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December 2010
Greatest hits 2010:Some of the most commonly-asked questions here at Compass
Susan Brower, Minnesota Compass
The data analysts at MN Compass get a lot of email questions about the data we feature on our site and why we do what we do. We thought it would be useful to share the questions we get asked most often with all of you who may be too shy to ask.
Do you have data on how immigrant groups are faring in Minnesota?
Yes. This is something we’re really excited about being able to contribute to our knowledge of our state. Since the major immigrant groups living in Minnesota are not the same major groups for the U.S., it can be hard to find data from some of the national sources such as the Census Bureau. We do special analyses of the national data sets so that we can show data specific to the immigrant groups living in Minnesota.
The largest immigrant groups in Minnesota each have a data profile found in the Immigration section of our site. When we can, we also incorporate the uniqueness of the state’s population into the racial and ethnic breakdowns that we show for each of our Key Measures. For example, in the Economy and Workforce section we show data for racial and ethnic groups that take into account ancestry groups in addition to the more commonly used racial or ethnic categories.
When will the new census data be out? And are you using it on Compass?
The 2010 census data will be released this winter, but much of what we think of as “census” data were not collected by the census this go around. Data are now being collected through the American Community Survey (ACS) which is a major data source for Minnesota Compass. It is a huge, on-going survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and it covers a range of topics including income, housing, immigration, educational attainment, among many other topics.
You may have heard more about the ACS recently because the Census Bureau just released its first ever “5-year ACS.” Why is that so exciting? Well, prior to getting this release, we were only able to show information for geographies with at least 20,000 residents. That meant we were only able to show ACS-based information – including educational attainment, per capita income, proportion of adults working, housing cost burdens, and homeownership rates – for 40 of the 87 counties in our state. For example, now we can finally tell you that 16 percent of adults in Wilkin County have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and that 13 percent of employed residents of Houston County work in manufacturing.
Keep watching our website over the next several weeks, as we are adding new data all the time. As always, we’ll be sending alerts on Twitter as the new data become available.
Do you have data on neighborhoods?
Right now the smallest level of geography on Compass generally is city level, (with a few exceptions, such as school districts) but we will soon add neighborhood-level data for Minneapolis and St. Paul thanks to funding from the McKnight Foundation and input from a group of expert advisors. This month, the Census Bureau will release neighborhood-level data for the first time since the 2000 census, but the data will come in a form that may be difficult to use if you don’t have the stomach for the tedium of spreadsheets and statistical software programs. We’ll do the tedious part for you. (Don’t tell anyone but we kind of enjoy it.) The profiles will be added to our site in the spring.
Where can I find data about plans for college among 12th grade girls in the state? (Or some other similarly specific question)
At Compass we have decided to track a small set of indicators in each topic area so that we can bring our users a good general sense of what’s happening in our state. To be able to do this without overwhelming our users, we have had to make choices about what include and what to leave out. Our advisory groups helped us select the most important indicators to track; and our More Measures sections point people in the right direction so that they can find answers to their specific questions. For example, our Education More Measures section directs users towards a whole range of national, state, and local data that can inform the questions that may be too specific to feature on our site.
If I don't see my question here, can I still contact you?
Yes! Please email us and we will be happy to answer questions.
Susan Brower is a research associate on the Compass project. She specializes in demography, survey research and quantitative analysis. Susan holds a B.A. in Social Work from St. Olaf College, a Master's degree in Public Policy from the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and a Master's degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan.
