Package

cartogram

Author

Sebastian Jeworutzki

A cartogram is a type of map where different geographic areas are modified based on a variable associated to each of those areas. While cartograms can be visually appealing, they require a previous knowledge of the geography represented, since sizes and limits of the geographies are altered.

We would use the data included on the mapSpain package, that provides map data on sf format and an example dataset pobmun19, that includes the population of Spain by municipalty as of 2019.

Base map

In first place, we would need to get the spatial data that contains the geographical information to be used on the plot. On mapSpain, we can select the provinces, that are the second-level administrative division of the country, and visualize the object with geom_sf:

# install.packages("sf")
library(sf)
# install.packages("dplyr")
library(dplyr)
# install.packages("ggplot2")
library(ggplot2)
# install.packages("mapSpain")
library(mapSpain)
# install.packages("cartogram")
library(cartogram)

# Data
prov <- esp_get_prov() %>%
  mutate(name = prov.shortname.en) %>%
  select(name, cpro)

# Base map
ggplot(prov) +
  geom_sf()

Base map of Spain in ggplot2 with mapSpain package

Projection

We are going to use the cartogram package, that is dedicated to this specific task. Since cartogram requires a projected sf object, we would project our map to the well-known Mercator projection (EPSG code: 3857).

Spain map with the Mercator projection. EPSG code: 3857

# Transform the shape
prov_3857 <- st_transform(prov, 3857)

ggplot(prov_3857) +
  geom_sf()

Join map and data

In order to create a cartogram we will need to join the statistical and the geographical data. For that purpose, as the sf objects behave as data frames, we can use the left_join function from dplyr. Since the pobmun19 dataset provides data at municipalty level, we need to aggregate this to the province level first:

# Aggregate
pop_provinces <- mapSpain::pobmun19 %>%
  group_by(cpro) %>%
  summarise(n_pop = sum(pob19))

prov_3857_data <- prov_3857 %>%
  left_join(pop_provinces, by = c("cpro"))

After merging the data sets we would have an object with the data from mapSpain::pobmun19 and a geometry column, that includes the geographical data coordinates.