March 2012 Updates
PolicyMap in the News
The Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal recently featured an article entitled PolicyMap: An Innovative Data Collection and Analysis Tool for all Sectors. We are thrilled to be called a “revolutionary tool” and to see the special detail paid to our model of a “mission-driven business.”
The article goes into some detail about how PolicyMap came about, our approach to data and mapping, and explores social innovation. Want to learn more? Read the article by Linshuang Lu, Christina Miller and Sarah Singer Quast in its entirety on the Philadelphia Social Innovations Journal website.
Project SpotLight: CultureBlocks
PolicyMap is working with the City of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania on an online hub of arts and culture data for Philadelphia called CultureBlocks. Set to be released at the end of 2012, CultureBlocks will be a free and publicly available web tool powered by a robust geospatial database. The site was first announced last month at a public meeting and you can find out more at http://cultureblocks.com.
New Data on PolicyMap
Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages: For a long time PolicyMap has offered County Business Pattern (CBP) data on the number of jobs by industry in zip codes across the country. Now PolicyMap has data to help you understand the average annual wage offered by each industry in your area. This data is loaded in our Jobs & Economy Tab. Select the industry you are interested in and click on “wages” in the submenu.
County-to-County Migration: The IRS uses year-to-year address changes reported on individual income tax returns to identify migrants in and out of every county across the country. PolicyMap now has this data available under the Demographics Tab. You can see the number of migrants in and out of your area as well as the difference between the two, or the “net-migration.” If you’re interested in the incomes of people moving in and out of your county be sure to toggle to the average adjusted gross income indicator in the legend!
2011 Maponics ZIP Codes: PolicyMap has updated our zip codes to 2011 Maponics boundaries. This means much nicer looking maps and printouts. It also means new zips can now be searched for and found in our search bar.
Data Updates:
- Free and Reduced Price Lunch 2009-2010 (Money & Income)
- Home Sale Data for 2011 Q2 (Real Estate Analysis)
- Monthly Unemployment Data for December (Jobs & Economy)
- Brownfield Sites (Environment)
- Superfund Sites (Environment)
Coming Soon
The PolicyMap data team is hard at work processing some of our most popular datasets. In the next few weeks you’ll find updated data on crime, health insurance, and housing developments receiving HUD’s Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). Keep an eye on our blog or follow us on Facebook for all the latest developments!