Demographic Data for Grant Writing

David Wall dlwall@stcloudstate.edu

Department of Geography and Planning School of Public Affairs* St. Cloud State University

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What story are you trying to tell?

• How can you describe this place?

• Statistics – Averages

– Counts

– Compare them to other places

• Your personal knowledge – Make the connection between the statistics and

your knowledge

• Trends? Past, Present, Future

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What information do you need?

• Musts: What does the grant require?

• Supplemental: Not required by helps tell the unique story about your community

• What is the best source?

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Sources

• Government Agencies

• Federal

– Census, EPA, Bureau of Labor Statistics

• State

– Demographers Office, MPCA, Department of Health

• Local

– What does you community collect?

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FIPS Codes

• Federal Information Processing Standard

• State: Minnesota 27

• County: Blue Earth: 013 (all odd numbers)

– Blue Earth: 27013

– Yellow Medicine: 27173

• Census Tract

– 27145010101 (where I live)

– 271450101.01 (tract 101.01)

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Two Search Options

• By Geography

• Choose the geography you want – State

– County

• You will be provided with a range of variables for that unit—pre-packaged

• American Community Survey

• State Demographic Center

• MPCA

• By Variable

• Choose the variables of interest

• Then choose the geography you want – State

– County

– Place

– Census Tract

• American Community Survey

• Health Department

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Minnesota State Demographic Center

• http://www.demography.state.mn.us/

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No “hand” icon

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Kandiyohi County Excel spreadsheet, 3 tabs

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General Population

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Social

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Economic

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Projections

American Fact Finder

• http://factfinder2.census.gov/

• Census

– Every 10 years

– Contact everyone

– Few questions

• American Community Survey

– Scientific sample

– More questions

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Search by geography:

state, county, city, town, zip

code

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Willmar

Data at the Census Tract Level

• Somewhat like a neighborhood

• Smallest geographic areas for which data are easily available

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Maps of Census Tracts

• Kandiyohi County: 12 Census Tracts

– 5 census tracts for Willmar

• Anoka County: ~83 Census Tracts

• St. Louis County: ~67 Census Tracts

• http://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/maps/2010tract.html

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PDF is the map .txt file is list of all tracts

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Willmar Census Tracts

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Guided Search

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Getting data at the census tract level

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American Community Survey has a broad range data and at different geographic scales

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2011 ACS 5-year

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Broad Categories: People

Housing

Multiple subcategories Each subcategory has multiple variables

Income: Households

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Choose the Geography

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1 year 3 year 5 year

???

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Census Tract Data only 5 year

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1:$21,343

3:$40,438

6:$37,000

4:$37,109

5$26,709

$82,809

Minnesota Department of Health

• https://apps.health.state.mn.us/mndata/

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Minnesota Pollution Control Agency

• http://www.pca.state.mn.us/index.php/data/index.html

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Questions?

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