From data layers to reports to Analytics, PolicyMap offers many ways to interact with data. To help you become familiar with the system, we have created the PolicyMap Primer. This is a complete overview of all features and functions.
Download PolicyMap Primer
Updates to the Primer:
- March, 2010 – New ways to build custom regions
- April, 2010 – Interactive widgets
- May, 2010 – Make time series maps using Edit Ranges
- July, 2010 – Google aerial maps
At PolicyMap, we strive to continually improve our application and will keep you posted as we update data, add new datasets or introduce new functionality. The Primer will also be updated as new features are added to PolicyMap.
If you would like more information on various features or have any questions about PolicyMap, please join us in our weekly trainings (open calendar) or contact us at (866) 923-MAPS (6277) or info@policymap.com.
The Brookings Institution uses data from the IRS to construct a broad database of tax return data, available by ZIP code, city, county, metropolitan area, state, state legislative district, and congressional district, for every year from 2000 to 2006. The data is available in PolicyMap in the "Money & Income" tab, in the "Federal Tax Returns" section. Due to privacy concerns, some areas with very low counts have suppressed data. Listed here are the top 10 zip codes that do not contain suppressed data.
(more…)
Maggie McCullough, along with Bill Goldsmith at Mercy Portfolio Services, demoed Community Central and PolicyMap for Neighborhood Stabilization Providers (NSP) Technical Assistance providers across the country yesterday. The demo, which was recorded, will be available for viewing on the blog shortly. PolicyMap users might want to check it out to see one of our new widgets in action!
The New America Foundation reports the percent of students in poverty by school district based on data from the US Census Bureau Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE). We have this data for 2004 and 2007, and it can be found in the "Education" tab, under "School District Population."
(more…)
Preliminary county-level unemployment data for October 2009 is now available on PolicyMap. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployment is higher than it was a year ago in all 372 metropolitan areas across the country. Nationally the average for November declined .2 percent from the previous month, but remains a hefty 10 percent. While President Obama considers federal jobs legislation, log in to PolicyMap to see how your county is faring.
The latest unemployment data for October is also now available on our first free widget. Just embed the code below to bring an interactive unemployment map to your website. If you downloaded the code last month, the widget automatically updates to the newest month of data.
Your visitors can zoom in, pan around and click on any area of the map to see the underlying unemployment statistics for any county in the nation. They can also toggle between months and years to see values for previous periods of time going all the way back to 2000. The darker shades on the map are counties with higher rates or numbers of unemployed persons. Below is how the widget will look and interact.
(more…)
With such a highly educated workforce available now a days; what metro areas have the lowest percent of people with a bachelor’s degree? For subscribers, our Claritas data provides estimates for Census-type data at a metro area level. We also have 5-year projections, so in addition to 2000 Census and 2009 Claritas data, subsribers can see projected 2014 data. Educational attainment is under the Education tab.
CBSAs with Lowest Rates of People with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2009
(more…)
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia works with PolicyMap to perform calculations on the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data that they find particularly useful. We’ve chosen to share these numbers with all PolicyMap users in the Mortgage Originations tab under “Federal Reserve Loan Calculations”. This year’s 2008 update to the Federal Reserve Bank’s calculations shows some interesting trends in manufactured home purchase loans from years previous.
To see where manufactured housing lending was on the rise, we considered counties with the highest percent change in the number of manufactured home purchase loans from 2006 to 2008. The places with the highest increase in these loans were primarily rural communities, and they were distributed across the nation fairly evenly. Adams county, CO and Toombs county, GA, topped the list with 200%+ increases in manufactured housing lending.
(more…)
The Census and Claritas provide data for housing types, with detail down to the blockgroup level. With PolicyMap, users can find concentration of types of homes like; mobile homes, various single family homes, and various multifamily homes. To find mobile homes go to the “Real Estate Analysis” tab, and then “Residential Homes and Buildings.”
Percent of households that lived in mobile homes in 2000
 |
Census Tract |
County, State |
Percent of households that lived in mobile homes in 2000 |
|
012000 |
Benton, WA |
100% |
|
543305 |
Los Angeles, CA |
99.06% |
|
830001 |
Cook, IL |
97.24% |
|
247100 |
Macomb, MI |
95% |
|
004711 |
Clark, NV |
93.57% |
|
770500 |
Cook, IL |
93.36% |
|
010604 |
Allen, IN |
91.14% |
|
504805 |
Santa Clara, CA |
87.59% |
|
970101 |
Valencia, CA |
87.55% |
044004 |
Wyandotte, KS |
87.24% |
Do you want to learn more about this dataset or other features on PolicyMap? Join our free weekly trainings (Click Here) or send your questions to pmap@policymap.com.
To see where the nation’s aging housing stock is, we can look at Census and Claritas estimates, with detail down to the block group. Other age buckets include houses built in 1940-1969, 1970-1994, 1995-1998, and 1999-2014. You may wonder how there are statistics for houses built in 2014: this is from Claritas’s 2014 projections.
Estimated percent of all housing units built in 1939 or before, as of 2009
 |
Zip Code, State |
Estimated percent of all housing units built in 1939 or before, as of 2009 |
| 92135, CA |
96.15% |
| 61625, IL |
88.89% |
| 01063, MA |
87.18% |
| 02108, MA |
80.08% |
| 02113, MA |
78.83% |
| 18232, PA |
78.36% |
| 17948, PA |
78.05% |
| 60304, IL |
76.74% |
| 14613, NY |
75.28% |
12305, NY |
72.98% |
Do you want to learn more about this dataset or other features on PolicyMap? Join our free weekly trainings (Click Here) or send your questions to pmap@policymap.com.
