What a table leaves out
France's COVID-19 indicators, 2020-2023: the same data as a table, then as a map and curves.
The raw data
Data visualization consists in presenting information in a visual language.
Dataviz leverages the brain's natural abilities and provides a direct understanding of how indicators evolve across many analysis dimensions.
When we want to understand how figures evolve over time, across space or along other analysis criteria, reading them directly is impossible. Here are indicators about the Covid-19 epidemic in France, broken down by date and by department:
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The same data, as a picture
Four indicators, from 18/03/2020 to 30/06/2023, across 101 departments.
Visualization can represent all this data in a compact space, with a fast and intuitive reading:
- Department map: values can be compared at a glance thanks to the color scale.
- Line chart: the evolution over time is understood intuitively.
Incidence rate
Read the definition
The incidence rate is the number of people testing positive (RT-PCR and antigen tests) for the first time in more than 60 days, relative to the population size. It is expressed per 100,000 inhabitants and allows geographic areas to be compared with one another.
Hover a department: its curve lights up, click to pin it. Click or drag on the chart: the map follows the date.Tap a department: its curve lights up and it stays pinned. Drag across the chart: the map follows the date.
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minimummaximumwhole of Francepinned department
Hover a department on the map: its rows appear. Pin it, then read another date on the curve.Tap a department on the map: its rows appear. Then drag your finger across the curve to read another date.
What it changes
The table and the pictures carry exactly the same data. One asks you to search; the others let you see — the map answers "where", the curve answers "when", and a single gesture links the two. Visualisation adds no information: it makes readable what was already there.
This data stops on 30 June 2023: it is an archive, not a live tracker. The map compares population-adjusted rates, not case counts — and a rate also depends on testing effort, which varied a great deal. Sources: Santé publique France (data) and gregoiredavid / france-geojson (base map).