As a follow up to my previous post on the US Census Tableau web data connector I created, I wanted to also share another web data connector that allows Tableau users to selectively import Census Tract shapes for mapping within Tableau.

The Census Tract is a key geography within US Census data, and it is the one that my commute map was based on. I wanted to figure out how to map at this level as I played with the census data so I could drill down below the county level using the built-in Tableau maps.

The elusive census tract “shapefiles” seemed mysterious, but it also seemed like there could only be one real logical way to store and communicate this info: with a series of coordinates (latitude and longitude in this case) that define a shape. After finding a website dedicated to this topic, I downloaded its very helpful Tableau workbook that had shapefiles for all census tracts in the US. This can be used to get the info you need, and it is what I imported into my SQL server and used to feed my web data connector.

However, I thought this web data connector might be slightly more elegant and easy to use than pulling the info from this master file. In the example below, I’m adding census tract mapping data and building a heat map for a Tableau worksheet that I used to import census data at the census tract level for the state of Michigan. I imported the percentage of homes built before 1939. See my previous post on how to do this.

Mapping Census Tracts Using the Web Data Connector

To use the census tract shapefile web data connector, “add a connection” to your workbook. For the URL, enter:

bigbytes.mobyus.com/tableau/censustractshapeswdc11.aspx

After a few seconds, an interface will pop up and allow you to choose the state, county, or individual census tract you’d like to download shapefiles for.

Select your criteria and click on “Retrieve Census Tract Shapefile Data”.

As the data is loaded, Tableau will ask you to define the relationship between the tract level data you had in your workbook and the new shapefile information. The GEOID column contains the identifier for the shape information. If you used my census data connector to import the census data, then use the value “FIPS” from that table and, as indicated, “GEOID” for the shape table info.

As the data is loaded, Tableau will ask you to define the relationship between the tract level data you had in your workbook and the new shapefile information. The GEOID column contains the identifier for the shape information. If you used my census data connector to import the census data, then use the value “FIPS” from that table and, as indicated, “GEOID” for the shape table info. This will establish the link between the two tables you now have in your Tableau workbook. Click on “update now” to finish creating the table with the shape information.

Now create a sheet. Right click on “PointOrder” and change it to a dimension. Right click on PointLatitude and change it to “Geographic Role –> Latitude” and do the same for PointLongitude, changing it to “Geographic Role –> Longitude”. Double-click on each of these to add them each to the sheet.

Now create a sheet. Right click on “PointOrder” and change it to a dimension. Right click on PointLatitude and change it to “Geographic Role –> Latitude” and do the same for PointLongitude, changing it to “Geographic Role –> Longitude”. Double-click on each of these to add them each to the sheet. Right click on the measure you want to map (we’ll assume a heat map) and select “Add to sheet”.

On the “Marks” card, change the dropdown value at top to “Polygon”.Drag the dimension “PointOrder” and drop it on the “Path” icon on the Marks card. This tells Tableau the order in which to draw connected points on the map.

Drag the GEOID dimension onto the bottom area of the Marks card.

Drag the SubPolygonId dimension onto the bottom area of the Marks card. As a quick aside, I wondered why this value is needed and it is because it defines the areas (which are polygons) and it is only really needed when the shape for a particular census tract has non-contiguous regions. That is, completely separate regions that need to be defined and shaded, but are part of the same defined census tract.

Finally, click on the control directly to the left of the measure you added to the Marks card and select “Color”.

Your “Marks” card should look like the example below.

If everything went according to plan, you should have a heat map displayed like the one shown above. In the example above, the dark blue regions have higher percentages of home built before 1939 and the lighter regions have lower percentages. If you don’t have this… well, leave a comment or email me and I’ll see if we can figure it out.

Hope this new shapefile source adds a tiny bit of extra functionality to Tableau for those of you who work with data by census tract. Please feel free to comment or email me if you have questions or suggestions. Thanks.