Techniques are described for generating histograms for a multidimensional space. In the presence of large spatial objects, fuzzy splitting techniques are utilized to recursively divide the multidimensional space into partitions, where a single spatial object may belong to multiple partitions. Large spatial objects are essentially broken down into smaller objects that may allow for more efficient partitioning of the multidimensional space. A count of spatial objects in each partition yields a spatial histogram. A spatial object that belongs to multiple partitions may have a weighted count for each of the multiple partitions, based on the extent to which the spatial object overlaps with each partition. Thus, an object that is split among a handful of partitions will only contribute a fraction of a count to each partition. Small partitions having relatively few objects are avoided by refusing to subdivide a partition whose members drop below a threshold number.