Friday, October 25, 2013

Data link roundup (week of October 25, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
This week's theme: beginnings, endings, and how we spend the time between.


BABY BOOM / BABY BUST

Washington, DC is having a mini baby boom. Japan is experiencing a massive baby bust.


LIFE EXPECTANCY

The United States may have a high standard of living, but U.S. life exepctancy has not been keeping pace with other nations.


WASTING TIME?

With the advent of modern technology, we are spending more time online, but there are still only 24 hours in a day. So what do we give up to spend time on social media?
Source: Harvard Business Review
If you guessed "work" or "sleep," you're right. Based on data from the American Time Use Survey, researchers at NBER found that:
...each minute of online leisure time is correlated with 0.29 fewer minutes on all other types of leisure, with about half of that coming from time spent watching TV and video, 0.05 minutes from (offline) socializing, 0.04 minutes from relaxing and thinking, and the balance from time spent at parties, attending cultural events, and listening to the radio. Each minute of online leisure is also correlated with 0.27 fewer minutes working, 0.12 fewer minutes sleeping, 0.10 fewer minutes in travel time, 0.07 fewer minutes in household activities, and 0.06 fewer minutes in educational activities.


BEST CHART VIDEO OF THE WEEK

The Economist explains why most published research is wrong...



IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Thursday, October 24, 2013

New post-shutdown release schedule for U.S. federal data

The federal agencies affected by the shutdown have published new release schedules for their data. Most releases are delayed by one to two weeks, some (including the American Community Survey Public Use Microdata files) are subject to a much longer delay...

For details, see:

Freaky facts and scary stats for Halloween 2013

TERRIFYING TREATS:

America's candy consumption in 2010 was nearly 25 pounds per person. If this candy were entirely Snickers bars, it would be the equivalent of nearly 4 candy bars, per week, per person. The volume of candy consumed, much like home prices, peaked in the middle of the decade, dipped at the start of the recession in 2008, and increased slowly each year since then.

American confectionery manufacturers produce about 35 million pounds of candy corn each year. That adds up to 9 billion candy corns - or about 30 kernels per person in the U.S.

For Halloween itself, Americans purchase nearly 600 million pounds of candy, spending nearly $2 billion for treats to hand out to trick-or-treaters.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Industrial Reports, Confectionery: 2010National Confectioners AssociationDaily Infographic 2011 and 2012


HOME PRICE PREMIUM NEAR FINAL RESTING PLACE

According to Redfin (and contrary to what one might guess) homes near cemeteries sell for more, per square foot, than homes not near cemeteries.
"Redfin analyzed the price of homes less than 50 feet from a cemetery, and compared those to the price of homes less than 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 yards away. The numbers indicate that on average, homes near cemeteries are slightly smaller, but sell for more per square foot. On average, homes closest to cemeteries sold for $162 dollars per square foot, whereas the homes located more than 500 yards away sold for $145 per square foot."
But these homes were on the market for longer than their non-cemetery peers...


LITTLE GHOULS AND GOBLINS:

There were an estimated 41.1 million potential trick-or-treaters (children age 5-14*) in the United States in 2012, and 3.7 million in Canada.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Facts for Features and Statistics Canada Hallowe’en... by the numbers
*Note: Of course, many other children - older than 14, and younger than 5 - also go trick-or-treating.



IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH:

U.S. pumpkin production totaled 1.2 billion pounds, in 2012, with a value of $149 million. In that year 47,800 acres of farmland were under cultivation for pumpkins.

Six states are pumpkin hotspots: Illinois, California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan each accounted for more than 100 million pounds of pumpkins grown in 2010.

In Canada, there were 7,027 acres of pumpkins patch in 2012, for production of more than 63,700 tonnes valued at $17.6 million.

Sources: USDA National Agricultural Statistics and Statistics Canada Hallowe’en... by the numbers


A BOOming INDUSTRY:

The average American adult will spend nearly $75 on decorations, costumes and candy, down a bit from $80 per person last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

Total Halloween spending is projected to be nearly $7 billion.
Source: National Retail Federation

Friday, October 18, 2013

Data link roundup (week of October 18, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...


JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN

In an attempt to prove that statistics really are scary... This week UC Irvine kicked off a new class based on the AMC television show The Walking Dead.

The free MOOC uses the zombie apocalypse as a vehicle for explaining public health, social science, physics and mathematics.
(Thanks to my friend and colleague T.G. for letting me know about this class!)


BOOMERS NOT BOMBARDING DOWNTOWNS

Contrary to chatter in real estate circles, Baby Boomers are not flocking to urban areas. (Really, this is no surprise. Boomers have not been moving much, at all, since the housing market crash.)


QUALITY OF LIFE

Quality of life rankings evolve over time, as socially-important metrics, like death from typhoid (from the 1931 report "The Worst American State") give way to the amount of money spent on healthcare (from the 2013 Livability report), and the consumption of gasoline goes from a positive metric (1931) to a negative one (today).

