Lab 7: Census 2000/2010

The above map describes the percent of people in each county who identified themselves as racially Black on the 2000 United States census.  The concentration is evidently highest along the southeastern coast of the U.S., and lowest in the Midwest.  Many in the southeast seem to have a population that is at least 20% African American, while most counties in the Midwest appear to have a population that is less than 5% African American. African Americans make up as much as 86.5% of the population in some counties, while in other counties there are no African Americans. Of the top twenty most African American counties, half lie within Mississippi, seven are in Alabama, and the rest are in other southeastern states.  Compared to other racial minorities such as Asians and races that are not identified on the census, the African American population is very high in some counties.




This map describes the percent of people by county who identified themselves as racially Asian on the 2000 U.S. census.  The concentration of Asians is by far highest along the west coast, particularly in California.  In the entire U.S., the top three counties that are the most Asian are actually in Hawaii, with Honolulu County being the most Asian with a population that is 46% Asian.  Within the continental U.S. however, four of the top ten counties with the highest percent of Asians are within California, all of which are in the San Francisco Bay Area and have a population that is between 20 and 30% Asian. This can probably be explained by the fact that since the early 1900s, many Asians have immigrated to the U.S. and settled near San Francisco. 

This last map shows the percent of people by county who identified themselves as a race that was not listed on the census (not White, Black, American Indian, Alaska Native, Asian, or Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander).  The map shows that individuals of other races are mainly in the west half of the U.S., from Texas onward.  Of the top twenty counties with the largest percent of other race individuals, nine are in Texas, five in California, and three are in New Mexico.  This distribution can probably be explained by the fact that Hispanic or Latino are not included as races on the census, and states along the southwestern border of the U.S. (including Texas, California, and New Mexico) all have large Latino populations.  The population of other races reaches as high as 40% in some states, but is under 10% in many states. 

Overall, GIS seems to be an amazing tool.  It can take a huge amount of data and present it in geospatial terms that people can easily understand.  GIS enables us to find trends and perform spatial analysis that would otherwise be very difficult and time consuming, and even impossible.