Data Visualization

I want to do a project that maps out the poverty levels of kids in the U.S.  I have statistics regarding each states poverty levels of individuals under the age of 19.   Additionally I have longitutude and latitude of the different states.  I’m not certain how to go about using this information.  I was thinking something along the lines of darkening the map based on % of poverty.  Another idea would be to increase the number of dots based on percentages and connect them with lines.