PolicyMap News

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is a federal program that provides cash for basic needs to aged, blind, and disabled people with little or no other income source. The Social Security Administration releases data on how many SSI recipients are in each county and state. This is useful in locating low-income disabled and aged populations. We recently updated our Supplemental Security Income data for 2009.

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In a recent article, the New York Times reported this week that home sales have fallen to their lowest level in more than a decade. What places are being most affected by declining sales rates? PolicyMap has the answer, with our Boxwood Means home sale data, which is available down to the block group level .

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Now that PolicyMap has US election data, you can use it to see some of the voting patterns that were talked about after the last presidential election.

After the 2008 election, pundits noted that Barack Obama’s candidacy galvanized African Americans who had not previously voted to go to the polls. This trend can be clearly seen using PolicyMap. Below are two maps. The first is a map of the percent the population that is African American. The second is a map of the change in turnout rate among eligible voters from 2004 to 2008. The dark purple indicates a large increase in the voter turnout rate. As you can see, a clear pattern emerges.

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The Census reports various modes of transportation for commuting to work. Of course there’s driving. And public transportation. And biking and walking. Even working from home. And then, there is the “other” category. According to the data, “‘Other’ means of transportation include those other than commuting by car or motorcycle, car pool or van pool, public transit, bicycle or walking.” So what does that leave? Helicopter? Horseback? Yacht? Pogo stick? An answer of sorts comes by way of a Top 10 list. Take a look:

City/Estimated percent of workers who commute to work using another means of transportation in 2009:

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You may recall, we recently looked at the top 10 counties in terms of population density. Now, compare that list to the top 10 counties in percentage of workers who use public transit to get to work:

County/Population Density

	County, State	Estimated population density in 2009
	New York, NY	71,165.65
	Kings, NY	35,971.74
	Bronx, NY	32,759.30
	Queens, NY	20,862.46
	San Francisco, CA	16,874.78
	Hudson, NJ	12,743.34
	Suffolk, MA	12,232.71
	Philadelphia, PA	10,656.73
	District of Columbia, DC	9,636.68
	Alexandria City, VA	9,236.72

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Last time, we looked at the male to female ratio in PolicyMap, which is defined as the number of men per 100 women (so a 105% ratio, the world average, means there are 105 men for every 100 women). This time, we’ll look more closely at census tracts. For these smaller areas, the ranges tend to be more extreme, so instead of looking at the male-to-female ratio, we’ll look at the male and female population percentages (if there are no women, how can one say how many men there are per 100 women?). So here are the top ten census tracts for both percentages of males and females for 2009:

Estimated percent of all people who are men in 2009

	Census Tract	County, State	Estimated percent of all people who are men
	000300	Chemung, NY	100%
	006002	Kern, CO	100%
	009102	San Bernardino, CA	100%
	010200	Cole, MO	100%
	024400	Queens, NY	100%
	070802	Washington, MN	100%
	150302	Butts, GA	100%
	960202	Clarendon, SC	100%
	980301	Lee, SC	100%
	070801	Washington, MN	99.94%

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The male-female ratio is a new demographic indicator we have on PolicyMap. It is defined as the number of men in the area divided by the number of females, multiplied by 100. The most densely male CBSA is the Susanville, CA Micropolitan Statistical Area at 187%. What does this mean? No, it does not mean that 187% of the women around Susanville are men. It means that for every 100 women, there are 187 men.

Estimated ratio of men to women in 2009

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Although we have long had age group indicators from the Census and Claritas, such as number of people 18-34 years old, we’ve recently added the Claritas estimate and projection for median age, which can be found in the Demographics tab in the Age submenu, named “All Ages”. The county with the highest median age in the United States is Kalawao County, Hawaii, with a median age in 2009 of 57. Kalawao County was once the site of the Kalaupapa Settlement, a leper colony. People suffering from the contagious leprosy would be sent here, and would not be permitted to leave. By 1969, leprosy became more treatable, and the quarantine was lifted. It being a tropical island, though, many of the patients chose not to leave, and continue to live there. By law, no one under the age of 16 can either visit or live there, and no new permanent residents are allowed. Incidentally, Kalawao County also has the lowest median household income in the country.

Estimated median age of all people

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If you think your commute is bad, consider that for some, the average daily travel time to work is over an hour and a half. Where do these pained commuters live? Rural Montana? Suburban Los Angeles? Actually, they’re in Hunts Point, in the Bronx, New York, and the Near South Side of Chicago. These riders of the Lexington Avenue Local and the Red Line spent 95 minutes a day, on average, to get to work in 2009.

Estimated average travel time to work in 2009

	Census Tract	County, State	Estimated average travel time to work
	009100	Bronx, NY	95 min
	330400	Cook, IL	95 min
	010702	Miami-Dade, FL	83 min
	103601	Oklahoma, OK	75 min
	035200	Kings, NY	72 min
	076600	Queens, NY	70 min
	07308	District of Columbia, DC	66 min
	023702	Bronx, NY	64 min
	058800	Queens, NY	64 min
	025800	Queens, NY	63 min

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.

Sometimes, the results of our “Top 10” postings are surprising, and sometimes they verify things you already knew. Today is a case of the latter: a lot of people live in New York City. Population density is a new indicator we have from Claritas, and quite simply tells how many people are packed into an area. And to no one’s surprise, the Big Apple is all over these lists.

• The top ten densest census tracts in the country are all in New York.
• Nine of the top ten densest zip codes are in New York.
• New York County, which consists of all of Manhattan, is the densest county in the country, followed by Kings County (Brooklyn), Bronx County, and Queens County.

There is one surprise, however. The census-designated city with the highest population density is not New York, NY, which sits in eighth place. Rather, it’s the bustling 34-acre metropolis of Friendship Village, Maryland.

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