|
|
What's New at MCDC in 2005
|
|
|
2005
January || February || March
|| April || May || July || August ||
September|| October || November ||
December
December 2005
Master Menu System for Applinks: Applinks is a web utility used to link together on a single menu page access to a variety of web applications and pages -- mostly ours, but not entirely -- for a specified geographic entity. Using the new
Applinks Master Menu page you can generate a series of drill-down menu screens culminating in the invocation of applinks for any state, county, place (city), county subdivision or ZIP code anywhere in the entire U.S.
This master menu page can be accessed by going to the Web Tools page (for which there is a link in our standard Navigation box - look to your left) where it is the first item described and linked to.
We have also been working hard on improving the applinks module so that it generates more reliable and complete menu pages. We have had problems in the past with links to non-existent applications and with failing to include links which should have been there. We have fixed dozens of such problems over the past few weeks and have alerted our staff to report any more problems that may still exist. We have also implemented a "breadcrumbs" feature in applinks that lets you directly invoke
applinks for a parent geography (e.g. for the state level while viewing links for a county in that state). We are currently at work on adding a similar set of links that will allow "drilling down" to menus of subordinate geography (e.g. while viewing a county, you will be able to click and view menus of links for census tracts or MCDs within that county.)
Online Help for Dexter: In addition to the 100-slide online ppt tutorial (too much) and the recently added Quick Start Guide (too little) there is now a more reasonably-sized online help document for the Dexter web application (just right).
The new document is divided into sections corresponding to the 5 sections of the Dexter input form, and
can be accessed by clicking on the section-header hyperlinks on that page. To get more informaion on how to fill out the Section II portion of the form (for example), click on the header for that section.
November 2005
The Missouri Census Data Center has downloaded the new SAIPE (Poverty and Median Household Income) data for each of the years 2000 thru 2003 for the entire US, for both the
state / county and the school district tabulations. These can be accessed via our Uexplore/Dexter software at
http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/uexplore?/pub/data/saipe.
Dexter Updates -- The Dexter data extraction utility web application has been modified to allow a number of new options within the (relatively) new
Advanced Options section. We have also written a special help page
just for this section, linked to from the extraction form page.
A new Dexter Quick Start Guide
that is intended to help casual users who want to use the tool but don't want to spend time with the 100-slide
powerpoint tutorial. A link to this document appears at the top of the Dexter extraction form.
Daytime Population Data Available -- The MCDC data archive has a new filetype (major data directory). The daytmpop directory contains data
and metadata related to the recently released daytime population figures from the Census Bureau (based on data collected in the 2000 census). These
datasets summarize all counties and selected places (cities) in the United States with information regarding the population residing and working in the area, with estimates of the "daytime population" which is
calculated by looking at the resident population minus those people who leave the area to go to work and
then adding the number of people who come to work in the area but do not reside there.
These data can be accessed by going to the Uexplore home page (follow the MCDC Data Archive link in the navigation box on the upper left of this page) and then going to the Decennial Census 2000 section. The new filetype is the 10th entry in this section, so you'll need to scroll a bit or use a Find command. We copied the Census Bureau's technical documentation for
these datasets to the daytmpop directory. You can access it from there via uexplore by clicking on the daytmpoptechnotes.htm file. Some of the hyperlinks do not work on our copy but you can follow the links to the original html document at the Bureau or to the pdf version.
We are in the process of developing a series of standard reports from these datasets by using something
called saved Dexter queries. If you click on the Queries folder in this daytmpop directory and then click on the file(s) in that directory it will invoke those queries.
October 2005
Enhancement to MABLE/Geocorr: The Mable/Geocorr geographic utility web application (see Quick Links menu) has been upgraded so that it will now
output names for VTD (Voting Tabulation Districts) entities. This enhancement is particularly helpful for anyone
wanting to look at precinct-related data for Missouri, where the VTD codes are generally meaningless.
The names to go with the codes were taken from the Public Law 94 datasets.
Enhancement to CAPS: The Missouri Census Data Center has contracted with Easi Analytic Software, Inc to allow us to incorporate their
small-area population estimates and projections into the reports generated by our CAPS (Circular Area Profiling System
- http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/websas/caps.html)
web application. As part of each report generated by CAPS you will see a 2004 estimate and a 2009 projection for the
circular area.
Per our arrangement with the vendor we are not allowed to release the data in any other form - just in the n-mile
aggregates.
Incorporating these into the application required considerable mods to the software so you may want to look at your
results very carefully to make sure they appear reasonable. You can also expect the program to take a little longer,
especially for larger circles, since it has to do extra reads to access the new data. Please report any problems or
data that look questionable immediately.
