Census Map

The first map that is shown above is a census map of U.S. Counties with Black Population. Base on this map, the highest black population is located in the South Eastern part of the U.S.  You will see that the states of Arkansas have a high percentage of black population. The highest percentage of black population is shown using the darkest blue color. The percentage of black population in the areas that have the darkest blue color would range in about 53%-86%. You will also notice that on the other side of the U.S. for example the North Western part and the middle part of the U.S.  there’s  a least percentage of black population in these locations.  Though, another astonishing fact is that there is about 12%-23% (shown in yellow) black population located in the west side of U.S. which is probably  located in the state of California. 

The second map that is shown above shows the Asian Population in 2000. You will notice that the highest percentage of the Asian population is shown in red. The highest percentage of the Asian population that is shown in red would range in about 20%-46%. If you would look at the map, you will notice that there isn't that much Asian population in most of the states. The highest percentage of Asian population that is noticeable in the map would mostly be located in the west side of the U.S.  which might probably be the state of California. I've implied this due to the fact that most of the red spots that correspond to having the highest percentage of population are mostly located in the west side of the U.S. Also the other 3%-5% (light orange) and 5%-10% (orange) are mostly located in the west side of the U.S. as well. However, there is also an average percentage of Asian population in the North Western and North Eastern (e.g. New Jersey, Maryland, etc.) part of the U.S. 

The last map that is shown above shows the percentage of some other races’ population in the U.S. during 2000. The highest percentage of population is shown is dark blue color. You will notice in this map that there is a very high percentage of population of other races alone in the states located in the South, South Western, and  West side of the U.S. There is also an average percentage of population of other races located in the North Western side of the U.S. which might probably be around the states of Washington.  You will also notice that there is at least 4%-15% of other races’ population in the South Eastern part of the U.S. which would probably be around the states of Florida.  There is also at least 4%-9% population of some other race in the North Eastern part of the U.S. around the states of New Jersey, Rhode Island, etc.  

These three census map that was created during the lab, shows different numbers of percentages about the population of the races black, Asian and some other races in the U.S. Comparing these three census maps, you will notice that each of them have different locations of where their highest percentage of population is located at. Most of the highest percentage of black population is located in the South Eastern part of the U.S. while the highest percentage of the Asian population is the total opposite of the black population because they’re mostly located in the Western part of the U.S. On the other hand, the map that shows the percentage of the other races alone, clearly shows that there are a lot of other races that are located in the South, South Western and Western part of the U.S. and also some parts in the North Western and South Eastern part of the U.S.

Being able to use GIS to make a census map wasn’t a very good experience for me. It was explained and stated to be easy. However, I had a lot of confusion while doing the lab. First, I wasn’t able to plug in the information correctly in GIS which was the table from excel that we had to download. Every time I would download the table and edit it on excel, I would then incorrectly plug the wrong information on GIS (“Sheet$” instead of the new edited name of the table). Also it was confusing on the part where we have to join and relate the tables on the map because if you don’t know how exactly to join and relate tables in the map, it is possible that the step you’re trying to do to add information on the map will not work. Despite this, being able to learn how to use GIS to make census maps and join table to add in information on the map is a good way of making maps that will show accurate information. Knowing how to use GIS in making census maps made it easier for me to understand how a census map is created and where those percentages we see in the maps are coming from and also how those information are being added in the map. I would say that GIS can show accurate information in a map if it is used in the right way in making a map.