Visualization VocabularyDataviz vocabulary
Diagram: hexbin plot
Drawing: Adrien Taudière (CC0)
ggplot2 example: hexbin plot
Adrien Taudière (CC0); R code ↓; data: gapminder (Bryan 2025) (CC BY 4.0)

chart

hexbin plot

also: hexbin density plot, hexagonal bin plot, hexagon density plot

Scatterplot whose plane is divided into hexagons shaded by the number of points.

graphique de densité hexagonal

aussi : graphique hexbin

Nuage de points dont le plan est découpé en hexagones teintés selon le nombre de points.

Remède à la superposition des points d'un grand nuage. Distinct de la carte en carroyage hexagonal (hexbin-map), qui agrège un territoire. ggplot2 : geom_hex().

Classification

  • chart
  • points and bubbles › scatterplots
  • correlation, distribution

Attestation

  • French term: Common usage, not attested by a source

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/term/hexbin-plot.html

ReferenceTaudière Adrien. 2026. hexbin plot. In Visualization Vocabulary, version 1.0.0. IdEst. https://dataviz.adrientaudiere.com/en/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/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.