Friday, July 26, 2013

Data link roundup (week of July 26, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
This week's theme: we are mere mortals...


... MORE LIKELY THAN BEING STRUCK BY LIGHTNING

Risk of death from a lightning strike has declined in the U.S. (though men still face higher risk of death by lightning than women do) according to data from CDC.

But injuries and hospitalizations from distracted walking are on the rise. (Insert punch line about how people can't walk and talk at the same time...)


THE CITY IS SAFER

While crime rates tend to be higher in urban areas than in rural ones, accidental injuries and death (mostly from automobile accidents) are considerably higher in rural areas than in urban ones -- so much higher, in fact, that cities are actually "safer," from a mortality risk perspective.

As Emily Badger writes in The Atlantic CITIES:
Yes, homicide-related death rates are significantly higher in urban parts of the country. But that risk is far outweighed by the fact that you're about twice as likely to die in a car crash in rural America than you are in the most urban counties. Nationwide, the rate of "unintentional-injury death" – car crashes, drownings, falls, machinery accidents and the like – is about 15 times the rate of homicide death. Add together all the ways in which you might die prematurely by intentional or unintentional injury (as opposed to illness), and your risk of death is actually about 22 percent higher in the most rural counties in America than in the most urban ones.
The full report "Safety in Numbers: Are Major Cities the Safest Places in the United States?" is published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.

Note: Also, as Emile Durkheim noted many decades ago, deaths from suicide also follow measurable social and demographic patterns. More dense urban areas tend to have lower rates of suicide than less dense rural areas do.


JUST FOR FUN

Ice cream consumption is strongly correlated with murder, and other ridiculous correlations (via Buzzfeed).


BEST CHART OF THE WEEK

Quite possibly the best example that correlation does NOT equal causation:

Source: Bad Psychology



IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...


Friday, July 19, 2013

Data link roundup (week of July 19, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
This week's theme: Maps! Cartography! GIS!


HOW NOT TO MAP YOUR DATA

While generally one of my favorite daily reads, The Atlantic WIRE gets their map analysis of murders in America all wrong.
Source: The Atlantic WIRE
The problem?

TAW maps total number of murders, but does not control for population size, and then highlights that California and Florida are always at the top of the list.

News flash to the murder map analysts: Those are two of the nation's most populous states!

Is it any wonder that California is always highest, followed by Texas, Florida, and New York? At this stage in the cartography game, we shouldn't have to say this, but when comparing trends by state:

Map per capita, people!
Per capita!



HOW DIVERSE IS YOUR CITY?

Starting with the 2000 Census, Eric Fischer developed a series of dot-density maps to display racial distribution patterns within U.S. metropolitan areas. Fisher updated the demographic dot map series for the 2010 Census.
Source: Eric Fischer

AFFORDABILITY: HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION

The two largest components of the average American household budget are: housing and transportation, but most analysis focuses on just the housing part of "affordability" when comparing U.S. metro areas. The H + T index combines both in a web-based mapping application.
(Thanks to MC for passing this link along!)


JUST FOR FUN

And a few maps just for fun...



BEST CHART VISUALIZATION TOOL OF THE WEEK

Special thanks to my friend RC for pointing me to the Urban Observatory, an online visualization tool that allows users to compare socio-economic and environmental characteristics quickly across major world cities. Take, for example, population density in New York, Tokyo, and Mumbai...
Source: Urban Observatory


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Now that Google Reader is gone, if you're not following on Twitter, you should be. I post fact-checked links and interesting data insights (nearly) every day.

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Healthy living after age 65

A new report from CDC compares life expectancy and healthy life expectancy after age 65 across states in the U.S.
Life expectancy is the average remaining years of life a person can expect to live on the basis of the current mortality rates for the population.

Healthy life expectancy is a population health measure that estimates expected years of life in good health for people at a given age. The measure is useful for public health and public policy analysis. Healthy life expectancy, relative to total life expectancy, can be used to identify populations that might be enduring illness or disability for years. And differences within and among populations can be used to identify areas of greatest need for health interventions.

The most recent analysis shows that Southern states have lower life expectancy and fewer years of healthy life, regardless of race, after age 65 than other states. In the press release, CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. writes:
"Where you live in the United States shouldn't determine how long and how healthy you live - but it does...
Other highlights include:

  • Hawaiians have the longest life expectancy and healthy life expectancy after age 65.
  • Mississippi residents have the shortest.
  • For whites aged 65 years, healthy life expectancy varied from a low of 11.0 years in West Virginia to a high of 18.8 years in DC.
  • Mississippi also has the lowest proportion of years of healthy life expectancy to overall life expectancy.
  • Vermont has the highest ratio of healthy years to overall years of life expectancy.
  • In each state women, on average, have higher life expectancy and healthy life expectancy than men.

For more information, see the full CDC report.

Friday, July 12, 2013

Data link roundup (week of July 12, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
This week's theme: housing.


NEW HOMES, BIG HOMES

Highlights on housing characterstics in 2012, from the U.S. Census Bureau:
  • Of the 483,000 new single family homes completed in 2012, more than 40% had 4 or more bedrooms. This is up from only one quarter of new homes having 4+ bedrooms in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
  • The average size of single family homes built in 2012: 2,505 square feet.
  • New homes are biggest in the South (avg. 2,700 sq. ft.), and smallest in the West (avg. 2,400 sq. ft.).
  • The average size of multi-family homes built in 2012: 1,626 square feet. (Coincidentally, that's about the average size of a single family home sold in 1982.)
  • The average sales price of new single-family homes sold was $292,200, compared with the average price of $267,900 in 2011.
  • Per square foot, the northeast ranked highest for average cost.


RENT VS. OWN (depends on where you live)

This week the U.S. Census Bureau released results of the 2011 American Housing Survey.

One notable characteristic is the pattern of own vs. rent by age. Most householders rent until their 30s. By age 40, there are more homeowners than renters.  The Atlantic Cities shows that trend varies greatly by metropolitan area. San Franciscans and Angelinos are more likely to rent until their late 40s or early 50s, while residents of Atlanta and Milwaukee are more likely to own at younger ages.)


BEST CHART OF THE WEEK

The Economist's interactive graphic of home prices in the United States...


Source: The Economist 


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Now that Google Reader is gone, if you're not following on Twitter, you should be. I post fact-checked links and interesting data insights (nearly) every day.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Data link roundup (week of July 5, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
In light of the Texas filibuster (and subsequent second special session) this week's theme: facts and figures relating to reproductive rights

The Economist maps the current state of reproductive services available (or rather, not available), by county, in the United States.
Source: The Economist

Slate's new maps shows reproductive rights around the world including abortion laws, abortion restrictions, contraceptive laws (including hormone-based contraception, IUD, and condom laws), and much, much more...
Source: Slate

And last, but not least...
In a little-discussed, but highly relevant factor in the reproductive rights debate, The Economist charts the declining rate of abortions and abortion-related deaths since Roe v. Wade.
Source: The Economist

While correlation does not prove causality, the trend does provide a compelling case that legalization did not, in fact, increase abortions. What legalization did was reduce the number of maternal deaths.


BEST CHART OF THE WEEK

(See above...)