Ten Things To Like About the Missouri Census Data Center’s ACS Profiles ACS Profiles As of Nov. 2010

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Access the application at: //mcdc1.missouri.edu/acsprofiles/acsprofilemenu.html

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 10. Application is “URL-able” If you spend a few minutes on the menu screen making choices regarding geographic areas, time periods and subjects, these are encapsulated into a web address. So you can click here and magically the specified report will appear. (Like the Sample Report link of the menu page.) So you can click here and magically the specified report will appear. (Like the Sample Report link of the menu page.) click here click here The URL appears in browser Address box. The URL appears in browser Address box.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 9. Tables Always Include Counts There are still some tables in the Census Bureau profiles – such as the poverty data in the Economic profile – that have percentages but not actual counts. All MCDC profile tables have both.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 8. Links to Pie & Bar Charts

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Clicking on a charts icon can lead to displays like this

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 7. Links to Corresponding Trend Reports

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Trend Reports Show up to 4 Years of Comparable Data

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 6. Easy to get data in pdf or xls (Excel) format (It’s really two things but they are right next to each other)

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Pdf format

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Excel format

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 5. “Drill-down” to detailed tables (Ref Table column – see bottom-right corner link to B17002)

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Clicking on “Ref Table” link B17002 Displays that “base” table

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library Regarding the Base Table Display Mimics the profile display in terms of geographies going across and use of fonts to reflect MOEs (statistical reliability). Uses acstabgen app which will have a stand-alone front end (coming soon). Can work for multiple tables. Clever users can edit the “basetables=…” spec in URL to see whatever table(s) they want. Note calculated Percentages.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 4. Four Subject Profiles at Once The front end menu allows you to choose any combination of the 4 subject profiles (Demographic, Economic, Social and Housing) to appear in report. Does not limit you to just one subject per report.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 3. Report loads in less than 2 Seconds (almost always) Other data profile apps can sometimes take over 20 seconds to deliver a profile. This is probably mostly due to user load. We don’t have anywhere near as many users as the Bureau does. Choosing 4 geographies vs. only 1 makes very little difference in the time it takes.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library 2. Fonts For Visual Cueing of Statistical Reliability Which of these numbers should be taken with a large grain of salt? Which appear to be pretty statistically reliable? You can see the relative MOE and confidence interval using mouse-over. Explained in Usage Notes, linked to from menu page.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library (the best thing!) 1. Supports Up to 4 Geographic Areas The Census Bureau defines a “profile” as a report regarding a single geographic area. But our “profiles” allow you to view up to 4 areas at once for ease of comparison. It truly adds a lot to the utility of the application to see how areas compare.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library BUT DATA GEEKS CAN APPRECIATE A FEW MORE SPECIAL FEATURES. This concludes our feature presentation.

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library A few more Features for Data Geeks The whole row of links across the bottom of the page. But especially… –Related Applications. Takes you to an applinks menu page. (Try it). –Extract Data via Dexter. You can access the data, not just for this profile but for all geographic areas across the country. (Requires learning Dexter basics). Inclusion of the geoid in report titles and xls files.

John Blodgett OSEDA – U. of Missouri Columbia, MO Under a contract with the Missouri Census Data Center Missouri State Library, Jefferson City, MO mcdc.missouri.edu

Prepared by: University of Missouri Extension, The Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis in Collaboration with the Missouri Secretary of State and the Missouri State Library View presentation as pdf doc(s): mcdc.missouri.edu/tutorials/ten_things_ acsprofile.pdf -and/or- mcdc.missouri.edu/tutorials/ten_things_ acsprofile_notes.pdf