Hawaiʻi Web GIS

Demonstration 04

Choropleth renderer

A choropleth shades each area by a data value. Pick an attribute and the map sorts the counties into five color classes — darker means more. This is the technique at the heart of thematic mapping, and the one my graduate work leaned on most.

Population

Data: 2020 U.S. Census, Hawaiʻi Statewide GIS Program (public domain). Classification: quantile breaks, 5 classes.

Notice how the story changes with the attribute. By raw population, Honolulu County dominates; switch to density and the contrast between urban Oʻahu and the rural neighbor islands sharpens. Same geography, different question.