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