with these instructions, you can visualize Finland’s postal code areas on a map in Power BI Desktop. The feature is fairly new in that reporting program.

Power BI Desktop is free, but works only in Windows machines.

You can try the visualization with Sample file of Finnish postal code areas.

Postal code areas of Finland with the Shape Map visualization in Power BI Desktop

Power BI’s Shape Map is available as a preview version in May 2023. So the feature is available, but in the test phase.

Open Power BI Desktop settings and enable Shape Map using these instructions . Remember to restart Power BI Dekstop.

After Shape Map shows among the widgets, click on it.

Create a shape map by choosing it from the visualizations.
Create a shape map by choosing it from the visualizations.

Load TopoJSON configuration file for map visualization

Click on an empty Shape Map visualization to access its settings.

The custom map configuration must be uploaded in TopoJSON format . It is a JSON file that contains the identifier of the postal code areas and the polygon boundaries in a specific format.

TopoJSON can contain an arbitrary number of records related to regions. However, I think it’s most clear that TopoJSON only has the boundaries of zip code areas, and the actual data in separate files or databases.

Download zip code area boundaries in TopoJSON format from settings.
Download zip code area boundaries in TopoJSON format from settings.

Load actual postal code data

Next, the actual data is loaded into Power BI, for example, in a CSV or xlsx file. Postal code data can be in the simplest form like this:

postal_codepopulationaverage_income
123005672810
4560012543140

TopoJSON knows how to automatically connect the numbers related to the postal code to the correct polygon. One of the numeric columns define the color tone of the map.

Drag the field containing postal codes into the Location box and the numeric column of your choice into the Color saturation.

Finnish postal code areas visualized on a map in Power BI Desktop.
Finnish postal code areas visualized on a map in Power BI Desktop.