the steps below:
- Click on the File menu and select Options and settings from the available options.
- Navigate to Options and settings – Options
- Under Options, navigate to Options – Security, click on the check box for Map and Filled Map visuals, and click OK to save the changes.
Example #2
In this example, we will create a Filled map in the Power BI table by using the same data as Example 1 above. To create a Filled map in Power BI, follow the steps highlighted below:
Step 1: Open the Power BI Desktop, import the Power BI Map US Data dataset using Data Connection in Power BI, and click on the Load button.
Once imported into Power BI, you will be able to view the data fields in the Fields pane.
Step 2: Navigate to the Visualizations pane and choose Filled map visual type.
Step 3: Drag and drop the geographical attributes from the Fields pane into the appropriate fields of the map visualization.
Step 4: Navigate to the Format your visual tab to customize the appearance of the map, and data labels and configure label settings, such as font size and position.
Once the formatting is done, you shall be able to view the Filled map in Power BI Desktop in the report canvas.
Similarly, you can also create other Maps such as ArcGIS map in Power BI. To create this map:
- Choose an existing Power BI report.
- Navigate to the Visualizations pane and choose ArcGIS Maps for Power BI visual.
- Specify the geographical details of the map into the appropriate fields of the map visualization.
- Navigate to the Format visual tab to apply any formatting choices. Now you should be able to view the ArcGIS map in your report canvas.
Important Things to Note
- Ensure your dataset includes geographic data fields for the map to work effectively.
- Use consistent naming conventions for geographic data fields.
- Keep the data accurate and up-to-date for accurate map visualizations.
- Understand the map projection and coordinate systems for your data.
- Pay attention to data labeling, colors, and legends to make the map visually understandable.
- When using the Azure Maps Geographic API endpoints, ensure that your firewall is updated to enable access to the Azure Maps platform using either or all of the following URLs:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
To add data labels to maps in Power BI, follow the steps below:
• Create a new or open an existing report in Power BI Desktop. Add a map visual to your report by selecting the Map visual from the Visualizations pane.
• Drag and drop your geographical data fields (e.g., latitude, longitude) into the appropriate areas of the map visual.
• In the Visualizations pane, click on the Format Visual tab icon.
• Under the Category labels section, turn the Category labels toggle to On to show data labels on your map.
• Customize the appearance of data labels using options like font size, color, and position.
To enable ArcGIS maps in Power BI, follow the steps below:
• Open Power BI Desktop.
• Click on the File menu and select Options and settings from the available options.
• Select Options from the Options and settings menu.
• In the Options dialog box, navigate to GLOBAL – Security tab.
• Check the box Use ArcGIS for Power BI option under ArcGIS for Power BI header to enable this feature.
• Click OK to apply the changes.
Now, you should be able to use ArcGIS maps in your reports by adding the ArcGIS Map visualization from the Visualizations pane.
Due to licensing restrictions, Google Maps integration is not natively supported in Power BI. However, you can use custom visuals from the Power BI marketplace to achieve similar functionality:
• Open your Power BI report.
• Go to the Power BI marketplace.
• Search for “Google Maps” or similar terms to find custom visuals that offer Google Maps integration.
• Choose a suitable custom visual and add it to your report by clicking on Add button.
• Once successfully imported, the visual will be available in the Visualizations pane. Follow the instructions provided by the custom visual to connect it with your data and configure settings.
Overlaying maps involves placing one map on top of another to compare or analyze data across different geographic layers. It can be done using custom visuals or by creating a “synthetic” map using shapes and layers as highlighted below:
• Add a base map visual to your report using either the standard Map visualization or a custom map visual.
• Duplicate the map visual or create another map visual and configure it to display the data you want to overlay.
• Position and resize the duplicated map so that it aligns with the base map.
• Adjust transparency settings for the duplicated map if needed to make the overlay more visually clear.
Recommended Articles
This has been a guide to Maps in Power BI. Here we learn the step by step process to create bubble and filled maps in Power BI, with types & examples. You can learn more from the following articles –
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