How to create a Population Pyramid in Tableau Software

Population Pyramid Tableau Software

When we think about developing a strong sales strategy, we need ways to visualize and process the company’s data, but also the environment in which we will carry out our activity. Any decision taken in order to expand the area of activities should include an analysis of the current situation and the changes taking place in the new area.

Observing and analyzing the factors of influence over a set period of time and in a certain sector, guarantees the achievement of the new company objectives. Most of the times, the decision-making factor regarding the activity of a company is provided by the state of the population to which the products or services marketed are addressed. Whether we are talking about age distribution, unemployment rate, job diversity or consumption of products in a certain category, it is important to analyze demographic patterns.

Population Pyramid from Tableau

Tableau Software offers users the population pyramid chart that displays the distribution of the population by age and gender. Population pyramid chart represents a graphical representation where values are displayed from top to bottom – lowest to highest.

Population Pyramid chart indicate for example, how slow or fast the population ages. It also indicate how the consumption of certain products and services increase according to the population age and its gender or the interest of the collective towards different topics or events. The population pyramid chart can also be used to forecast how the interests or status of the population changes over a certain period of time.

Usually in such a chart, the population is distributed according to its gender, female or male, and according to age. To create a population pyramid using Tableau, first separate the population into two groups, women and men. Then, create the intervals for the age cohorts you want to represent in the population pyramid.

Below you can find a step by step guide which shows you how to create a population pyramid chart in Tableau:

Step 1: Connect to data

→ In Tableau Desktop, connect to a data set that contains information regarding the population divided by gender.

Step 2: Create the visualization

→ Right click on the Age field and select Create -> Bins and name it Bins of ages.

→ In the Create Bins dialog box, enter a bin size based on the age groups you’re interested in focusing on, and then click OK.

→ Drag the bin you just created on Rows.

→ Select Analysis > Create a Calculated Field, name it Male Population, with the formula:

IF [Gender] = 1 THEN [ESTBASE2010] END

→ Repeat this step but now select the Female Population:

IF [Gender] = 2 THEN [ESTBASE2010] END

→ Drag the calculated field you created on the Columns and drag the Gender on Color in the Marks area.

→ Right-click the axis for Male Population, select Edit Axis, and then select the check box for Reversed to reverse the order the values display on the axis, and then click OK.

→ Right click on the bin from the Rows and change the sort of the bins.

→ Now we can easily see the population by gender and age.

By Adelina Popescu

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