I’ve created a Google Map that makes it much easier for students to find and access neighborhood profiles for census data. You can click on a neighborhood to identify it or you can click on the neighborhood name in the legend (you need to view the full map in a separate window to see the legend) to find it. Once a neighborhood is selected, you can click a link that opens the latest profile for this area from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 3 year estimates (currently data from 2006-2008).
I’ve embedded it in this blog – but you can also access it from the NYC Data LibGuide that I created from the Neighborhoods tab. For a full-sized view of the map in a new window, click the View a Larger Map link that appears below the map.
The map shows the location of the 55 public use microdata areas (PUMAs) for the city. PUMAs are census statistical areas that approximate neighborhoods and are identified by a 5 digit number. The city and the census bureau have assigned neighborhood names to all of these areas, but you can’t use these names to directly search for data at the census bureau site; you need to know the PUMA number. This finding aid ties everything together – PUMA numbers, their neighborhood name, the location and boundaries of the area, underlying place names and features, and direct links to the profiles.
I’ll be updating this map each fall when new data is released.
Great idea! I can think of a lot of times when I will want to use this.
This is really neat! It looks great in the guide, too -students won’t be able to miss it.