Chart & Visualization Issues

Fix Excel Choropleth Map Not Displaying French Cities

Maira Mehtab Sep 22, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user is attempting to plot French cities on an Excel choropleth map, but the application returns an error stating the data may be incorrect and fails to display certain locations.

Product: Microsoft Excel
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Creating a geographic choropleth map visualization using French city data.
Observed behavior: Excel identifies the data as geographic via Bing Maps but reports recognition errors, resulting in missing cities on the rendered map.

Before you start

Ensure you have an active internet connection, as Excel's Geography data types rely entirely on Bing Maps online services to recognize and plot location names.

Solution 1Recommended

Provide Regional Context to City Names

Improve Bing Maps' geographic matching accuracy by appending the country or region name to the affected cities.

Bing's geographic service often struggles with standalone city names if they share names with other global locations or have unique local spellings. Adding the country name provides the necessary context for accurate mapping.

Update city data

In your spreadsheet, modify the problematic city names to include the country (e.g., change 'Lyon' to 'Lyon, France').

Select the updated data

Highlight the cells containing the newly updated city and country names.

Reapply Geography data type

Navigate to the 'Data' tab on the top ribbon and click on 'Geography' in the Data Types group to force Excel to fetch the updated location data.

Verify mapping

Check that the map card icon appears next to the city names, and refresh your choropleth map to ensure the missing cities now display.

Spelling Matters: Ensure all French cities are spelled correctly using standard naming conventions recognized by Bing Maps.

Solution 2

Test Problematic Cities Individually

Isolate the issue by testing a single failing city name to determine if the problem is a bulk processing error or an unrecognizable name.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Excel say my geographic data is incorrect?

Excel relies on Bing Maps to interpret location data. If a city name is misspelled, ambiguous, or lacks context (like a country name), Bing may fail to match it accurately, triggering an error in your map.

How can I fix unrecognized cities in Excel map charts?

Add more detail to your data by including the region, state, or country next to the city name (e.g., 'Paris, France' instead of just 'Paris'). This provides Bing Maps with the necessary context to locate the city accurately.

Do I need an internet connection to use Geography data types in Excel?

Yes, Excel requires an active internet connection to communicate with Bing's geographic service, which processes and validates the location names needed to generate your choropleth maps.

Excel & Data Problems