Using attributes to calculate density

Sometimes points represent populations or the number of occurrences at a particular location. For example, the number of people in a village or the number of thefts at convenience stores are attributes that are assigned to points. Instead of calculating the density of the points, you can also calculate the density of the populations or events that those points represent.

The cell values for a kernel density surface are determined by finding the sum of attribute values in overlapping kernels. In this case, a math function is applied that goes from the attribute value at the location of the point to 0 at the neighborhood boundary.

In both situations, the population, not the number of occurrences, is distributed throughout the surface.