Creating a Simple Treemap

6. Creating a Simple Treemap

Go to the top Data Menu and select New Data Source. Select Excel and choose the 2016PopulationbyRegion.xls file. This dataset lists population totals for various regions on earth.

Again, once you are happy with your data in the data source view, you can create a new worksheet to start building a new visualization by clicking on the new worksheet icon (same as before - to the right of Sheet 3 at the bottom left-hand corner).

Treemaps help show hierarchical divisions of parts within a whole. To create a treemap in Tableau, first drag the Region variable onto the Label (text) box in the Marks card, as we’re going to separate and label each box with the Region name. Image highlighting the variable 'Region' in the Dimensions section as well as the Text box in the Marks card.

Next drag the Population variable onto the Size box as we’re going to size these regions blocks by their population. Image highlighting the variable '2016Population' in the Measures section as well as the Size box in the Marks card.

Finally, drag the Continent onto the Color box to colour code the blocks by continent. Image highlighting the variable 'Continent' in the Dimensions section as well as the Colour box in the Marks card.

You can hover over the blocks to get more information on the populations, or you could label it as well. Drag the Population variable again over the Label box to include that information under the region name. You have completed a simple treemap! Image highlighting the variable ‘2016Population’ in the Measures section, the location of the Label box in the Marks card, and the resulting tree map with the new labels.

Technique: Data Visualization | Tools: Excel, Tableau