chart
hexbin plot
also: hexbin density plot, hexagonal bin plot, hexagon density plotScatterplot whose plane is divided into hexagons shaded by the number of points.
Classification
- chart
- points and bubbles › scatterplots
- correlation, distribution
Scientific literature
OpenAlex: 17 papers since 2021, 71% in the last five years; mostly in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology, Computer Science, Engineering
R packages
R code of the ggplot2 example
library(ggplot2)
library(gapminder)
## Hexagons are regular on screen only if their size in data units follows
## the proportions of the panel, fixed here at `aspect` (height / width).
aspect <- 0.6
bins <- 25
binwidth <- c(diff(range(log10(gapminder$gdpPercap))) / bins,
diff(range(gapminder$lifeExp)) / (bins * aspect))
p <- ggplot(gapminder, aes(x = gdpPercap, y = lifeExp)) +
geom_hex(binwidth = binwidth, colour = "white", linewidth = 0.1) +
scale_x_log10(labels = scales::label_dollar(big.mark = "\u2009")) +
scale_y_continuous(labels = lex_number, breaks = lex_break_breaks, expand = lex_break_expand) +
scale_fill_continuous(labels = lex_number) +
labs(title = "Life expectancy rises with GDP per capita",
subtitle = "142 countries every five years from 1952 to 2007, counted by hexagon",
x = "GDP per capita (log scale)", y = "Life expectancy (years)",
fill = "Country-years",
caption = "Data: Gapminder, via the gapminder R package") +
theme_lex_viz(break_not_zero = "y") +
theme(aspect.ratio = aspect)Cite this entry
Stable addresshttps://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en-only/term/hexbin-plot.html
ReferenceTaudière Adrien. 2026. hexbin plot. In Visualization Vocabulary, version 1.0.0. IdEst. https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en-only/term/hexbin-plot.html
BibTeX
@incollection{taudiere2026-hexbin-plot,
author = {Taudière, Adrien},
title = {hexbin plot},
booktitle = {Visualization Vocabulary},
year = {2026},
version = {1.0.0},
publisher = {IdEst},
url = {https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en-only/term/hexbin-plot.html},
note = {CC0 1.0}
}Page created on 2026-10-13. Text last changed on 2026-11-12. Images last changed on 2026-11-12. Numbers computed on 2026-10-22.