What's New - May 2004
STAT-SCAN: The EconData.Net Newsletter

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Site of the Month:  HRSA Geospatial Data Warehouse

Yes, its a mouthful, but this month's site of the month, the HRSA Geospatial Data Warehouse is packed to the rafters with a fascinating array of data about health resources, plus the set of tools you need to sift through that data and display it in a useful form.  Imagine just about every bit of health related data there is--from health care facilities, to grant funding, to health care workforce and related census data, to hospitalization and mortality data--you'll find it all here.  The data are also neatly organized by geography:  metropolitan area, census tract, zip code, congressional district, and primary care service area.  You can download entire datasets (with up to 900 different variables per geographic area) or use the site's own mapping tool to select and map data online.  

Sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the Department of Health and Human Services, the warehouse is a repository of data compiled from grants, scholarship and loan programs and service demonstration programs.  Grant programs include funding for health facilities, HIV/AIDs, primarily health care, professional training, organ transplantation, and maternal and child health and others.  The real power of this site, though is the ability to combine this data with a wide range of demographic and economic data (drawn chiefly from the Census), and to map results interactively for states, counties, metropolitan areas and zip codes.  It's so good you might want to use it even if you aren't interested in any of the health related data.  But if you're interested in medical care or health issues, this is a site you should visit right away:
http://datawarehouse.hrsa.gov/

Welcome Our New Sponsor:  Fannie Mae Foundation

We at EconData.Net are pleased and proud to welcome our new sponsor, the Fannie Mae Foundation, the largest foundation in the country devoted to affordable housing and the revitalization of communities. The Foundation creates affordable homeownership and housing opportunities through innovative partnerships and initiatives. Efforts include providing over thirteen million people with free home-buying information, $27 million in loans through its Community and Neighborhood Development Fund, and $38 million in grants annually to more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations across the country. 

In addition, the Foundation hosts KnowledgePlex®, a web site that supports the efforts of practitioners, grantors, policy makers, scholars, investors, and others involved or interested in the fields of affordable housing and community development. Organized by ten topics, KnowledgePlex provides access to an up-to-date, comprehensive collection of publications from multiple sources; the latest news stories from thousands of publications nationwide through an arrangement with LexisNexis; a set of discussion forums; and a calendar displaying events of interest.

In the near future, KnowledgePlex will include a community data system that provides customized access to local area data, integrated from multiple sources, on housing and community development. In addition to becoming a sponsor of EconData.Net, the Foundation has asked us to build a specialized version of EconData.Net within the community data system, as a complement to its customized data download and table- and map-building services.  

We are excited about our new relationship with the Fannie Mae Foundation, and very much appreciate its willingness to support the work of EconData.Net. Once the community data system is ready for prime time, we will be certain to let you know.

Clean Air:  Ozone Attainment by County

How clean is the air you breathe?  Which areas are making progress toward achieving the clean air, and which still have persistent problems with air pollution.  New information from the Environmental Protection Agency shows which counties are in compliance with the 8-hour standard for ozone (and which aren't).  

Information on attainment by county is provided through the Associated Press website.  Organized by EPA region and state, the EPA analysis shows which counties are in attainment and out of attainment.  Non-attainment areas are classified as "basic, marginal, moderate, serious or severe."
http://wid.ap.org/documents/documents/ozone.doc

County Basics

There are more than 3,000 counties in the United States.  You can get a quick look at any one of them by visiting this website, operated by the National Association of Counties (NaCo).  The site provides a state by state listing of all counties, with data on the geographic area of each county and its population.  Click on a county and you get a listing of each county's county seat, principal elected officials, and population data for 1980 and 1990.  If you need a quick reference to counties, this is a great place to start. 
http://www.naco.org/Template.cfm?Section=Find_a_County&Template=/cffiles/counties/usamap.cfm
 

New Links

May's new links offer a range of data on the domestic operations of the Departments of Defense and Veteran Affairs.

Department of Defense

Personnel and Procurement Data
Data on military and civilian personnel, expenditures, and prime contracts, by state.
http://web1.whs.osd.mil/diorhome.htm

DOD Base Structure
Detailed annual report on individual DOD facilities, by service. Data include acreage, building square footage, personnel, and replacement value. (Click on .pdf file under Places)
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/almanac/

Defense Almanac

Data on U.S. military personnel, facilities, and expenditures, by state.
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/almanac/

Procurement Data
Annual reports on prime contracts awarded, by state.
http://web1.whs.osd.mil/peidhome/peidhome.htm

Personnel Data
Data on military and civilian personnel and expenditures, by state.
http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/pubs.htm

Military Casualties
Selected tables on military deaths and casualties by home state.
http://web1.whs.osd.mil/mmid/casualty/castop.htm

Department of Veterans Affairs

Geographic Distribution of VA Expenditures
Annual report showing estimated VA expenditures for major programmatic areas by geographic area (state, county, and congressional district), as well as the estimated veteran population for each state, county, and congressional district.
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/GeographicInformation/index.htm

Medical Workload
Facility-specific program data for recent fiscal year.
http://www.va.gov/vetdata/GeographicInformation/index.htm