Sochi 2014

Monaco, a real Winter Olympics hotspot

I love the Olympics. I especially love the Opening Ceremonies and watching the similarities and contrasts among the delegations. As an American, of course, I can't help feeling a burst of pride at seeing a sea of U.S. athletes walking into a stadium, ready to take on the world. But the smaller delegations can be equally powerful — sometimes just one or two athletes representing their entire nation on a global stage.

The Winter Olympics are particularly full of contrasts. Without getting into the economic profile of the countries that compete in the winter games (today's Washington Post has some really cool visualizations on that), I was curious to see which countries have the most Olympians.

First, the obvious question: Which countries have the largest delegations?

Total Olympians by Country

OK, so we expect some of the largest delegations to come from countries with large populations. So let's control for population:

Olympians per 1 Million People

Of course these numbers are a little deceptive. Because of the way I've done the math here, countries with populations of less than 1 million suddenly gain athletes.

And which countries have the highest density of olympians by area?

Olympians per 1,000 Square Kilometers

At only 2 square kilometers, Monaco once again gets the benefit of the math on this one.

Note: The image at the top is from a partial heat map of the Olympians-per-square-kilometer data that, sadly, Google Fusion Tables won't allow me to publish. Trust me, it was cool.

Data Sources: Athlete numbers from Sochi2014.com; country population and area data from CIA World Factbook. Both accessed February 6, 2013.

Chart Tool: Google Tables

State of the Union

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In advance of President Obama's State of the Union speech tonight, here's a quick look at his past addresses to Congress and the policy issues they covered. This chart shows the number of words devoted to each policy area in each speech.

The topics are coded chronologically, so the same policy area might be covered in multiple parts of the same speech. Also, not all topics are mutually exclusive; science and technology sections often include discussion of jobs, etc.

Data Source: CSPAN

Chart Tool: Adobe Illustrator

Virginia Votes 2013

Tuesday is Election Day, and in Virginia the races for governor and other state executives are making plenty of headlines. But in addition to these high-profile offices, Virginians will also be choosing new representatives for the state's House of Delegates.

Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Many of the delegates who are elected won't be new. And in close to half of the house races, voter's won't have much of a choice.

Eighty-seven of the 100 house races feature incumbent candidates, 42 of whom are running unopposed. Of all the races, 45 have only one candidate on the ballot.

Virginia House of Delegates 2013
Candidate Parties in District Races
* = Incumbent candidate

In 2010, Virginia redrew district lines for the House of Delegates. Like the congressional redistricting process at the national level, Virginia's redistricting was based on Census results and intended to divide the state into districts of roughly equal population.

How did redistricting affect the competitiveness of Delegates races?

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In 2009, before redistricting, 54 of 100 races included candidates from both major parties, and nine of those also featured at least one third-party candidate. In 30 races, major party candidates ran unopposed.

In 2011, the first House of Delegates election after redistricting, the number of races with candidates from both major parties fell to 27 — half of what it was two years before. Forty-three races saw Republican candidates running unopposed, up from 21 in 2009. Democratic candidates ran unopposed in 20 races, up from nine in 2009.

This year's elections will be more competitive, on the whole, than in 2011, but there are still more one-sided races than before redistricting. Forty-three races have both Republican and Democratic candidates, and seven of those also include third-party candidates. Republicans are running unopposed in 29 races, and Democrats are unopposed in 16.

The 2010 redistricting process also redrew lines for the state Senate districts. State senate elections won't be held again until 2015, but so far redistricting has offered mixed results in terms of competitiveness in the Virginia Senate.

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In the 40 senate districts, the number of races with candidates from both major parties increased from 16 in 2007 to 24 in 2011. At the same time, the number of unopposed Democratic candidates fell from nine to three, while the number of unopposed Republicans increased from eight to 11.

The Virginia Public Access Project has some great information on the 2010 redistricting process, including maps and lists of precincts that changed districts between the 2009 and 2011 elections.

