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North Carolina County Map Maker

A blank North Carolina county map to print, and a builder to fill it with your own data. Download the free outline of all 100 counties, or upload a spreadsheet and publish an interactive North Carolina map you can embed anywhere.

North Carolina 空白地图,免费下载

全部 100 个counties,线条干净的轮廓图。可打印、可填色、可放进文档——无需注册,也无需署名。

North Carolina 空白轮廓地图,包含全部counties

任何用途均可免费使用,包括商用与课堂。由编辑器所用的同一套边界数据生成。

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North Carolina 地图能看出什么

North Carolina divides into 100 counties, and the state is unusually well suited to a county map because its geography is genuinely banded. The map runs west to east through three regions that behave differently on almost every measure: the mountain counties around Asheville and the Blue Ridge, the Piedmont crescent that carries Charlotte, the Triad and the Research Triangle, and the coastal plain and Outer Banks. Population sits overwhelmingly in the middle band — Mecklenburg and Wake together hold about a fifth of the state — while the eastern and western counties are smaller, older and more rural. Because those three regions are contiguous rather than scattered, a shaded county map of North Carolina tends to show clean bands rather than noise, which makes it one of the more persuasive state maps you can build.

North Carolina 的三种画法

数值是比率时给区域填色,是计数时用大小不同的标记。把这两者用反,是数据地图最常见的误导方式。

分级填色

为每个区域填色

颜色深浅代表数值。适合比率、占比和人均指标——这些数字已经消除了面积和人口规模的影响。

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符号

每个区域一个按值缩放的标记

每个区域放一个符号,按数值缩放。适合计数与总量;这类数字若用填色,画出来的只会是人口分布图。

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气泡

按比例缩放的圆

轮廓之上按数值缩放的圆。当少数区域占绝对多数、小区域在填色中会被淹没时,效果最好。

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什么时候该画 North Carolina 地图

  • Your data is reported by North Carolina county

    NC DHHS health indicators, Department of Commerce labour figures, DPI school data and State Board of Elections returns are all published by county.

  • You are showing a rate or a share

    Unemployment rate, uninsured share, turnout, median household income. Rates are already adjusted for population, which is what shading a region needs.

  • You want to show the mountains–Piedmont–coast pattern

    North Carolina's regions are geographic bands, so they show up on a county map as bands. This is the state where the picture usually does the arguing for you.

  • You need a blank map to print or fill in

    Classroom exercises, territory planning, colour-by-hand sessions. The free outline above prints cleanly at any size.

什么时候不该画 North Carolina 地图

  • You are mapping totals rather than rates

    Shade by a raw count and Mecklenburg and Wake win every time — two urban counties holding a fifth of the state in two modest shapes. Use symbols or bubbles sized by the count instead.

  • Your unit is a city or a metro

    The Charlotte metro reaches into South Carolina and the Triangle spans several counties. Forcing either onto county lines misplaces the thing you are describing.

  • You are comparing the Triangle's towns

    Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill sit in three different counties that also contain a great deal of countryside. Below that level, use ZIP codes or census tracts.

  • Only a few counties have data

    Surveys sized for the state rarely support 100 county estimates. If seventy counties would be grey, rank the ones you have instead of mapping them.

如何制作 North Carolina 地图

从表格到发布上线,一步一步来。

01

Download the blank map, or start from the template

The free outline above is a plain SVG of all 100 counties — print it, or drop it into a document. To build with data, open the PlotSet North Carolina (counties) template, which comes with sample data already bound.

02

Prepare a county column and a value column

One row per county: the county name or its five-digit FIPS code in the first column, your number in the second. FIPS codes for North Carolina all begin 37.

03

Upload or connect your data

Import a CSV or Excel file, paste from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet so the map can be refreshed when the source updates.

04

Pick the style that fits the measure

Shade the counties for a rate, or switch to symbols or bubbles for a count. Same geography, same data, different encoding.

05

Choose a colour scale on purpose

Sequential for a low-to-high measure, diverging only when a real midpoint exists — the state average, zero change, a 50 per cent line. Four to six steps read more precisely than a smooth gradient.

06

Publish, embed or export

Publish for a live interactive map with a tooltip on every county, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF for a report or a deck.

从已加载示例数据的 North Carolina 模板开始,再换成你自己的数据。

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让 North Carolina 数据正确匹配

地点列应该长什么样,以及去哪里找现成能对上的数据。

All 100 counties, spelled as the state spells them

The coastal names are where joins break: Pasquotank, Perquimans, Currituck, Chowan, Tyrrell and Bertie. Buncombe, Watauga, Transylvania and Yadkin catch people out too. Matching on FIPS avoids every one of these.

North Carolina FIPS codes start at 37

37001 is Alamance, 37199 is Yancey. Store the column as text so the leading digits survive, and note that the county part is odd-numbered rather than sequential.

Several county names are shared with Virginia

Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Halifax, Northampton and Warren all exist on both sides of the border. In any multi-state table, join on FIPS or you will pull Virginia's numbers onto a North Carolina map.

Where to get North Carolina county data

NC DHHS, the Department of Commerce's LAUS tables, the Department of Public Instruction, the State Board of Elections and the Office of State Budget and Management all publish county figures, as does the Census Bureau's ACS.

North Carolina 地图上的常见错误

Shading counts instead of rates

It produces a population map every time — Mecklenburg and Wake light up and the other 98 counties fade. Anything that grows simply because more people live there should be a sized symbol, not a shade.

Treating the coastal counties as one thing

The Outer Banks counties are small in population and unusual in age and seasonality. A rate calculated on a few thousand residents swings hard, so consider suppressing or annotating the smallest ones.

Joining on names across state borders

A national table joined on county name alone will quietly hand Mecklenburg County, Virginia's figure to Charlotte. Join on FIPS where you can.

Using a rainbow colour scale

A sequence of hues has no natural order, so readers cannot tell high from low without checking the legend on every county. Use one hue, light to dark — it also preserves the west-to-east banding that makes this map worth drawing.

North Carolina 地图常见问题

Yes. The outline above is a free SVG of all 100 North Carolina counties — right-click to save it, print it, or drop it into a worksheet or document. No account needed.

把你的数据放到 North Carolina 地图上

上传表格,几分钟内发布一张交互式地图——免费,无需信用卡。