But, sadly, not much has changed with respect to state quality of life rankings. From 1931 to present day, Mississippi lags the nation...


SHUTDOWN SHUTS DOWN

The employment report is delayed... Census surveys are behind schedule... but at least the U.S. government is again open for business. In final shutdown news... Richard Florida explores the geographic divides emerging in American politics.


BEST CHART COMIC OF THE WEEK

Because there are many important uses for Census data...
Source: xkcd

Friday, October 11, 2013

Data link roundup (week of October 11, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...
This week's theme: What's going on in the nation's capitol.


WAS THERE AS MUCH GRIDLOCK THEN, TOO?

Since the Lincoln Memorial is closed, this is probably an appropriate time to mention that the site once was under water. Or, to be more precise, much of the National Mall is located on land that was formerly the Potomac River.
Source: Smithsonian Magazine
The Smithsonian has an online mapping tool (still working, despite the shutdown) that compares Washington, D.C. in 1851 and today.

The interactive mapping tool also showcases other cities, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and more.


TO WHOM DO I OWE...?

Despite all the chatter about the impending debt ceiling, I suspect (from commentary overheard both on the news and on the subway) that most people have no idea to whom the U.S. government owes money. The debt data are readily available from the Government Accounting Office, and National Public Radio turned the information into an easy-to-read graphic.
Source: NPR
(PS - It is worth reading the GAO report, which explains the difference between debt held by the public and debt held by government accounts like the Social Security trust fund.)


WHAT THE SHUTDOWN LOOKS LIKE IN THE DISTRICT

  • Metro ridership is down 20 percent.
  • No survey data are being collected by agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Census Bureau, and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
  • CDC is not publishing any new Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports. The CDC website notes that "Because of the current lapse in government funding, MMWR is able to publish and distribute only reports on immediate health threats."
  • The Washington Post has been collecting, and mapping, stories from people affected by the shutdown. The interactive map is both fascinating and depressing.



BEST CHART OF THE WEEK

This chart is more than a week old. In fact, The Economist published a comparison of hospital costs by country way back in June, but given the rhetoric pouring off of Capitol Hill, perhaps it bears another look:
Source: The Economist
Yes, the average cost per hospital patient per day in the United States is more than $4,000, while nations like New Zealand, France, and Spain (among many others) have costs lower than $1,000 per patient per day (and longer life expectancy, too).


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

This blog's list of data resources to get you through the data-dark days of the U.S. federal shutdown received some nice praise from some well-respected authors:

Friday, October 4, 2013

Data link roundup (week of October 4, 2013)

The week's top data analysis links...


DARK DAYS FOR DATA

In addition to federal data websites going dark, the Bureau of Labor Statistics is delaying the jobs report that was due for release today because only 3 people are "exempt" from the shutdown furlough.

While the delay of September numbers is disappointing, staffing shortages (82 percent of Department of Labor workers, including nearly 100% of the BLS division, are on furlough) mean October numbers may not be collected at all.


CITIES MOST AFFECTED BY THE SHUTDOWN

According to numbers crunched by Brookings, Moody's Economy.com, and the Washington Post, seven metro areas have 10 percent or more of their workforce in federal or military jobs. Colorado Springs tops the list with nearly 19 percent federal workers (thanks, perhaps, to the Air Force Academy) followed by Virginia Beach, Honolulu, D.C., El Paso, Ogden, and San Diego.

Source: Washington Post
Important note: These figures include federal and military personnel, but do not include private-sector contractors to the federal government, who are also likely furloughed...


AGENCIES MOST AFFECTED BY THE SHUTDOWN

ABC News (among others) provides a detailed, department-by-department list of the estimated number of federal workers and percent furloughed due to the government shutdown. Some of the hardest hit include:

  • National Science Foundation (98.5 percent)
  • Department of Education (94 percent)
  • Environmental Protection Agency (96 percent)



BEST CHART CARTOON OF THE WEEK

It's sort of funny, and sort of sad...
Source


IN CASE YOU MISSED IT...

Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Where to go for data when the federal websites shut down

Because it looks like most federal websites will shut down when the government does... (update: Census website down as of 10:30am EST)

Here are some other helpful data resources, ranging from national to state and local downloads, to get you through any dark days with no federal data access:
You may also want to try the "Wayback Machine," an online archive of webpages. (It does work for the Census Bureau webpage as of September 2013.)

For state-specific data... here are links provided by readers and colleagues around the nation:

Check the Clearinghouse of SDCs for a comprehensive listing of Census State Data Centers, or refer to one of these state-based resources:
And here's a bit of 2012 American Community Survey data that may be helpful:
I also have data on U.S. fertility and birth rate by age back to the early 1900s... contact me if you'd like the file.

Please tweet me @DataGeekB or email me if you have recommendations to add to the list!

Special thanks to @SR_Spatial@MetroGram@CarlSchmertmann and @NDCompass for recommending several links. @PolicyMap also contacted me to let me know that they provide a wealth of data, some for free, some for a subscription fee.