5/30/2011 Maps for the 2010 Census, Part 1

To support the distribution the information associated with the 2010 Census, the U.S. Census Bureau has launched an "Interactive Population Map". Start at the Census Bureau website (www.census.gov) and click on the link for 2010 CENSUS BRIEFS

This takes you to the PRESS KITS webpage. Click the 2010 Census Home tab, then click the DATA link, then click the Interactive Population Map link:

At the Interactive Map page, click the POPULATION link; in the popup window, enter Essex County, Massachusetts and click the FIND button. After the map loads, use the + tool to zoom-in. When appropriate, change the GEOGRAPHICAL LEVELS to County / Municipio. Hover your mouse over the map, and the population numbers pop-up: 743,159

To see the distribution-by-towns, change the GEOGRAPHICAL LEVELS to Minor Civil Division. Hover your mouse over Newbury, and the population numbers pop-up: 6,666

Unfortunately, the county looks incomplete: where are Haverhill, Methuen, and Lawrence? What about Gloucester, Beverly, Peabody and Salem?
Change the GEOGRAPHICAL LEVELS to Place. Hover your mouse over Lawrence, and the population numbers pop-up: 76,377

The display over Google Maps is very clean and intuitive - unfortunately, as I discussed in my May 2, 2011 posting, when you work with Census Data: Be Careful! By going back-and-forth between Place and Minor Civil Division, you see a geography for Andover CDP, as well as a geography for Andover town


Once you are aware of the limitations of working with the data, this Interactive Map is a great tool. Looking forward, I am excited to see how they will display data at the Census Tract-level.

The next blog (Part 2) will discuss the interactive maps being released by USA Today.