September 2005
Future American Community Survey In Doubt:
The American Community Survey is a new nationwide survey designed to provide communities a fresh look at
how they are changing. It is replacing the long form in future censuses and is a critical element in the
Census Bureau’s reengineered 2010 census plan. The ACS will provide more timely data on demographics, housing,
income, and employment. Prior to the ACS communities had to rely on the decennial census for their data
needs. [more]
August 2005
New "Quick Tour" of MCDC Web Site
A new web page, at http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/presentations/quicktour.shtml,
provides very brief descriptions of some of the more popular pages and applications
on this web site.
The Population Estimates Program of the Census Bureau has released the 2004 estimates by demographic
characteristics (age, sex, race, and Hispanic origin) for the nation, states and counties.
While the total population for Missouri increased by 2.8 percent, the Hispanic population shows a 24.9 percent
increase between 2000 and 2004 (See Table).
The greatest concentration of the Hispanic population continues to be in the St. Louis and Kansas City
Metropolitan areas (See Map).
Dramatic increases in the number of Hispanics are not only seen in the two major metropolitan areas but also in
counties in Southwest Missouri (See Map).
For additional information on the population by Age, Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin, see reports (PDFs)
accessible at http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/webrepts/casrh04/.
The MCDC has aggregated 2000 Summary File 3 data to the VTD level. VTD's (voting tabulation districts) are
the geographic units used on the Public Law 94 files for the purpose of redistricting (state legislative districts
are generally built by combining contiguous VTDs). The Census Bureau recognizes the geography and includes VTD
codes in the TIGER system, but they publish no data for these entities beyond the basic population counts on
PL-94. The MCDC has aggregated/allocated block group level data to create complete table
datasets in the sf32000 data directory (http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/uexplore?/pub/data/sf32000)
and in the sf32000x standard extract data directory
(http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/cgi-bin/uexplore?/pub/data/sf32000x) .
We have also added this level to the menu system for the SF3 Profiles -
see http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/websas/dp3_2kmenus/mo/.
Place Level Estimates - On June 30, the Census Bureau released new subcounty (place and Minor Civil Division)
population estimates. The yearly estimates cover the time period from the April, 2000 to July, 2004.
The data for Missouri show that the state had 74 fast-growing cities, (somewhat arbitrarily defined by the MCDC
as a city that had an increase of at least 100 people and at least 5%.) The 10 fastest-growing cities (ranked
according to absolute population increase) were O'Fallon, Lee's Summit, Wentzville, Columbia, Ozark, Raymore,
Nixa, Grain Valley, Lake St. Louis, and Bonne Terre. O'Fallon added over 18,000 new residents since April, 2000,
an increase of 37.5%. (The increase is based on a comparison with what the Bureau calls the "estimates base", a
number which is adjusted so that it is the population based on the current place boundaries. Thus, increases are
not just the result of annexations, but reflect actual new population being added within the current city limits). Wentzville (like O'Fallon, located in St. Charles county) was the fastest growing measured in terms of percent increase with a whopping 109% increase, from just under 7,000 to 14,600. The data also show the growth over the most recent year (July, 2003 to July, 2004) and again O'Fallon was the leader with almost 3300 new residents added that year, a 5.2% increase. The city of Bonne Terre added 1705 people in 03-04, a whopping 36% increase, by far the largest percent increase in the state (almost double Dardenne Prairie's 18.9% increase, which was second). See the complete report (pdf format).
See our Population Estimates page for more
details regarding these data, including links to access the data as stored in our archive
using the uexplore/dexter software.
July 2005
As promised in an earlier Highlights note we have created a map of Missouri
depicting population change by county between 2000 and 2004. This is not just a static map -- it is an applet
that allows you to modify the map in many ways. One of the key ways is to select a different variable to control
the thematic mapping. You'll want to follow the link at the bottom of the map page to the Notes page
that provides important information about how the applet works and what is needed in order to access it. Note that
clicking within a county on the map will "drill down" to a regional map of the same data.
May 2005
May issue of the MCDC Update newsletter.
April 2005
The 2004 edition of county level population estimates with components of change are now available. Access these data at the Bureau's Population Estimates page, or you can access the basic counts for Missouri only in an Excel spreadsheet from the CO-EST2004-01-29.xls file on the MCDC web site. To access the complete datasets via the MCDC's Uexplore/Dexter interface you can
navigate to the Datasets.html page (within the popests data directory) and select either the mocom04 (Missouri only) or uscom04 (entire U.S.) datasets.
To run a stored Dexter query that selects key variables and produces both a Plain text report file and a csv file you can click here, or when you are in Dexter accessing the mocom04 dataset you can go to the bottom of the screen and enter mocomb04bx in the box labeled "Value of parameter query" to get the same result.
This extract omits detailed year by year data but provides basic measures of change since the 2k census and in the past year, including components of that change. You can also view a choropleth map showing the percent change in population since 2000 by Missouri counties.
