2D Density Chart


This section explains how to build a 2d density chart or a 2d histogram with python. Those chart types allow to visualize the combined distribution of two quantitative variables. They can be build with Matplotlib or Seaborn.

💡 What is a 2D density chart?

There are several chart types allowing to visualize the distribution of a combination of 2 numeric variables. They always have a variable represented on the X axis, the other on the Y axis, like for a scatterplot (left).

Then the number of observations within a particular area of the 2D space is counted and represented with a color gradient. The shape can vary: hexagones result in a hexbin chart, squares in a 2d histogram. A kernel density estimate can be used to get a 2d density plots or a contour plots

Confusing? Visit data-to-viz to clarify..

Seaborn logoContour plot with Seaborn

The contour plot can be easily built thanks to the kdeplot() function of the Seaborn library.

Seaborn logo2D histogram with Seaborn

Build a 2d histogram thanks to the hist2d() function of the Seaborn library. Do not forget to play with the bins argument to find the value representing the best your data.

Matplotlib logo2d density and marginal plots

2D densities often combined with marginal distributions. It helps to highlight the distribution of both variables individually. It is pretty straightforward to add thanks to the jointplot() function of the Seaborn library.

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👋 This document is a work by Yan Holtz. You can contribute on github, send me a feedback on twitter or subscribe to the newsletter to know when new examples are published! 🔥