Week 8 - Census Maps

2000 US Census Data Map: "Black" Population, By Percent

The map above shows data collected from the 2000 U.S. Census on the population of those identified as "Black."  Population displayed by the percent that the race makes up of the county showed clear patterns of the concentration of Black Americans in the South and along the East Coast up to the Northeast.  Additionally, there is another noticeable concentration in Southern California and the Bay area.  The most densely populated areas of Black Americans centered in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina (as shown by the navy colored regions, as indicated by the legend).  The areas shaded grey are counties with no data in this subject area.

2000 US Census Data Map: "Asian" Population, By Percent

 The map above shows data collected from the 2000 U.S. Census on the population of those identified as "Asian."  The population concentration, displayed by percent Asian Americans make up a county, shows nearly no patterns of distribution in much of the United States;  however, the most densely populated areas of Asian Americans are found along the West Coast, which is not surprising as we share the Pacific Ocean with Asia.  There are many counties in Southern California with Asian populations above 5% of the county, but the county with the highest percentage of Asian Americans is in the Bay Area of Northern California.  Pockets of Asian populations are found across the United States with another area of many counties together with higher Asian populations surrounding New York, NY.  The areas shaded grey are counties with no data in this subject area.

2000 US Census Data Map: "Some Other Race" Population, By Percent

The map above shows data collected from the 2000 US Census on populations identified as "Some Other Race," and is displayed on the map by the percentage those residents make up their county.  Most of the "some other race" citizens reside in Southern California, the Southwest (including Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico) and Texas.  There are also concentrations in southern Florida and New York City and Long Island.  Since "Hispanic" or "Latino" is not listed as an option in the census, it is likely that many of the people who identified as "some other race" have lineage from Spanish-speaking areas such as Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Central and South America.  This correlates with the patterns shown in the Southern areas of the U.S., particularly the areas connected to Mexico. The areas that match the maroon background represent areas without census data on this population.

GIS is incredibly useful in displaying data in a way that clearly shows patterns/trends/concentrations of a particular subject of interest.  The choice of data to use is essential in conveying the pattern of the map objective.  In this case, displaying patterns of race concentrations in the United States was best used by showing the percent the race makes up a county, as it allows each county to be more easily compared.  The maps showed much different patterns when population by number of people was used, since some counties have cities within them of huge populations with a more diverse population, while other cities were quite small.  So even there was a high proportion of Black Americans in a county in Georgia, for example, it looked like there were higher concentrations in Southern California, simply because some counties in Southern California are much larger in terms of total population.  So for population in numbers of these particular variables, there may be more total Asian Americans in New York than San Francisco, but this does not convey the objective of showing trends of where large concentrations reside due to the fact there are simply more New Yorkers than there are residents of San Francisco.  Though the data remains the same, the display by percent allows the map viewer to more clearly define areas of various population concentrations in the United States.  These three maps together show very interesting patterns that comprise the United States.  After examining these three maps based on census data, one may argue that the South and East Coast are home to a majority of the Black American population in the US, California and New York City are where most Asian Americans reside, while the Southwest (spanning from California to Texas) is where concentrations of "some other race" reside.  This data shows that our stirred "melting pot" of a country is in fact more like a somewhat balanced meal with various portions of the "plate" consisting of concentrations of separate identities or "dishes," which make up the main meal.  This has been demonstrated by the regional spatial data compiled and used with GIS programming to clearly indicate particular demographic trends in the United States.