Clustering—ArcGIS for Microsoft 365

Note:

This functionality is available only for ArcGIS feature layers or layers created using your data.

When a layer contains a large number of point features, showing each feature individually on the map may not be useful. In this scenario, point features often overlap, making them hard to distinguish. It may be difficult to visually extract meaningful information when hundreds or thousands of points are shown at once.

One way to address this issue is to group point features that are within a certain distance of one another into a single symbol. This is known as clustering. Since clustering depends on screen extent, points are aggregated into fewer clusters as you zoom out. Conversely, points are divided into more clusters as you zoom in.

In the following pair of images, the first image shows point features without clustering enabled; the second image shows point features with clustering enabled:

Point features using single symbol without clustering

Point features using single symbol with clustering

In these images, the size of the symbol indicates the number of points in the cluster.

If you zoom in to a level at which the on-screen area around one point no longer contains other point features, clustering is disabled; the feature is shown with the layer (single symbol) style. Cluster colors are inherited from the layer style, and you can change the color of the text that appears in a cluster.

If you style a point layer using shapes grouped by color or size, the clusters inherit the style of the dominant category in the cluster. As you zoom in, the cluster is divided into smaller groups and the style updates to reflect the information in the new cluster as shown in the images below.

In the following pair of images, the first image shows point features styled by color without clustering enabled; the second image shows point features styled by color with clustering enabled:

Point features styled by color and size with clustering