This release is part of an annual series. This year includes group quarter population estimates, which have not been present in recent years. Also new this year in the MCDC-generated datasets (only) we have added codes for the new metro/micro politan areas ("CBSA"s).
We are working on a series of maps and reports related to these data and a link to these should be posted here shortly.
We are also planning to use these data to go public (within the next week or so) with a new dynamic web mapping tool, called javamap, that will let you to choose from a list of variables to be mapped and will allow you to modify the parameters used to control details about how the map is to be displayed. To see an example of this tool see our test map. You need to right click on the map to display the popup menu that lets you modify the map. You need to have a Java 1.4 plug-in for your browser in order for this application to work. For more information see the new
About Javamap usage notes page.
The Census Bureau has implemented a sophisticated system that it hopes will assist users with answers
to frequently asked questions by Bureau web site users. This Question and Answer Center
page allows you to enter a question, or even just a set of keywords related to your question. The search engine behind the page accesses an
indexed database in which the end result is a Question asked by a web site user (using the "Contact Us" buttons found on most Bureau web pages), along with the Answer to that question provided by a Bureau expert. To see just how well this system works, you might want to try going to the page and typing in the question : Can I get a demographic profile of a 5-mile radius of my site? . The result is a set of links to questions which the search engine has determined may be relevant to your question. In this case, it turns out the engine did not exactly rank the questions right, but it was close enough. The 3rd
entry is the relevant Q & A. If you choose this you will see that the Bureau has responded
by pointing to two of it's DVD-based solutions and then to our own CAPS web application.
Similarly, if you ask a question involving the keywords fips and codes
you will be linked to an entry pointing you to the MCDC's Cure for the Common Codes pages.
March 2005
The 2000 Census Transportation Planning Package (ctpp2000) special tabulation
file released by the US Department of Transportation during 2004 has been added to the MCDC data archive.
These datasets provide detailed
characteristics of commuters based on both residence and work place geographies. A
Readme file has been created to
describe these data, and detailed metadata have been prepared to assist users in accessing the datasets
in the new ctpp2000 filetype directory.
Much of the data can be accessed via the MoDOT SEIR custom
web access application which OSEDA developed for the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Also see the current copy of MCDC Update newsletter.
February 2005
Seven data users from around the state participated in the first MCDC advisory group meeting held on February 16, 2005 in Jefferson City. The purpose of this meeting was to gather input from data users on what activities they think the MCDC should undertake in coming months and years. What sorts of products, trainings, and programs should MCDC staff develop to best serve the needs of data users? The meeting yielded good information and discussion regarding the future of the Missouri Census Data Center. Some of the items discussed were:
Coordinate MCDC activities with other data supplying agencies such as DED and DHSS
Provide online thematic maps with customizable variables
Provide in-depth training on the American Community Survey
Many other suggestions and helpful comments were provided by the MCDC Advisory Group. The MCDC Core Group will work closely with the Advisory Group to shape the future of MCDC.
January 2005
FYI: The entire MCDC Data Archive was migrated so that it would be fully compatible with the new release of SAS.
This migration should result in improved performance in the form of faster access to our larger datasets. The
migration process actually began the week before Christmas and was not completed until January 11. It was a bit
tricky since we had to do the migation "in place" so that users would not even be aware that datasets were being
rewritten in a new format. Almost 90 gigabytes of data were migrated, a process that involved writing the new
versions and then running utiltities that compared every column of every row of every dataset to make sure no values
were lost in the conversion. Most of the work was done with utility setups where we simply plugged in the directory
name and everything was done semi-automatically. But in a few instances we took the opportunity to create new
versions of the old datasets, with enhancements. The 1980 Summary Tape File 3 collection was by far the biggest
example of a "custom migration". The stf803 filetype now looks quite different than it did two weeks ago.
Most of the changes involved new and improved geographic identifiers that make the datasets more consistent with
our current census summary files.
Also FYI: All MCDC web applications (except MABLE/Geocorr) have been modified to run under the new version of SAS. This was a little tricky, trying to coordinate the dataset migration and changing over our dynamic web applications that read those datasets to produce reports and/or extracts. In some cases we had to modify software to detect whether or not a dataset had been modified and dynamically determine which version of SAS needed to be run. There were some minor transition problems encountered, but all seems to be well for now. Please report any problems you encounter, especially if they are persistent. Except for the fact that this conversion should let things run just a little bit faster there is really no reason that you even need to know that all this happened. A welcome byproduct of this update is that the software glitch that caused our interactive web application service to crash 5 or 6 times a day (making invoking applications impossible for up to a minute each time it happened) has finally been taken care of. The new software from SAS had a new glitch in it to take the place of the old one, but we have managed to get around that one by simply restarting the service 3 times a week.
2005 |
2004 |
2003 | 2002
|
|
