TREEMAPS in ggplot2 with treemapify

Package

Author

David Wilkins

Sample data

The following data frame with three columns containing the group and the subgroup of different measures will be used in this tutorial.

group <- paste("Group", 1:9)
subgroup <- c("A", "C", "B", "A", "A",
              "C", "C", "B", "B")
value <- c(7, 25, 50, 5, 16,
           18, 30, 12, 41)

df <- data.frame(group, subgroup, value)

Basic treemaps with `geom_treemap`

Fill by the categorical variable

The treemapify package allows creating treemaps in ggplot2. You will need to specify the variables inside aes as follows and use geom_treemap.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = group)) +
  geom_treemap()

Basic treemap in R

Fill by the numerical variable

Note that you can also fill the areas based on the numerical variable depending on what you are trying to represent.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = value)) +
  geom_treemap()

Treemap with treemapify

Adding labels to the tiles

Adding text to a treemap in R

Passing a variable to the label argument of aes and using geom_treemap_text you will be able to add labels to each tile of the treemap.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = group, label = value)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text()

Treemap text customization

The labels can be customized with several arguments. Type ?geom_treemap_text for the full list.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = group, label = value)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white",
                    place = "centre",
                    size = 15)

Adding groups and values to the tiles of the treemap

You can also add the labels and the groups at the same time and remove the legend if needed.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = group,
               label = paste(group, value, sep = "\n"))) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white",
                    place = "centre",
                    size = 15) +
  theme(legend.position = "none")

Treemap filled with continuous palette

If you passed the numerical variable to fill you can pass the groups to label.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = value, label = group)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white",
                    place = "centre",
                    size = 15)

Fit the text inside the tiles of the treemap

Note that there is a logical argument named grow that can be set to TRUE to fit the text to the tiles.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = value, label = group)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white",
                    place = "centre",
                    size = 15,
                    grow = TRUE)

Treemap in treemapify with subgroups

Adding subgroup labels

If your data set contains a column representing subgroups you can add them to the plot with subgroup and geom_treemap_subgroup_text. The border of the subgroups can be modified with geom_treemap_subgroup_border.

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = value,
               label = group, subgroup = subgroup)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_subgroup_border(colour = "white", size = 5) +
  geom_treemap_subgroup_text(place = "centre", grow = TRUE,
                             alpha = 0.25, colour = "black",
                             fontface = "italic") +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white", place = "centre",
                    size = 15, grow = TRUE)

You can add up to three subgroups with subgroup2, geom_treemap_subgroup2_border and geom_treemap_subgroup2_text and subgroup3, geom_treemap_subgroup3_border and geom_treemap_subgroup3_text.

Color customization

The colors of the treemap can be customized with a color scale. The choice will depend on the data you pass to fill (continuous or discrete). You can check a couple of examples below.

Continuous

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = value, label = group)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = c(rep("white", 2),
                               1, rep("white", 6)),
                    place = "centre", size = 15) +
  scale_fill_viridis_c()

Change the color palette of a treemap in ggplot2

Discrete

# install.packages("treemapify")
library(treemapify)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(df, aes(area = value, fill = group, label = value)) +
  geom_treemap() +
  geom_treemap_text(colour = "white",
                    place = "centre",
                    size = 15) +
  scale_fill_brewer(palette = "Blues")

Change the colors of the treemap when using the treemapify R package