U.S. Census Data

Introduction

The Goal of this Lab was to learn how to download data, maps, and information from the U.S. Census Bureau and after analysis, display the information that was obtained in both ArcGIS online and in our blog.

Methods

After downloading a map of Wisconsin, we also downloaded information that pertained to the state of Wisconsin from the U.S. Census Bureau, specifically the states total population by county, and a choice of one other data source, in this case I choose Vacancy information by county. After downloading the map in the form of a shape file, and converting the information that was chosen from the U.S. Census Bureau into excel files that could be used as attribute data, I then joined the data with a common field such that we could then map the data. Two maps were created, one with the information of Wisconsin Population by county, and one with the variable of our choice. Once both maps were created, I published the map with the variable of our choice, in my case vacancy rates by county, to ArcGIS online, making sure that the maps that were created were capable of being published without any errors. Once the maps were uploaded to ArcGIS online I made sure that the map information worked in the popup form to make the map interactive. Additionally, a map summary was entered, and the map was tagged and shared with the Geography and Anthropology community of the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire. Upon completion of the first objective, I then published both maps blow to this blog post.

Results

In the total population map of Wisconsin, we see that the majority of the population lives in the South Eastern part of the state, with the greatest amount of the population living in the region from Brown County to Milwaukee and Kenosha County and stretching to Dane County. With similar high population statistics in Marathon, Eau Claire the surrounding areas. This makes sense as these counties have the larger and largest cities and their metro areas are in these counties, with Green Bay, Milwaukee, Kenosha, Madison, Wausau, and Eau Claire respectively. This, of course is not new information to anyone with knowledge of Wisconsin’s population distribution. Interestingly when this information is compared to the Vacancy rates per county in the state of Wisconsin we see that these counties are in the lower distribution of Vacancy rates, sitting between approximately 4-22% vacancy rates. The vacancy rates appear to be the highest in the Northern most portion of the state, with the highest rates of vacancy in the counties directly near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, continuing to the counties near Lake Superior and stretching over to the northern most counties near the Minnesota boarder. Just given general population trends that the population of the United States is shifting to mostly City and Urban areas, it would appear after brief analysis that this trend is also following in the state of Wisconsin, at least based on the 2010 Census data.

Final Version of both maps in ArcMap

Sources:
     • U.S. Census Bureau
     • Esri
     • HERE
     • National Geographic (base map)