Maps in Stata II

This guide is all about making maps in Stata. It provides a set of templates using actual data to help you guide through the process. In this guide we will learn how to produce these maps and more:

This guide is a follow up to the first map guide, where maps are introduced but their full potential is not fully explored. If you are new to maps, the first guide is highly recommended for a slow introduction! If you are looking for more advanced stuff, have a look at the Reprogramming maps guide and OSM, QGIS, and Stata integration guide.

This guide is planned to be updated intermittently with various other map types.

Last updated: October 2021

Preamble

Like other guides, a basic knowledge of Stata is assumed. In order to make the graphs exactly as they are shown here, several additional item are required:

• Install the geo2xy package which is used to change map projections:

ssc install geo2xy, replace

• In order to make the graphs exactly as they are shown here, install the schemepack suite (more info in the Scheme guide and on GitHub):

ssc install schemepack, replace

Set the schemes to one of the white background one for a clean look:

set scheme white_tableau, perm

• Install Ben Jann’s palette package (more on colors in Guide 2 and the Color guide)

ssc install palettes, replace

• Set default graph font to Arial Narrow (see the Font guide on customizing fonts)

graph set window fontface "Arial Narrow"

• For workflow management, I use the following folder structure to organize the files, and paths refer to subfolders relative to the root folder:

Using folders to organize files is important as files multiply quickly. See the Stata Workflow Guide for a detailed discussion on this.

For this guide, I would recommend dumping ALL the files in one folder. I am personally using the GIS folder in the folder hierarchy…