Introduction:
This lab was designed to teach me how to acquire data from the U.S. census Bureau and how to combine the data to shapefiles in order to make maps.
This lab was designed to teach me how to acquire data from the U.S. census Bureau and how to combine the data to shapefiles in order to make maps.
Methods:
First, I learned how to acquire data from the U.S. Census website. To do this, I visited the American Factfinder website of the U.S. Census Bureau. Then I downloaded an attribute table for census data showing the total populations of the counties of Wisconsin. Then I learned how to download a shapefile showing the counties of Wisconsin from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Next, I learned how to link the data together. I opened the annotated metadata set in excel, changed the file to an MS Excel file, then added the excel file and the shape file to ArcMap. I opened the attribute tables of the two files and created a table join based off of the GID attribute, so they would link properly. Then, I mapped the data, adjusting the symbology to a graduated color scale, so the population would be shown in each county.
First, I learned how to acquire data from the U.S. Census website. To do this, I visited the American Factfinder website of the U.S. Census Bureau. Then I downloaded an attribute table for census data showing the total populations of the counties of Wisconsin. Then I learned how to download a shapefile showing the counties of Wisconsin from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Next, I learned how to link the data together. I opened the annotated metadata set in excel, changed the file to an MS Excel file, then added the excel file and the shape file to ArcMap. I opened the attribute tables of the two files and created a table join based off of the GID attribute, so they would link properly. Then, I mapped the data, adjusting the symbology to a graduated color scale, so the population would be shown in each county.
I then made
a map that shows how much of the population of each county lives in urban and
rural areas. First, I acquired data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Then,
I changed the data to a MS Excel file before inserting it and the shapefile I
previously downloaded to new dataframe. Next, I joined the new data to the
shapefile based off of the GID attribute. I created a custom map projection
based off of the Lambert Conformal Conic to make the state appear slightly more
aesthetically pleasing than the Mercator projection it was originally projected
in at the cost of minor distortion. I symbolized the data on a graduated color
scale, and had it display the number of persons living in rural areas
normalized by the total population of the county. I adjusted the colors so the
more rural counties would be shown in a dark green with the shade becoming
progressively lighter as the counties became less rural.
Results:
The maps show that as the population decreases, the percentage of the population that lives in rural areas increases.
The maps show that as the population decreases, the percentage of the population that lives in rural areas increases.
Sources: I
acquired the data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website.
