Create Choropleth Map of Population Density

Prepare Data

Prepare the data to use in the examples.

Import a shapefile containing population density data for each US state. The shapefile represents the states using polygon shapes in geographic coordinates.

states = readgeotable("usastatelo.shp");

Create a subtable that includes New York and the states in New England.

names = ["New York" "Maine" "New Hampshire" "Vermont" "Massachusetts" ...
    "Connecticut" "Rhode Island"];
rows = ismember(states.Name,names);
NEstates = states(rows,:);

Create Map Using Map Axes

Create a choropleth map using a map axes object.

Set up a map using a projected coordinate reference system (CRS) that is appropriate for the conterminous United States. Create the CRS using the EPSG code 26918, which uses a Transverse Mercator projection.

figure
proj = projcrs(26918);
newmap(proj)

Display the state polygons on the map. Specify the colors using the population data in the table.

geoplot(NEstates,ColorVariable="PopDens2000")

Create a colormap with colors that transition from yellow to red. Apply the colormap to the map axes. Then, add a color bar and a title.

cmap = flipud(autumn(height(NEstates)));
colormap(cmap)

colorbar
title("Population Density in 2000")

Adjust the geographic limits.

geolimits([40 48],[-76 -68])

Create Map Using axesm-Based Map

Create a map using a projection that is appropriate for the conterminous United States. Use an Albers Equal Area Conic projection, and specify latitude and longitude limits for a region in the northeast United States.

figure
axesm("MapProjection","eqaconic","MapParallels",[], ...
  "MapLatLimit",[41 48],"MapLonLimit",[-74 -66])

Assign colors to the polygons based on the population density by creating a symbol specification. Specify the colors using a colormap that transitions from yellow to red.

maxdensity = max([NEstates.PopDens2000]);
cmap = flipud(autumn(height(NEstates)));
polyColors = makesymbolspec("Polygon", ...
    {"PopDens2000",[0 maxdensity],"FaceColor",cmap});

Display the state polygons on the map. Specify the colors using the symbol specification.

geoshow(NEstates,"SymbolSpec",polyColors)

Apply the colormap to the axes. Then, add a color bar and a title.

colormap(cmap)

colorbar
clim([0 maxdensity])
title("Population Density in 2000")