NYC Public Wi-Fi Hotspot

How Are Public Wi-Fi Hotspot Locations Related To Age?

Percentage Of Population Between Ages 15-44 V.S. Density Of Public Wi-Fi Hotspot In Manhattan

Dataset that contains the percentage of population within the age range 15-44 and density of public Wi-Fi hotspot by census tract level in Manhattan was downloaded from American Census Survey data, and the two variables were plotted side by side. The range of 15 to 44 is chosen for analyzing relationship between age and public Wi-Fi because they can be the population that require the most access to internet potentially.

It is difficult to tell a consistent trend between the two variables. Some census tracts that has low percentage of population with ages 15-44, like the Lower East Side, have very low Wi-Fi hotspot densities. However, some census tracts with high percentage of population between 15 -44 years old, such as the Hudson Yards area and Chelsea, also have low densities of Wi-Fi hotspot. As a result, the pattern between the two variables is not obvious to tell.

Data Source: American Community Survey Data

Bivariate Mapping Analysis

This map shows percentage of population between 15 - 44 years old and density of Wi-Fi hotspots for each census tracts in Manhattan. The density of public Wi-Fi hotspots are demonstrated by the circles with darker-green representing higher density. By overlaying the two variables together, this map provides a clearer visualization for the relationship between the two variables.

The combination of the percentage of population with ages 15-44, plotted as colored polygons, with density of Wi-Fi for each census tract, plotted as dots with sizes proportional to their density, show inconsistent trend across Manhattan. This suggests that different method is required to explore the relationship between public Wi-Fi access and age more clearly.

r = 0.14

In order to provide a quantitative and clearer understanding of the relationship between public Wi-Fi density and age, a scatter plot between the two variables with the line of best fit is shown on the left. From this plot, there also seems to be a weak positive correlation between wifi density and percentage of population between 15 to 44 years old. This means that areas where there are larger portion of young population in Manhattan are also slightly more likely to have more concentrated public Wifi locations. The r of 0.14 here is less than that for income, which means that the correlation between age and access to public internet is weaker than between income and access to public internet. Since this also suggests a weak correlation, future research on other variables is needed to better answer the research question.

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