Data Sources: Virginia State Board of Elections, Election Results

Chart Tools: Google, Adobe Illustrator

Assignment 3: My Neighborhood(s)

Note: This post is inspired by an assignment from Dr. Brett Shelton's Data Visualization Theory & Practice course at Utah State University.

I recently spent a few days in my hometown of Durham, N.C., and it seemed like a great time to try to visualize the demographics of my hometown and my current home in Northern Virginia.

I'm using estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey for 2011 — the most recent data available for most of these measures.

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Based on my experience in both places, I expected to find significantly more people and more money in Fairfax County than in Durham County. The Census data confirms this, although I was surprised by the magnitude of some of the differences — and some of the similarities.

First off, more than one of every 300 people in the United States lives in Fairfax County. Hence the traffic at rush hour (and most hours, to be honest).

Taken as a whole the residents of Fairfax County are a little older than in Durham County, with a few more years of education and a higher rate of marriage. The different racial profiles are also interesting. On the whole I kind of expected to see greater differences in the demographics of these counties, particularly given the information in the next few charts.

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On average, Fairfax County households have more than twice the income of Durham County households. The poverty rates are also startling. I suppose I should expect nothing else from the nation's fourth richest county. But why the difference?

Again, Fairfax County residents are a little older — perhaps farther along in their careers — and have a little more education. We can also see a slightly higher employment rate in Fairfax County (again, this is 2011 data) and, due to the higher marriage rate, perhaps a slightly higher rate of two-income households.

But more than that, I suspect the type of work being done in both counties plays a role in the income disparity. Take a look at the industries where people work in both places. The trade and service sectors are pretty comparable, but the largest industry for Fairfax County residents includes professional and management jobs. In contrast, the largest industry for Durham County workers is education, health care and social programs.

Also, it costs a lot more to live in Fairfax County. Housing is a big part of that.

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As my parents remind me when I point out that a one-bedroom condo in Fairfax County costs as much as a two-story house in Durham, it's all about location, location, location.

I would love for one of the 2.5 percent of Fairfax County renters to let me in on the secret of renting property without paying rent.

Data Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data for Fairfax County, Va., and Durham County, N.C.

Chart Tool: Adobe Illustrator

Bookstore Browsing

Recently I visited a large retail bookstore near my home and was struck by some of the oddly specific category labels above the bookcases. No need to go digging around a massive Computer section for a book on Photoshop — you can go straight to Digital Photography. Looking for the latest young adult vampire novel? There's a Teen Paranormal Romance section for that.

The bookstore employees must have thought I was strange or terribly indecisive as I wandered through the whole store with my iPhone taking note of the various genres and the number of bookcases devoted to each. I was curious — in a time when we get so much of our entertainment and information digitally, what do we buy in bookstores?

At first glance it looks like children's books, various fiction genres and cookbooks. But the real answer probably doesn't appear on this chart. If you've visited a chain retail bookstore lately, you know a significant amount of floorspace is devoted to CDs, movies, e-readers, board games, toys, gifts — things that aren't books at all. I've left most of those items out of the chart simply because the various racks, tables and shelves used to display them are difficult to compare to the standard bookcases. The massive "Bargain" section, which certainly includes some non-book items, is shown here.

I've used data from a bookstore in Fairfax, Va., a suburb of Washington, D.C., where the demographics include a lot of affluent, educated and professional families with children. I'm curious to see how the inventories of bookstores in other parts of the country stack up.

My first attempt with this data was a bar chart:

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I spent a few days on this bar chart — one day on the admittedly unnecessary bookcase icon and the rest adjusting the bar size and trying to shoehorn in the category labels in a semi-legible manner. Success was mixed. My lesson here is that if one approach doesn't seem to be working, it's probably not the right approach. After about 30 minutes of reformatting my data spreadsheet to Google's liking, Google created the "tree map" at the top of the page in a few moments.

Data Source: Observations at Barnes and Noble, Fairfax, Va.

Chart Tools: Google, Adobe Illustrator