What's New - June 2002

Site of the Month: American Metropolitics

June's site of the month is the Metropolitan Area Research Corporation's American Metropolitics page.  Drawn from the research used in Myron Orfield's new book of the same name, this site offers detailed maps of demographic, economic and fiscal indicators for the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the United States. Patterns of sprawl, poverty and fiscal distress within metropolitan areas show up clearly. Communities within each metropolitan area are classified according to Orfield's scheme, and individual maps show data on fiscal capacity, percent of students receiving free and reduced price lunches, the fraction of the non-Asian minority population, and changes in urbanization.  The maps are visually interesting and detailed, but unfortunately, the most recent underlying data is from 1997 and 1998.  Nonetheless, the site is an excellent example of how to display socioeconomic data on a geographic basis.  You'll find this site at:
http://www.metroresearch.org/projects/national_report.asp#maplist

New Links Added

Keeping with our mapping theme, this month's new links focus on mapping resources. 

Census Bureau
TIGER Map Service
On-line service preparing maps available for download
http://tiger.census.gov/

Census 2000 County Block Maps
County-based maps showing political subdivision boundaries, streets, roads and other features, such as railroads, streams, and lakes, and their names. In Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.
http://www.census.gov/mp/www/geo/msgeo60.html

MapDigger
GIS Data
Links to GIS data by state.
http://www.mapdigger.com/hdir.cgi?category=GIS_Data/USA/

U.S. Geological Survey
National Mapping Information
Access to a variety of mapping resources.
http://mapping.usgs.gov/

National Atlas
Small-scale, customized maps detailing geospatial (e.g., soils, watersheds) and geostatistical (e.g., crime patterns, population distribution) data.
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/

Long Form Data from Census 2000

Over the next five weeks, the Census Bureau is releasing demographic profiles for states and their subareas based on the questions asked on the Census 2000 long form, on income, education, employment, fertility, marital status, language spoken, housing costs, commuting, housing structure, number of rooms, and other topics. The geographic areas included are counties, places, minor civil divisions, metro areas, congressional districts, American Indian and Alaska Native areas, and Hawaiian Home Lands. The profiles are available as zipped PDF files on the Internet (http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/demoprofiles.html)  and as "print-on-demand" reports from the Customer Services Center (301-763-4636). States available now: Mississippi, Nevada, and Washington (http://www.census.gov/mp/www/pub/2000cen/mscen05.html). These profiles have been released in advance of the more detailed Census 2000 Summary File 3 files, available on the Internet and on CD-ROM starting in June. Census Bureau Publication Lists Facts About Nation's Counties and Cities (Released May 9, 2002). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2002/cb02-62.html>

State Unemployment Systems

Rising national unemployment rates are putting an increased load on state unemployment insurance systems.  A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute examines the benefit levels, tax rates, coverage and fund adequacy for each of the nation's state unemployment insurance systems.  The EPI Briefing Paper, Failing the Unemployed, grades each state unemployment system on a pass-fail basis using a number of tests of fund sufficiency, solvency, and benefits.  You'll find useful data on the number of persons who've exhausted unemployment benefits in each state.  The entire report is online at:
http://www.epinet.org/briefingpapers/bp122.html

Some of the most important improvements in data accessibility have come from improved web site design and organization.  If you've gotten trapped in a rut of navigating some mammoth websites (like census.gov) or been frustrated by the complexity of others (like IRS) you'll find new features of both these sites a welcome change.

The Census Bureau has a new index page for its major economic data that let you quickly navigate to just the series you want. This page is particularly useful because it shows latest year and finest geographic detail available for each data series.   You'll find it at:  http://www.census.gov/econ/www/index.html

Meanwhile, the IRS has recently reorganized its Tax Statistics pages to make finding things quite a bit easier.  Data are organized by topic and by publication, and there is a good explanation of the Statistics of Income program.  Unfortunately, you still have to pay for certain key data series, like the migration data we highlighted in our April newsletter.  Visit:
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/display/0,,i1%3D40%26genericId%3D16810,00.html

World Cup fever has struck here at EconData.Net, and to get you in the soccer spirit, we've found some tidbits of data on  participation in the US.  The world's most popular sport continues to gain fans and players here.  Soccer is now the second most popular sport for kids 6 to 11 years of age, behind only basketball.  You get information on the states and metro areas where soccer is the most popular  in the US from data tabulated by the Soccer Industry Council of America at http://www.ussoccer.com/templates/includes/about/sica_sps.pdf

This data is drawn from a much longer report on soccer participation prepared by the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association.  Detailed proprietary data are available for a fee.  See http://www.sgma.com/reports/2001/report991685468-15361.html