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Congress Constituency Maps

http://www.fairdata2000.com/Congressional/

Provider: FairData

FairData, in association with Techpolitics, has developed maps of key constituency data for the 109th and 110th Congress that bring the numbers to life. These maps show census data geographically by congressional district, county, and often even block, allowing you to zoom in for a closer look or zoom out for more context.

Educator's guide

In studying geography, politics, or current events, you sometimes have to talk in numbers. Common statistics include population, median income, percentages of people below poverty level, and population by race. Numbers like these can be very helpful in understanding the economics, culture, or politics of a place, but they can be hard to understand themselves. What many students need (not to mention the rest of us!) is a way to see data.

FairData, in association with Techpolitics, has developed maps of key constituency data for the 109th and 110th Congress that bring the numbers to life. These maps show census data geographically by congressional district, county, and often even block, allowing you to zoom in for a closer look or zoom out for more context. Maps include the following:

  • median household income
  • winning percentage in 2002 congressional elections
  • political party affiliation
  • percent minority population
  • population below poverty level
  • percent African-American
  • percent Latino
  • percent under age 19 below 185% poverty level (eligible for free/reduced lunch)
  • percent American Indian
  • percent Asian-American
  • unemployment rate (2002)

Click "108th Congress Constituency Mapper" to begin (you'll need to scroll down the page a bit to see the link). The initial map of the U.S. shows median income by congressional district. Areas with various median income levels are shown in different colors, with a key provided at right. You can click to zoom in or use the menu at left to compare with a different map. You could very easily compare median income with political party affiliation, for example. You can zoom all the way in to the level of a few streets (although some information is broken down only by county or congressional district). To see information at such a fine scale, use the tools at the bottom of the page. First un-check the box marked Group: Congress District and click Redraw. You can then check the other boxes to display streets, highways, and census places (localities used as divisions in collection census data). These map details will help you find a very specific place on the map.

So what can you do with all these maps? Here are just a few possibilities.

  • Look up maps for your congressional district or county so students can see information about the place where they live.
  • Compare data like poverty rates or party affiliation among different regions of North Carolina and discuss possible causes.
  • Look up information about places in the United States you discuss in class.
  • Use them as the basis of student research in a North Carolina history or Economics & Civics course.
  • Simply give students a chance to explore and see what connections they can draw on their own among all the data!

One warning: the choice of colors on the maps is not always obvious or meaningful. Many of the scales go from red at one end to blue at the other and use an entire rainbow of colors, requiring that the viewer refer continually to the key to see which color represents which range of data. This prevents the viewer from gaining a quick sense of the data at a glance -- as would be facilitated by a monochrome scale. Be careful when using the maps that you check the key frequently, and make sure that you are looking at what you think you are looking at!