geom_count: Count overlapping points

In ggplot2: Create Elegant Data Visualisations Using the Grammar of Graphics

Count overlapping points

Description

This is a variant geom_point() that counts the number of observations at each location, then maps the count to point area. It useful when you have discrete data and overplotting.

Usage

geom_count(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  stat = "sum",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

stat_sum(
  mapping = NULL,
  data = NULL,
  geom = "point",
  position = "identity",
  ...,
  na.rm = FALSE,
  show.legend = NA,
  inherit.aes = TRUE
)

Arguments

mapping	Set of aesthetic mappings created by aes(). If specified and inherit.aes = TRUE (the default), it is combined with the default mapping at the top level of the plot. You must supply mapping if there is no plot mapping.
data	The data to be displayed in this layer. There are three options: If NULL, the default, the data is inherited from the plot data as specified in the call to ggplot(). A data.frame, or other object, will override the plot data. All objects will be fortified to produce a data frame. See fortify() for which variables will be created. A function will be called with a single argument, the plot data. The return value must be a data.frame, and will be used as the layer data. A function can be created from a formula (e.g. ~ head(.x, 10)).
position	A position adjustment to use on the data for this layer. This can be used in various ways, including to prevent overplotting and improving the display. The position argument accepts the following: The result of calling a position function, such as position_jitter(). This method allows for passing extra arguments to the position. A string naming the position adjustment. To give the position as a string, strip the function name of the position_ prefix. For example, to use position_jitter(), give the position as "jitter". For more information and other ways to specify the position, see the layer position documentation.
...	Other arguments passed on to layer()'s params argument. These arguments broadly fall into one of 4 categories below. Notably, further arguments to the position argument, or aesthetics that are required can not be passed through .... Unknown arguments that are not part of the 4 categories below are ignored. Static aesthetics that are not mapped to a scale, but are at a fixed value and apply to the layer as a whole. For example, colour = "red" or linewidth = 3. The geom's documentation has an Aesthetics section that lists the available options. The 'required' aesthetics cannot be passed on to the params. Please note that while passing unmapped aesthetics as vectors is technically possible, the order and required length is not guaranteed to be parallel to the input data. When constructing a layer using a ⁠stat_*()⁠ function, the ... argument can be used to pass on parameters to the geom part of the layer. An example of this is stat_density(geom = "area", outline.type = "both"). The geom's documentation lists which parameters it can accept. Inversely, when constructing a layer using a ⁠geom_*()⁠ function, the ... argument can be used to pass on parameters to the stat part of the layer. An example of this is geom_area(stat = "density", adjust = 0.5). The stat's documentation lists which parameters it can accept. The key_glyph argument of layer() may also be passed on through .... This can be one of the functions described as key glyphs, to change the display of the layer in the legend.
na.rm	If FALSE, the default, missing values are removed with a warning. If TRUE, missing values are silently removed.
show.legend	logical. Should this layer be included in the legends? NA, the default, includes if any aesthetics are mapped. FALSE never includes, and TRUE always includes. It can also be a named logical vector to finely select the aesthetics to display. To include legend keys for all levels, even when no data exists, use TRUE. If NA, all levels are shown in legend, but unobserved levels are omitted.
inherit.aes	If FALSE, overrides the default aesthetics, rather than combining with them. This is most useful for helper functions that define both data and aesthetics and shouldn't inherit behaviour from the default plot specification, e.g. annotation_borders().
geom, stat	Use to override the default connection between geom_count() and stat_sum(). For more information about overriding these connections, see how the stat and geom arguments work.

Computed variables

These are calculated by the 'stat' part of layers and can be accessed with delayed evaluation.

• after_stat(n)
  Number of observations at position.

• after_stat(prop)
  Percent of points in that panel at that position.

Aesthetics

geom_point() understands the following aesthetics. Required aesthetics are displayed in bold and defaults are displayed for optional aesthetics:

•	x
•	y
•	alpha	→ NA
•	colour	→ via theme()
•	fill	→ via theme()
•	group	→ inferred
•	shape	→ via theme()
•	size	→ via theme()
•	stroke	→ via theme()

Learn more about setting these aesthetics in vignette("ggplot2-specs").

See Also

For continuous x and y, use geom_bin_2d().

Examples

ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) +
 geom_point()

ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) +
 geom_count()

# Best used in conjunction with scale_size_area which ensures that
# counts of zero would be given size 0. Doesn't make much different
# here because the smallest count is already close to 0.
ggplot(mpg, aes(cty, hwy)) +
 geom_count() +
 scale_size_area()

# Display proportions instead of counts -------------------------------------
# By default, all categorical variables in the plot form the groups.
# Specifying geom_count without a group identifier leads to a plot which is
# not useful:
d <- ggplot(diamonds, aes(x = cut, y = clarity))
d + geom_count(aes(size = after_stat(prop)))
# To correct this problem and achieve a more desirable plot, we need
# to specify which group the proportion is to be calculated over.
d + geom_count(aes(size = after_stat(prop), group = 1)) +
  scale_size_area(max_size = 10)

# Or group by x/y variables to have rows/columns sum to 1.
d + geom_count(aes(size = after_stat(prop), group = cut)) +
  scale_size_area(max_size = 10)
d + geom_count(aes(size = after_stat(prop), group = clarity)) +
  scale_size_area(max_size = 10)

ggplot2 documentation built on Sept. 11, 2025, 9:10 a.m.