Azure Maps for Power BI: Bubble Layer and Reference Layer Filled Map Explained

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Azure Maps for Power BI: Bubble Layer and Reference layer Filled Map Explained
With the departure of Filled maps from Power BI it is time to explore using Azure reference layers. Tom Tom can't picture UK regions so we need to help it by using Spatial map files as a layer.

Posted by Sam Lowrie on 27 October 2025

In this blog

Basic Azure map with bubbles
Reference layer data
Importing the data
Adding the reference layer

A delegate recently reached out with a query: How do I add UK regions and overlay bubbles in Power BI?

Creating a Power BI Azure map with reference layer

Using the Reference layer option in Azure Maps, we can achieve the desired effect.

Basic Azure map with bubbles

The first thing we need is data that contains postcodes for the bubble locations and regional sales for the filled map gradient.

List of sales by Region Town and PostCode

The RegionId will be used to link the shapefile to the data model.

From the Visualizations pane, choose the Azure Maps visual and add your PostCode field into the Location field.

Adding Post code into the location of the Azure map

Azure Maps is represented by the blue arrow icon.

Your map should now display bubbles, one for each PostCode in the data.

Map of the UK with the Post codes of shopping centres

I can't tell which region these centres fall under.

Reference layer data

In the UK, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) provides extensive location data, including definitions of the UK Regions.

Click on Download to access the available data.

This map is in two parts: a CSV file containing the data we will link to and a Shapefile with the polygons representing each region.

Download both of the files.

Inside the CSV file, you’ll find several values including a region code (RGN23CD) and a region name (RGN23NM).

Data in the CSV file downloaded from ONS

These values correspond to each polygon in the shapefile.

To link your sales data with the shapefile, you need a common field.

If the region names match, you can use those. Mine don't so instead, I can manually add a RegionId next to each region.

These RegionIds match the ones in the original file mentioned earlier.

Importing the data

Now we are ready to add the CSV file into our Power BI report.

From the ribbon choose Home | Get data | Text/CSV to connect to the file.

Your data does not have to be in a CSV format.

Navigate to where you saved the modified file and click Open.

Consider renaming the file to something less wordy.

Before adding this to the model, we need to add an extra column to link the data sets.

Click Transform Data to open the Power Query Editor.

Here we can see the two tables that are part of our data model.

In the Query Editor the data is shown in preview

The Sales Data query has been loaded but the regions table is only a preview.

We don’t need the regions table to be loaded into the model.

Right-click the regions table and untick Enable load to prevent it from being added.

Uncheck Enable Load to prevent table being imported into the Power BI model

Unticking this option will stop the table being loaded into the data model.

Instead of loading the entire table, we’ll merge some columns into the Sales Data table.

In the Queries pane on the left, select Sales Data.

The previewed data will change to match the selected table.

Now we want to pull through the Region Name from the other table using the Merge Queries option.

From the ribbon choose Home | Merge Queries.

Merge queries lets you combine two tables into one

Use Append Queries to stack tables and Merge Queries to combine tables.

The preview shows the top rows from each table. Select the overlapping column, RegionId.

Select the two columns that you want to perform the join on

Ensure both columns are the same data type.

Click the expand arrow above the new column and uncheck everything except RGN23NM (the region name).

Use the Merge option to expand the table and tick the columns you want

This is the only value we need.

This adds the RGN23NM column to the Sales Data table.

Now any discrepancies in the data will be fixed

This is our link between the sales data and the Shapefile regions.

From the ribbon choose Home | Close & Apply to import the modified table into the model.

Click on Close & Apply to import the data

It is a good idea to save before importing data!

Adding the reference layer

Select the Azure map visual, then go to the Visualizations pane and click the paint brush icon. Under Reference layer | Data source | Upload a file and click the Browse button.