Jacques of all Trades

washingtonpoststyle:

The United States re-drawn as 50 states with equal population. Is this what it takes to get statehood for D.C.?

(via FakeIstheNewReal)

I love some of the names on here, but I also think it’s fascinating (though I often forget) just how sparsely populate much of California is. 

Gentrification, in one easy chart.

ilovecharts:

From the FastCoDesign interview with one of my favorite people, Jessica Hagy

emilyposts:

Mapping America - distribution of racial and ethnic groups in the US by city block. Interesting.

bryanboova:

The Decline And Fall Of Suburbia

(via bryanboova)

thedailywhat:

Town For Sale of the Day: Don Sammons — the sole resident of Buford, Wyoming — is putting the entire town up for auction.

With a starting bid of $100,000, the smallest town in America could conceivably be yours for less than the cost of an average home.

Buford, which once boasted some 2,000 residents, has seen its population steadily decline since the Transcontinental Railroad was rerouted. Sammons moved to the southeast Wyoming community from Los Angeles in 1980 along with his family. As the years passed, relatives went elsewhere, leaving Sammons alone to run the local trading post.

“It was a great life for me and for my family,” said Sammons, who is himself now ready to move on.

The person or persons who buy Buford will be getting a pretty sweet deal: In addition to the trading post, prospective residents will also receive a gas station, a schoolhouse, a cabin, a garage, and a three-bedroom home.

But wait, there’s more: The whole shebang sits on 10 acres of land 8,000 feet above sea level, making Buford the highest town along I-80, and giving it a uniquely magnificent view of the Rocky Mountains.

The auction is scheduled for April 5th at noon.

[ap / theatlantic / photo: flickr.]

(Source: thedailywhat)

sunfoundation:

Growing urban populations

In this simple interactive animation by Periscopic, in partnership with UNICEF, we see the changes in urban population from 1950 up to present, through projections for 2050. Circle size represents urban population and color is an indicator for the percentage of people living in cities or towns.

(via thenewrepublic)

theconjecturer:

Forbes assembled an interactive map of American migration, based on data compiled by the IRS from tax returns. It is astounding, the kind of data it tracks, and what it can reveal about the changing demographics of our country.

(via theatlantic)

sunfoundation:

Hispanics Reviving Faded Towns on the Plains

Change can be unsettling in a small town. But not long ago in this quiet farming community, with its familiar skyline of grain elevators and church steeples, the owner of a new restaurant decided to acknowledge the community’s diversity by adding some less traditional items to her menu. Cheeseburgers. French fries. Chicken-fried steak.

Life expectancy in the U.S. varies widely by region, in some places is decreasing

sunfoundation

Large swaths of the United States are showing decreasing or stagnating life expectancy even as the nation’s overall longevity trend has continued upwards, according to a county-by-county study of life expectancy over two decades.In one-quarter of the country, girls born today may live shorter lives than their mothers, and the country as a whole is falling behind other industrialized nations in the march toward longer life, according to the study.

Who works for Congress?

nationaljournal:

A breakdown of the demographics of top congressional staffers, many of whom toil behind the scenes in relative anonymity. [CLICK FOR LARGER]

(via utnereader)

DC is getting younger.  Or to be more specific, young adult-ier. As shown in the above graph, the population of 20-34 year-olds grew a lot in the last decade, while the number of young children actually declined.  

Which wards gained? The number of young people in the District grew — especially in wards 1 and 6 — more than the city’s total population did. (via Which wards gained? - The Washington Post)

theatlantic:

Interactive Map: The 12 States of America. Click to see data about America’s emptying nests, military bastions, Mormon outposts, moneyed burbs, tractor country, and more.

The map’s creators explain in an accompanying article:

We analyzed reams of demographic, economic, cultural, and political data to break the nation’s 3,141 counties into 12 statistically distinct “types of place.” When we look at family income over the past 30 years through that prism, the full picture of the income divide becomes clearer—and much starker.

[Image: Column Five Media, map interactivity by Daryle Maciocha]

(via journo-geekery)

Audience demographics and reach of various media outlets (Comscore, Nielson 2010)

(via Gawker:soupsoup)

Some interesting facts about how we live in Washington DC, from the 2010 Census’s American Community Survey (via Lydia DePillis at Washington City Paper):

• Overall, we’re not adding housing units very fast. In the District, there were 282,900 housing units in 2006, and 285,164 today. 
• Our housing is pretty old! Eighty percent of our buildings were constructed before 1970, with the greatest portion–34.7 percent–built before 1940. That’s compared to 42.5 percent of housing units constructed before 1970 nationwide. Obviously, being the nation’s capital, D.C. filled in before much of the rest of the country, and much of that old stuff has stuck around. 
• Yup, we’re a transient city: 47.6 percent of people moved into their current housing in 2005 or later, compared to 40.5 percent nationally. 
• We have relatively a lot fewer cars: 35.2 percent of D.C. housing units have no automobile attached to them (nationally, only 8.9 percent of housing units don’t have a car). 44.7 percent have one car (which approximately matches the 43 percent of people who commute by car). 
• We pay a lot in rent: 53.8 percent of renters pay more than $1,000 per month, and the median rent is $1,059. 41.6 percent of units pay more than 35 percent of the household’s income in rent, which is five percent above what is deemed affordable by HUD guidelines (the national average is about the same, even though the national median rent is only $842).

(via Hey D.C., Here’s How You Live - Housing Complex - Washington City Paper)

Great map application from Forbes shows who moved to and from which counties in 2008.  Some very fascinating stuff in here.

infoneer-pulse:

austinkleon:

Map: Where Americans Are Moving

More than 10 million Americans moved from one county to another during 2008. The map below visualizes those moves. Click on any county to see comings and goings: black lines indicate net inward movement, red lines net outward movement.

Three maps, three stories.

The top map is Cleveland, where I used to live. Everybody’s leaving. It looks like an explosion.

The middle map is Austin, where I live now. Everybody’s moving here. It looks like a black hole.

The bottom map is Pickaway County, Ohio, where I grew up. Hardly anyone leaves. Hardly anyone moves in. It looks like a puddle.