The purpose of this lab is to familiarize you with the geodemographic data available from the U.S. Census and how to navigate the Census web site. Census data are ultimately the basis of any market area analysis. The data actually used in location analysis, however, are typically purchased from a private vendor, such as Claritas and Equifax National Decision Systems, who tries to update the Census figures in the years between the decadal censuses. This lab will also, incidentally, introduce or re-acquaint you with the use of Internet search engines.
Using an Internetworked computer, fire up your favorite graphical browser, such as Netscape, the AOL browser, Opera, or Internet Explorer. Click on "search." This will bring up a menu of various search engines, such as Infoseek, Alta Vista, Yahoo, Lycos, or Excite. Pick whichever one you like and type in "Census lookup." A jillion pages will be listed, but somewhere in the first page of listings should be one with the word "venus" in the address, or URL. That's the U.S. Census web page. Click on it and voilà!
Browse around the home page until you find SFTF3C -- Part 1 (Summary Tape File 3 C -- Nation and State level). First, you're going to get national level demographic data as a comparative baseline for Butte County. Choose "Retrieve the areas you've selected below" (meaning the United States) and hit the submit button. Accept the "Choose TABLES..." option and submit. A huge list of population characteristics will come up. Browse around in this list to familiarize yourself with the enormous amount of (sometimes pretty weird) information you can get on your fellow residents of these United States.
Now that you're duly impressed, put checkmarks next to the following: p1 (number of persons), p5 (number of households), p57 (educational attainment of adults 25 and older), p80a (median household income), p114a (per capita income), h4 (occupancy of dwelling units), h8 (tenure of occupied units), h25a (median year of construction), and h61a (median value of owner- occupied housing). Go back to the top and hit submit. Retrieve your data by selecting HTML format and hitting submit and then printing. Note that, for purposes of processing data in a spreadsheet, such as Excel, you can choose to retrieve your tables in tab-delimited format, which generally any spreadsheet can read. You would save it in a file on your disk or hard drive for later processing in a spreadsheet. For the time being, just have a look at your data in the "pretty" HTML format and print them out.
Next, go all the way back to the "Current Level" menu and pick "go to level state" and submit. Then, highlight California and submit. Repeat the process of selecting data at the national level for the State of California and print.
For this level, go all the way back to the Census lookup home page. This time, pick STF3A (Detailed geography - county, place, tract, etc.). Highlight California and "Go to level State--County--Census Tract" and submit. Highlight Butte County and "Go to level State--County--Census Tract" again and submit. Now, repeat the familiar process of retrieving the same data, this time for Our Fair County, and print them.
Thank heavens Butte County only has a piddling 37 Census tracts. Select all of them and repeat the process of data retrieval and printing. If you're feeling especially creative, you can explore the Gazeteer option to map Butte County and show the Census tract boundaries but, at this time, the Census is unable to print tract numbers on the map for you. I'll distribute a set of crude paper maps for your reference use.
Compare Butte County to California and to the USA in terms of per capita income, household median income, median value of owner-occupied housing, and the age of the housing stock (median year of construction).
Calculate the educational attainments of the people 25 and older at all three levels. This entails summing everyone in the educational attainment table to get the total number of people 25 years or older for each of the three geographical areas. Then, group the table into three attainment levels: those individuals who have never completed high school, those who have completed high school and may have some college but never completed a bachelor's degree, and those who have a bachelor's degree or higher. Then, calculate the percentage of 25 and older folks at each attainment level. Now, compare Butte County with the state and the nation with respect to educational attainment. Butte County is particularly odd at one of the levels. Which one is it, and what do you think accounts for that marked difference? What does that tell you about the Butte County economy?
Calculate vacancy rates in the housing stock of the three geographical levels and compare Butte County to the other two. Similarly, calculate owner-occupancy rates for those units that are occupied from the tenancy attribute. How does Butte County compare in terms of owner-occupancy and the social stability associated with it?
Examine the data for per capita income, median household income, median value of owner-occupied housing, and median year of construction among the 37 Census tracts of Butte County. Which tracts have per capita incomes higher than the California average? Than the national average? Which tracts have median household incomes higher than those for the state? For the nation? Which tracts have median home values greater than the state median? Than the national? Judging from the median year of home construction, where in Butte County is the most recent construction activity? List the six tracts with the youngest housing stock and where they are found.
Now, identify the six poorest Census tracts in Butte County in terms of per capita incomes, median household incomes, and median home value? Where are these six for each of these attributes? It's for this sort of question that downloading things from the Census as tab-delimited files, attribute by attribute in single tables for all Butte County tracts makes sorting easier in a spreadsheet.
What's overall the richest Census tract in Butte County? Why isn't it being overrun by merchants eager to get hold of yuppies?
Write up your socio-economic analysis of Butte County, both as it compares to the state and nation and as the different tracts compare within Butte County. In general, in which specific part of the county would you try to locate if you were trying to open a specialty business targeted to upscale customers? Be more specific than just a town's name: Indicate roughly where in a town and why you'd look for space in that area and frame your argument in terms of where such people live and where they might shop.
This report will probably be between 1 and 3 pages long. As ever, pay close attention to writing mechanics, as these count for about a quarter of your points.